Apple released iOS 18.1 in October, more than a month after the tech company released iOS 18. While iOS 18.1 brings a few new features and bug fixes to your iPhone, like call recording, iOS 18 updated an iPhone feature Apple released with iOS 15 in 2021. That operating system brought a hidden feature to your iPhone that could help you focus or unwind, called Background Sounds.
With iOS 18, this feature offers eight different ambient noises that play on a loop: rain, stream, ocean, night and fire as well as bright, balanced and dark noise, which are different pitches of white noise. You can play these by themselves or under any podcast, music or video streaming app. So instead of buying a new white noise machine, save yourself some money and just use your iPhone.
Read more: Everything You Need to Know About iOS 18
Listening to natural sounds can lower stress, relieve perceived pain and foster a more positive disposition, according to research from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. White noise could help adults learn new words, and it could improve learning in environments full of distractions, according to different studies. Natural sounds and white noise can also help lull listeners to sleep.
Here’s how to enable Background Sounds on your iPhone.
Read more: White Noise vs. Brown Noise: Which One Is Best for Sleep?
Set Up Background Sounds
1. Tap Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Audio & Visual.
4. Tap Background Sounds.
5. Tap the toggle next to Background Sounds near the top of the menu to enable the feature.
In this menu you can also tap Sound to listen to the different noise options. If you’re using the feature for the first time, the sounds have to download, so it might take a second.
There’s two other toggles in this menu, too: Use When Media Is Playing and Stop Sounds When Locked. Tapping the toggle next to Use When Media Is Playing will allow Background Sounds to keep playing while you’re watching a video or listening to music. And tapping the toggle next to Stop Sounds When Locked ensures Background Sounds will turn off when your device locks. If you don’t have this enabled, the sounds will continue to play when your device locks.
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Background Sounds Using Control Center
Instead of searching through Settings each time you want to turn Background Sounds on, here’s how you can set up a toggle in the Control Center to turn the feature on.
I’m partial to rain, but fire and night are pleasant, too.
1. Open your Control Center.
2. Tap the plus (+) sign in the top left corner of your screen.
3. Tap Add a Control near the bottom of your screen.
4. Add the Hearing control that has an image of an ear.
5. Tap the Hearing control icon once it’s in your Control Center.
6. Tap the musical notes next to Background Sounds to turn the feature on.
You can also tap Background Sounds to open a menu to choose a different background sound as well as the sound’s volume.
Background Sounds Using Accessibility Shortcuts
You can also set up and accessibility shortcut to turn Background Sounds on or off from your home screen or within an app. Here’s how to set it up.
1. Tap Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Accessibility Shortcut near the bottom of the page.
4. Tap Background Sounds.
Now, when you press your side button three times Background Sounds will turn on. Tap the button three times again to turn it back off.
For more on iOS 18, here’s everything you need to know about iOS 18.1, my iOS 18 review and our iOS 18 cheat sheet. You can also check out what iOS 18.2 could bring to your iPhone soon.
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