How do I keep my cheekbone off the iPhone?

September 25, 2013 8:45 AM

I use an old iPhone 4. I can't be the only person with this cheekbone issue, hoping there's a stupid simple solution.

Chronic problem: if I have the keypad up while phoning (and I usually need to start calls that way because of having to enter 9 for English, extension numbers etc) my cheekbone will often hit the keypad a few times during the call, creating beeps and sometimes distracting me or my interlocutor.

If the keypad is not up a different problem occurs: my cheekbone hits the speaker button and switches the call to the speaker, which can also be distracting.

I'm not a casual phone chat person – most of these calls are functional calls or chats with clients, often in my second language, so I have to keep my focus and not let myself be distracted.

posted by zadcat to Technology (11 answers total)

The keypad is supposed to go away when you hold the phone to your face; there's a proximity sensor in the phone. It sounds like yours is broken.

If replacing the phone is not an option, consider getting a headset, or earbuds with a mic.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:50 AM on September 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

The iPhone has a proximity sensor near the ear speaker that should disable the screen when it defects your face nearby. It sounds like yours may be malfunctioning.
posted by BurntHombre at 8:51 AM on September 25, 2013

There's something wrong with the proximity sensor in your phone; the keypad and other buttons are meant to go away when the phone is near your face.
posted by bcwinters at 8:51 AM on September 25, 2013

This had been happening to me for months, resulting in some embarrassing accidents (how does my face hang up on one person and dial another without my even realizing it?!)
Unfortunately, the only solution for me was to just go ahead and replace the phone.
posted by bookgirl18 at 9:05 AM on September 25, 2013

Bypass the problem by using a headset?
posted by kenchie at 9:07 AM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

As people above have mentioned there is an issue with your phone's proximity sensor. My old iPhone 4 had the same problem.

The workarounds I used
1) take calls using the earbuds
2) as soon as you not need the keypad press the sleep button at the top to manually disable the screen.
posted by fjom at 9:08 AM on September 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

Also if you use an Otterbox case or something similar, the little hole for the proximity sensor can get covered with gunk and lint. You might try carefully cleaning it out if you have this kind of case.
posted by tamitang at 9:20 AM on September 25, 2013

I've read that the proximity sensor issue could be software related. It this thread people report fixing it by turning off Facetime in settings. YMMV
posted by tresbizzare at 9:29 AM on September 25, 2013

I also had this problem with my iPhone 4. Turned out that my screen protector was covering the proximity sensor. Thanks, Verizon store staffer!

(as suggested above, I tried putting the phone to "sleep" but this just hung up on people.)
posted by sm1tten at 11:03 AM on September 25, 2013

Omg. It's my phone case covering the sensor. Thank you for asking this!
posted by oomny at 3:35 PM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

The sleep button should only hang up the call if the other person hasn't yet picked up. Otherwise it just turns off the screen which would solve your problem.
posted by Pomo at 10:24 PM on September 25, 2013