The Handy Item You Can Reach For To Clean Your iPhone's Speakers

When it comes to cleaning modern electronic devices, it's best to take a look online before you get started. You don't want to risk getting a liquid somewhere that it shouldn't go, or damaging the oleophobic coating on your phone/tablet's touchscreen glass. These are delicate items, and you don't want to damage them.

The speakers/speaker grills on the bottom end of the iPhone are one notable example. You want to be able to clean them, but you want to do it safely, and since these are teeny tiny holes that you can't see the inside of that also serve as a portal to the sensitive electronics on the inside of the phone, you want to be extra careful. As it turns out specialized equipment is not needed. In fact, the only pieces of equipment you'll need are probably already in your house. Here's what you need and what to do to clean those speakers.

The tool needed to clean the iPhone speakers is one that everyone should have: A toothbrush. In particular, a soft-bristled toothbrush that's clean and dry, preferably a new one that can be earmarked for other non-tooth cleaning uses in the future. In this case, it's more or less what Apple endorses, to boot. Apple's speaker-cleaning advice says that, in the event of muffled sound coming from the speaker, you can "if necessary, clean the speaker or receiver opening with a small, soft-bristled brush."

The instructions from here are pretty simple: Just gently brush the speaker grills, preferably at an angle so as to make sure that the brush is actually removing the debris instead of getting it stuck in the grills. After you're satisfied that you've exhausted your brushing technique, you should get a piece of Scotch tape or painter's tape, apply it to the speaker grills, and then remove it a few seconds later, as this should help pick up some of the remaining debris. If there is indeed visible debris on the tape, then it's worth taking additional passes with fresh pieces of tape until there isn't any more debris being lifted up with each new piece.

Alternatively, instead of tape, you could use cleaning putty for the post-brushing part of the process. Ideally, it would be best to use a brand that's specifically designed to be safe for use on iPhone speakers, like AirSquares.