Vibration Test: Check Your Phone's Motor

How to test your phone's vibration

Tap any pattern and your phone should buzz straight away. Start with Short and Long: if you feel both clearly, the motor works. Then try Pulse and Heartbeat, which switch the motor on and off quickly. A healthy motor starts and stops crisply. A weak or failing one feels mushy, starts late or misses beats.

Lay the phone flat on a hard table and run the custom buzz at a few seconds. Listen as well as feel. A steady hum is normal. A rattle, a grinding sound or a buzz that changes pitch points to a loose motor, a loose part near it, or a case that is touching the back of the phone.

Which devices can run the test?

The test uses the browser's Vibration API. It works in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Samsung Internet and Opera on Android phones and tablets. Safari on iPhone and iPad does not support vibration from websites, and nor does any other iOS browser, because they all share Safari's engine. Laptops and desktops have no vibration motor. On those devices the page tells you vibration is not supported instead of pretending to work.

To test the motor on an iPhone, go to Settings, then Sounds and Haptics, and tap a ringtone. The phone plays its vibration pattern if haptics are switched on. You can also flip the ring/silent switch or Action button, which gives a short buzz.

Phone not vibrating? Check these settings

• Vibration and haptics may be turned off in the sound settings. On Android look under Sound and vibration, then Vibration intensity.
• Battery saver on many Android phones turns off vibration and haptic feedback to save power.
• Do Not Disturb and bedtime modes can block vibration for calls and notifications, though the test above still works.
• Accessibility settings such as reduce motion or touch feedback can lower the vibration strength.
• A thick case damps the buzz a lot. Take it off and test again.

What the patterns are for

Short is a single 0.2 second buzz, like a notification. Long runs for one second, like an incoming call. Pulse fires five short buzzes to test fast starts and stops. Heartbeat pairs double beats, the hardest pattern for a worn motor. SOS buzzes Morse code for help, and Ramp builds from very short to long buzzes so you can find the shortest one you can feel. Turn on Repeat to keep any pattern going, which helps when you are tracking down a rattle.

Linear motors and rotating motors

Phones use one of two motor types. Older and cheaper phones use a small spinning motor with an off-centre weight, which gives a buzzy, slightly delayed vibration. Most recent mid-range and flagship phones use a linear resonant actuator, which moves a mass back and forth and gives the sharp, clicky haptics you feel when typing. A linear motor feels much crisper on the Pulse and Heartbeat tests.