Magical YouTube video can save wet phones (no rice needed)

It’s not magic, it’s science. The sound has been carefully engineered to generate an air motion strong enough to push droplets of liquid out of the speaker. This is also how the Apple Watch’s water ejection feature worksFolks at The Verge and iFixit were a little skeptical about how well a third-party audio not specifically tuned for different phones would work, so they tested it on four phones: an iPhone 13, a Pixel 7 Pro, a Pixel 3, and a Nokia 7.1.

The phones were first soaked in a UV bath for about a minute, after which they were tapped to eject some water, and then a water-ejection video was played on them. The phones were left out overnight before they were checked to see where there was still residue from the UV dye to find out which spots still had liquid.

The results were mixed. The Pixel 7 Pro was completely dry, the Nokia 7.1 hardly survived, and “the iPhone 13 and Pixel 3 were somewhere in between.”

The squad also made a close-up video of each phone’s speaker and it showed them emptying liquid. In short, the video does work but not necessarily flawlessly. While it may be able to remove the droplets around the speaker, it will have no effect on other intrusion spots such as the USB port and SIM card slot.

Also, regardless of how perfectly the video works for you, it’s best not to carry your phone with you to the shower or have it around when washing dishes, as a phone’s seal can get weaker over time.