[Android Central Question]

I have an S6 edge that makes this weird buzzing sensation coming from the inside of the phone. It's more like a rattling and it used to happen whenever I proped it up near metal on very specific ways. It's definitely not a normal "vibration", it's like something else that isn't the vibration motot is causing it from inside the phon. Now I'm worried since it did it randomly in my hand and I don't know why. Any ideas?

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Just to be sure -- this is an actual tactile vibration you're feeling, or is it more of a buzzing that you hear, perhaps coming from the phone's main speaker? I ask because if it's more of a buzzing that you hear, perhaps it's due to some poorly shielded RF that could be causing the speaker to buzz.

[S-tier]

Welcome to Android Central! Just to be sure -- this is an actual tactile vibration you're feeling, or is it more of a buzzing that you hear, perhaps coming from the phone's main speaker? I ask because if it's more of a buzzing that you hear, perhaps it's due to some poorly shielded RF that could be causing the speaker to buzz.

Hello! I'm the OP of this question, and yes this is an actual tactile vibration you can feel in the middle of the phone. It's similar to a feeling and sound when you let two magnets collide. I figured out that it happens when I reopen Snapchat without closing it in recent apps. Which is extremely strange.

[B. Diddy]

That sure seems odd. Does the phone still make normal vibrations for other notifications?

[S-tier]

Yeah it still makes regular notifications. I've honestly never seen a problem like this, it's weird.

[STARGATE]

Hello there.
All the latest Samsung phones vibrate a bit when you pick it up from any surface and there's any type of new notification.
Not sure if that's what's happening with yours or if it's something else.

[B. Diddy]

Does the main speaker sound normal or distorted? Wondering if the speaker might be blown.

[KatKane]

LG-G5 here, specifically the LGLS992, and I'm on Android 7.0.

I've only had this phone for a few months, but this issue has been driving me slightly batty - mostly because whenever I try to Google for solutions I just get a billion threads on getting your vibration notifications to be stronger, or occur less often.

Sitting cross-legged on my bed, using my laptop - which is on an slide-under adjustable table - I often set my phone on my ankle when I'm not using it. And every so often, while it's sitting on my ankle, I feel this little whirring sensation coming from the back of the phone.

I liken it to a cooling fan in a laptop, just randomly kicking on, randomly kicking off, with only the slightest physical sensation if you're touching the case. But the last time I checked, no one was putting cooling fans in the back of cell phones.

Yes, my normal vibration notifications all work normally. No, I do not ever use Snapchat. My speakers appear to be fine - awesome even, compared to my previous G3.

But I swear there's no way it's not happening. Because I know what phantom vibrations feel like. Sometimes, if I haven't gotten enough sleep - which is compromised by my apnea even when I do get enough - I will get the sensation that the floor is shaking beneath my bed. Like a really low grade earth-quake. Apparently it's some kind of physical anxiety by way of sleep deprivation thing. Though it might also be a fibromyalgia thing, who the hell knows.

The point is that, because I have these other 'fake' sensations, I assumed when I first felt the whirring from my phone that it wasn't really happening, it was just some annoying new form of restless leg syndrome. So I tested it regularly and repeatedly. When the phone is whirring, the sensation is only on a very small and specific area of my ankle, directly under the center of the phone. The feeling never occurs when the phone isn't sitting there. If I pick up the phone by it's sides, it's not really noticeable. I have to be touching the center of the phone to feel it - and the sensation is stronger in the back of the phone than in the front. I pick up the phone and put it back down, the sensation is usually still happening when I put it back down - though as I said, it does shut off and on, so it's not always still whirring if I put it back down. But if I move the phone to a different spot on my ankle, the feeling is recurring again in the center of the phone.

I don't get what could be causing this. Considering the limited hardware that is in a smart phone, there's just no good explanation for a sense of whirring or very light vibration coming from inside a phone. But inexplicable or not, it's definitely not just in my imagination.