Most iPhones have a built-in optical illusion – can you spot it?

Weird but true

Of Brooke Kato

March 1, 2023 | 16:50

iSpy an iPhone illusion.

Billions of Apple-made smartphones have a built-in optical illusion – but can you see what it is?

On the bottom of most iPhones – at least since the iPhone 7 – there are speaker grilles on either side of the charging port. But the designers have deceived customers, since there is really only one speaker on the right side.

To test it, you’ll mute the sound by covering the right speaker while playing music, but blocking the left won’t make any difference.

While the design varies between Apple devices, most iPhones have this tricky feature, apparently intended to create aesthetically pleasing symmetry.

In some cases, the extra grill actually doubles as a microphone, and prior to the iPhone 7, phones had a dedicated hole for a microphone; however, it was not sharply symmetrical like many Apple devices.

Cue: the fake speaker.

But that’s not the only distinctive feature found in iPhones. Consumers were recently angered by the device’s energy-efficient settings, which slow down charging. The somewhat new feature allows users to lower their carbon footprint by only charging the battery with lower carbon emissions.

Angry customers took to Twitter last week shortly after the tech giant announced an update that will include 31 new emoji, including new heart colors, a moose, a donkey, a jellyfish and peas in a pod.

The company also unveiled its latest iPhone 14 and 14 Pro models, which have been called overly sensitive due to the “Crash Detection” feature that calls 911 when the device detects that the owner has fallen. But even minor falls have triggered emergency communications, flooding dispatchers with potentially unnecessary calls.

Apple users have also gotten creative with the use of the company’s various smart devices, with some geniuses even placing AirTags in their luggage to track their luggage should they get lost.