Do you have a baby that needs white noise to fall asleep? Or maybe you’ve always listened to the sound of fans at night before going to bed, and now you find yourself in a hotel room hearing all the sounds around you, and you’re wishing for some way to cancel all the ambient noise outside so you’re able to get some much-needed rest and relaxation.
There is hope: theiPhonehas a white noise feature. Here’s how to use it.
What is white noise?
We can get really deep into this, but to save time, just know that white noise contains all frequencies, and it is frequently used to mask other sounds.
How to turn on white noise from Control Center on iPhone
If you want to cancel out background sounds and use your iPhone as a white noise machine, follow the steps below.
Step 1: Add Hearing to your Control Center
You need to add Hearing to your Control Center pane. Control Center gives you instant access to things - like quickly take a picture, turn on Wi-Fi, control your Apple TV, and, in this case, turn on white noise. But to get white noise as an option in your Control Center, you need to add it in the Settings app.
Note:To open Control Center, swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen. To close Control Center, swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
Step 2: Use Hearing in Control Center to turn on white noise
Once you’ve added Hearing as an option in Control Center, you can now use it to turn on white noise. Click on the option (ear icon) in Control Center, and from the “Background Sounds” option, select from: Balanced noise, bright noise, dark noise, ocean, rain, and stream. These are all considered white noise and are used to cancel out ambient sounds.
And that’s it!
How to turn on white noise with the side button on iPhone
If you want to use your side button to turn on white noise, rather than use the Control Center method above, then follow the steps below:
Step 1: Enable Background Sounds in Settings
Step 2: Create an Accessibility shortcut
Once you’ve set your preferences in the step above, you need to create an Accessibility shortcut.
Step 3: Triple-click the side button
Completing step two above will set Background Sounds as your accessibility shortcut - so your preferred background sound will play anytime you triple-click the side button, even with the screen locked. You can also map Background Sounds to Back Tap, too, if you prefer.
See this for more:How to use the iPhone Apple logo as a secret button.
Will white noise turn off when your iPhone locks?
Nope! You’d have to specifically set it in settings to turn off when your iPhone is locked (which we detail how above). So no worries there!
