Rice doesn't work: the truth about drying a wet phone

Rice is mildly absorbent, but it's slow, and it can't reach water that's already worked its way between layers or into connectors — which is exactly where the damage that matters happens. A day in a bag of rice mostly just delays you from getting proper help.

Worse, rice dust and small grains can get into the charging port or speaker mesh, adding a second problem on top of the first. Silica gel packets do a better job of pulling ambient moisture, but neither replaces actually opening the phone and drying it at the component level.

If your phone's been wet, the single most useful thing you can do is get it powered off and to a technician quickly — not build a rice bowl and wait two days to find out if it worked.