It’s a game changer, so here’s what the background noise feature does on your iPhone

Every day, I seem to find out something new that I had absolutely no idea my iPhone could do, and this week, it’s background noise.

A tweet has gone viral that says, “Name an iPhone feature that has changed your life. I’ll go first – background noise!” but what on earth is that?! Well, background noise is a feature that plays sounds like ocean waves or rain falling on a roof directly from your iPhone to help you focus, rest or fall asleep. Who knew?

You don’t have to go through Spotify or Apple Music anymore. You can literally get these sounds directly on your iPhone and download them for free, and they can really help calm you down if you’re feeling stressed.

To do it, all you have to do is open the settings and go to “Accessibility”. Then, tap “Audio & Visual” and choose “Background Sounds”. Turn the toggle to the “on” position and then choose a sound. The audio file will play on your iPhone, and you can change the volume by dragging the slider.

Name an iPhone feature that has changed your life.

I’ll go first: background noise! pic.twitter.com/d2vD5mKr9J

— Mamello🧚🏽‍♀️ (@MelloFelicia1) May 31, 2026

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Because it’s a background sound, the noise will continue playing even when you have other apps open on your iPhone. You can also use the Equaliser, Tone and Balance settings to adjust the frequency of the sounds.

If you think you’ll use these background sounds often, it’s best to add them to the Hearing shortcut in your iPhone’s control centre, so they can be accessed and turned on quickly. To do this, open your control centre by swiping down from the top of your screen, tap the plus button in the top-left and select “Add a Control” at the bottom. Then, search “background sounds” to add it. 

Now wait until you find out you can turn off that annoying screenshot preview too!

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Featured image credit: Twitter