How to Enable White Noise on Your iPhone

If you’re on the road and can’t sleep because you left your white noise machine at home, don’t worry. Your iPhone can be used to lull yourself-or your baby-to sleep by tapping Background Sounds, a feature built into your iPhone. Background Sounds like ocean, rain, or white noise might help a person relax and rest easier.

How to Use Your iPhone as a White Noise Machine

Just follow these simple steps to turn it on:

Open Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Background Sounds.
Slide the switch to turn on Background Sounds.
Tap Sound, then tap to select one of the options: Rain, Stream, Ocean, Balanced Noise, Bright Noise, or Dark Noise.

When you’ve selected your sound, it will continue to play until you switch it off. Or, you can select Use When Media is Playing or Stop Sounds When Locked.

You can also check out white noise apps like myNoise or White Noise Deep Sleep Sounds, available in free or paid versions on the App Store. Many apps have both free and paid versions with more features.

Setting Up an Accessibility Shortcut for White Noise

If iPhone users want a quicker way to reach those soothing sounds, it can set up a shortcut by clicking accessibility in settings and accessibility shortcut where background sound is an option.

If you set up Background Sounds as your Accessibility Shortcut on your iPhone, you can open it with just a triple click. To set it up:

Open Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut, then select Background Sounds.

To open it:

Triple-click the Home button. If your device doesn’t have a Home button, triple-click the side or top button.

Using Voice Commands to Play Ambient Noise

How to Use Siri to Play White Noise on iPhone

Depending on the apps you use, you can turn on white noise with a voice command. Say, “Siri, turn on white noise,” and your voice assistant will give you options like white noise from Spotify or from your iTunes®.

Use your voice command to play ambient noise “Say Hey Google, play ambient noise,” and Google will choose soothing sounds to play.

Setting Up Sleep Sounds

Here’s what to do:

Open the Clock App.
Tap Bedtime at the bottom right corner of your screen. If you don’t see Bedtime, tap Settings (three dots) > Set bedtime and wake-up time > Next.
When prompted to set your sleep schedule, you may do so if you like. Tap the time you want to wake up and go to sleep. Then tap Next.
Scroll down to the Sleep Sounds section and tap Choose another sound.
Select one of the sounds like Waves, Deep Space, and Contemplation or you can select Spotify® or other options like Record New to record your own sound.
When you’re ready for sleep, open the Clock app and tap Bedtime.
Tap Play, then select how long to play the sound (10 - 60 minutes).
Tap Play again.

Accessing Background Sounds via Control Center

Open Control Center, then tap and hold the Background Sounds button. If you don't see it, learn how to add the Background Sounds button to Control Center.

Tap Background Sounds to start or stop playing background sounds.
Tap on a sound to change the background sound and listen to a preview.
Tap the background to go back to Control Center.

Customizing Background Sounds Settings

To stop playing when your device is locked or to lower the volume when other media is playing, change your Background Sounds Settings.

Tap and hold the Background Sounds button in Control Center, scroll down and tap Background Sounds Settings, then choose an option.

If you use Headphone Accommodations, AirPods Pro Hearing Aid Feature, or MFi hearing aids, your current settings are automatically applied to Background Sounds.

Background Sounds requires iOS 15 or iPadOS 15 or later.

Adjusting the Equalizer for Background Sounds

The Equalizer settings on your iPhone are a way to personalize your preferred Background Sounds to increase your comfort and minimize distractions, like the chatter of a noisy train terminal.

To adjust the Equalizer:

Open Control Center, then tap and hold the Background Sounds button. If you don't see it, learn how to add the Background Sounds button to Control Center.
Scroll down and tap Background Sounds Settings.
Tap Equalizer.
Turn Equalizer on or off, then adjust the sound to your preference with related settings. Drag the Balance slider to shift sounds left or right.

Setting a Timer for Background Sounds

In iOS 26, iPadOS 26, visionOS 26, and macOS Tahoe, you can also add a timer to your Background Sounds so that the sounds stop at a specific time or after an amount of time. In the Settings app, go to Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Background Sounds, then tap Stop Sounds with a Timer.

Using Background Sounds for Tinnitus

Tinnitus, or the perception of sound that others do not hear, can happen to many people. With tinnitus, the sounds can take many forms but are most commonly described as a ringing sound and can be momentary or occur over longer durations. The experience of tinnitus can vary significantly from person to person and can change for an individual.

Minimizing Distractions

To better focus on a task, your iPhone has tools that might help minimize distractions. In iOS 26, iPadOS 26, visionOS 26, and macOS Tahoe, you can also add a shortcut that turns on Background Sounds when you take a certain action, like turning on a Focus setting. Learn how to create a shortcut on your iPhone or iPad or how to create a shortcut on your Mac.

The existence of the feature seems to have caught a number of iPhone owners off guard. “Just found out iPhone has a built in white noise setting? No one told me that,” one person wrote on X last month.