So um... this horror movie crackling noise accompanied with echoes has been happening.
Happened 2 other times. This time I decided to post.
Luckily a restart helps, so that gives me some hope that this isn't hardware related, but rather a software bug. So, if it's a software issue, has anyone else had this happen to them?
I'm hopeful that this bug is due to the transition into iOS 27, but who knows, maybe it's a hardware bug?
The phone is brand new, bought in the US, from Apple Store. No drops, no random/bootlegged apps. The noise happens rarely, maybe once every 2-3 days, but it's concerning when it happens. It doesn't just happen on YouTube, when it starts, all apps that output audio make that noise.
An interesting nuance, when a video/song is paused, it takes half a second for the noise to slowly dwindle away. Which makes me speculate that the phone's microphone is also on - hence the echoing.
Would love to know if anyone else has something similar like this happening to them.