How the test works
Pick a duration, 30 seconds for a quick check or up to five minutes for an intermittent fault, and tap Start. The page goes fullscreen and dark, and a three-second countdown asks you to take your hands off. From then on the page listens. Any touch the screen reports is drawn as a numbered yellow ring exactly where it landed, added to a short list in the corner with the second it occurred, and counted. The run ends by itself when the time is up, so you never have to touch the screen to finish it; the × button ends it early if you need to.
The stage keeps the screen awake for the whole duration where the browser supports it, so the phone does not lock halfway through. Put the device flat on a table, away from the charger and away from your hands, and just watch. A pocket, a bag or a hand holding the edge will add real touches to the log and spoil the result.
The test reads the same touch events every web page gets. It runs entirely in the browser: the log lives in memory for the duration of the run, is summarised on the result card, and is gone when you leave the page.
What the result means
The result card shows how many ghost touches were logged, and the context line says over what time and when the first and last one happened. The preview panel next to the Start button keeps a miniature of where they landed.
- Zero in five minutes, lying flat, unplugged. The digitiser is quiet under normal conditions. If the phone still misbehaves, the trigger is something else: heat, the charger, a case, moisture, or a specific app.
- A few, scattered across the screen. Electrical noise. Almost always the charger, the cable, a wireless charging pad or a nearby appliance. Repeat the test unplugged and in another room.
- Many, in one spot or along one line. A fault in the digitiser grid or a crack you cannot see. Marks that cluster in the same place on every run are hardware.
- A burst right after the countdown, then silence. Your own hand was probably still near the glass. Run it again with the phone on a table.
- Touches that come with a pattern in time, say every few seconds. Typical of a failing touch controller or a liquid-damaged connector; it usually gets worse.
What to do about ghost touches
Unplug everything and run the test again; a cheap or damaged charger is the single most common cause and the phone is innocent in that case. Dry the screen and your hands, take off the screen protector and the case, and restart the device. Update the system, because touch controller firmware ships with system updates and vendors do fix ghost touch bugs that way. If a particular app seems to trigger it, uninstall it and test again.
If the marks keep appearing in the same place with the phone unplugged, dry and bare, the digitiser or its controller is failing. That is a hardware repair, and on most modern phones it means a new screen assembly. Until then, turn off raise-to-wake and tap-to-wake so that a ghost touch cannot unlock the phone in your pocket, and use a strong screen lock.
When to return or claim the warranty
Ghost touches on a device that has never been dropped or wet are a manufacturing defect and are covered by the warranty. Run the five-minute test twice and screenshot the stage shortly before the time runs out, while the marks and the log are still on screen (the stage closes itself at the end and only the count and the miniature remain), and note whether the phone was charging. Take those to the shop; a visible, timestamped log is far more convincing than "it sometimes taps by itself". Inside the return window, exchange the device instead: a screen that fires on its own on day one rarely improves. Liquid damage and cracks void the warranty, and repair shops check the liquid indicators first.
Frequently asked questions
What are ghost touches?
Ghost touches, also called phantom touches, are taps and swipes the screen reports when nothing is touching it. Apps open by themselves, text gets typed, the phone unlocks in your pocket. The digitiser is misreading electrical noise or a fault in its own grid as a finger. This test makes them countable: each one is a mark on a dark screen with the exact second it happened.
Why does the test wait three seconds before it starts logging?
Your hand is still over the screen when you tap Start, and a resting thumb or a brushing palm can produce one last event. The three-second countdown gives your hand time to leave the screen so that the first logged touch is a real ghost, not your own. Touches during the countdown are ignored on purpose.
I got zero ghost touches but the phone still acts up. Is the screen fine?
Not necessarily. Ghost touches are often triggered by a specific condition: a charger plugged in, a warm phone after gaming, a particular case, or rain on the glass. Run the five-minute test in each of those situations, one at a time. A screen that stays quiet on a desk and fires while charging has a charger problem, not a screen problem.
Can a screen protector or moisture cause ghost touches?
Yes, and they are the cheapest things to rule out. Water drops, sweat and a fogged glass protector all change the capacitance the digitiser measures and can register as touches. Dry the screen, remove the protector and run the test again before you consider a repair.
Does the test need any permission?
No. It only listens to the touch events the browser already generates on this page while it is open. Nothing is recorded outside the page, nothing is sent, and the log disappears when you leave. Only the result card remains until you reload.