Sometimes, you just wanna drown out the chaos and find a little peace, but you don’t really wanna download some sketchy white noise app that takes up space or asks for unnecessary permissions. Good news—your iPhone has a built-in feature that can do the trick, playing calming sounds like rain, ocean waves, or other ambient noises, all without-extra fluff. If anxiety or insomnia are bothering you, this feature can be a total game-changer. Plus, you can set it to work even when you’re jamming out to music or a podcast. It’s kind of weird how hidden it is, but once you set it up, it’s super handy.
How to Get White Noise on iPhone?
Getting set up with white noise is pretty straightforward, but you need to dig into the Accessibility menu, which is kinda tucked away. This feature is perfect when stress hits after a long day or if you just need a gentle background hum to fall asleep. Expect it to just play in the background, and you can tweak sounds and volume to your liking—no extra apps needed. Just a heads up, it’s a little clunky to toggle on and off, but after a few times, it’s second nature.
Enable Background Sounds in Accessibility Settings
- Head over to Settings.
- Scroll down and tap Accessibility — it’s usually near the bottom.
- Look for and tap Audio/Visual. Yeah, this menu hides more than you’d think.
- On that screen, find Background Sounds and tap it.
- Toggle on Background Sounds — this is what actually enables the feature.
- Under the sound options, tap Sound and pick your vibe—rain, forest, ocean, whatever calms your mind.
- You can also slide the Volume bar so the noise isn’t blasting your ears or too soft.
On some setups, enabling this takes a couple of taps before it actually kicks in. Weird, but it works once you get used to it.
How to Add White Noise to the Control Center?
If you want quick access to that rain sound without jumping into settings every time, adding it to the Control Center makes sense. Basically, you’ll turn on a shortcut here, then just swipe down from the top right (or swipe up on old models) and tap the icon. Easy peasy, but again—hidden behind some menus.
Adding the Hearing Control to Quick Access
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Control Centre.
- Scroll down to More Controls section.
- Find Hearing and tap the green plus (+) to add it.
- Now, pull down the Control Center; you should see a new Hearing icon. Looks like an ear.
- Tap the icon, then select the sound of your choice and set the volume.
Honestly, it’s kind of weird how a feature like this is buried, but at least it’s there. You get quick toggles, and no more digging through menus.
Set White Noise to Play Even When Media is Playing
This one’s kinda handy—sometimes, you want the background noise to keep going even if you start playing music, podcasts, or videos. Otherwise, the sound stops each time another app takes over. Luckily, there’s a toggle for that in the same menu, which is not obvious unless you know where to look.
Allow Background Sounds to Play During Media Playback
- Open Settings.
- Go to Accessibility.
- Tap Audio/Visual.
- Scroll down and find Background Sounds.
- Enable the toggle for Use When Media is Playing.
This tweak makes sure the rain or ocean keeps flowing regardless of what else you’re listening to. Not sure why it’s tucked away here, but it’s extremely useful if you want continuous ambient noise. Just keep in mind, sometimes these toggles act flaky — on one setup it worked fine, on another, I had to restart the phone for it to stick.
All-in-all, these tips basically turn your iPhone into a minimalistic white noise machine, no third-party apps required. Because of course, Apple had to make it a little harder than necessary.