iOS 18 Includes Two New Background Sounds to Help You Focus or Rest - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

iOS 18 Includes Two New Background Sounds to Help You Focus or Rest

by

The upcoming iOS 18 update for the iPhone includes two new Background Sounds: Night and Fire.

iOS 18 Control Center Background Sounds
Introduced on iOS 15, the Background Sounds feature allows you to play ambient background sounds on your iPhone to help you focus or rest. Other available sounds include Balanced Noise, Bright Noise, Dark Noise, Ocean, Rain, and Stream.

Background Sounds is a free feature built into the iPhone that offers similar functionality as apps such as Dark Noise. We have a step-by-step guide that outlines how to turn on the feature in the Settings app or in Control Center.

iOS 18 is currently in beta for developers, and a public beta will be available soon. The update should be widely released in September.

The new Backgrounds Sounds are also included in the iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia betas.

Tag: Background Sounds
Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Apple Card Promo to Offer Free AirPods Pro 3

Friday May 15, 2026 8:59 am PDT by
Starting as early as next week, customers who sign up for an Apple Card at Apple's retail stores in the U.S. will receive $249 cash back when they purchase AirPods Pro 3, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The promotion has yet to be officially announced by Apple, so exact terms and conditions are not available at this time. AirPods Pro 3 are priced at $249 in the U.S., so customers who...
Read Full Article • 43 comments
Apple WWDC25 iOS 26 CarPlay Light mode 250609

Six Popular iPhone Apps Now Available on CarPlay

Thursday May 14, 2026 9:10 am PDT by
Apple's CarPlay system for accessing iPhone apps on a vehicle's dashboard screen has received six popular apps in recent weeks: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, Google Meet, WhatsApp, and the indie artist streaming platform Audiomack. Make sure you have the latest version of each app and they will automatically appear on CarPlay. ChatGPT Starting with iOS 26.4, CarPlay supports voice-based...
Read Full Article • 29 comments
ipad mini 7 blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Thursday May 14, 2026 5:08 am PDT by
According to the latest rumors, Apple is close to launching its next-generation iPad mini. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to information found in code...
Read Full Article • 87 comments

Top Rated Comments

S
sleven
24 months ago
Background sounds should not be buried so deep that it requires the usage of shortcuts to access/utilize.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MakeAppleAwesomeAgain Avatar
MakeAppleAwesomeAgain
24 months ago
Honestly, this is the first time I have read about this feature. Quite cool!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
E
eshotime
24 months ago
This is great! I use this everyday while working. One of my favorite features. I'm glad that that it hasn't been forgotten.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
D
derdante
24 months ago
Are they finally going to fix the issue that makes background noises cut out randomly sometimes? It's been broken for a long time now.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
K
kc9hzn
24 months ago

Apple needs to focus on fixing bugs and getting the basics right before adding questionable new features like this. I doubt I’ll ever use it.
Looks like Apple considers it an accessibility feature. To most people, Apple’s accessibility features are “questionable”, but they’re game changing for the impacted users. I’ve seen blind people who can navigate both the physical and online world with ease thanks to Apple’s accessibility features and accessibility oriented apps, which gives them a degree of independence they wouldn’t be able to have any other way.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
G
gk_brown
24 months ago

Honestly, this is the first time I have read about this feature. Quite cool!
Same here. Why isn't this just a regular app?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments