How to use your phone as a white noise machine

If you’re on the road and can’t sleep because you left your white noise machine at home, don’t worry. You can catch some Zzzs by using built-in serene sounds or a white noise app on your iPhone® or Android™ phone. We’ll share our tips for using both. Whether you want to get the most out of your tech while traveling or check out the best road trip tech gadgets, we’ll show you all the cool things your tech can do. Here’s our guide on how to get white noise on your iPhone or Android phone. 

How to use your iPhone as a white noise machine

You can use your iPhone to lull yourself—or your baby— to sleep by tapping Background Sounds, a feature built into your iPhone. Just follow these simple steps to turn it on: 

1. Open Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Background Sounds.
2. Slide the switch to turn on Background Sounds.
3. Tap Sound, then tap to select one of the options: Rain, Stream, Ocean, Balanced Noise, Bright Noise, or Dark Noise.
4. When you’ve selected your sound, it will continue to play until you switch it off. Or, you can select Use When Media is Playing or Stop Sounds When Locked.  

You can also check out white noise apps like myNoise or White Noise Deep Sleep Sounds, available in free or paid versions on the App Store.

How to set up white noise as your Accessibility Shortcut

If you set up Background Sounds as your Accessibility Shortcut on your iPhone, you can open it with just a triple click. 

To set it up:

Open Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut, then select Background Sounds.

To open it:

1. Triple-click the Home button. 
2. If your device doesn’t have a Home button, triple-click the side or top button. 

Play white noise using a voice command 

Depending on the apps you use, you can turn on white noise with a voice command. Say, “Siri, turn on white noise,” and your voice assistant will give you options like white noise from Spotify or from your iTunes®. 

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How to use your Android phone as a white noise machine

Depending on your model, you can use the built-in Sleep Sounds feature on your Android phone or, ask your Google Assistant™ to play ambient noise. Here’s what to do:

Set up Sleep Sounds 

1. Open the Clock App.  
2. Tap Bedtime at the bottom right corner of your screen. If you don’t see Bedtime, tap Settings (three dots) > Set bedtime and wake-up time > Next. 
3. When prompted to set your sleep schedule, you may do so if you like. Tap the time you want to wake up and go to sleep. Then tap Next. 
4. Scroll down to the Sleep Sounds section and tap Choose another sound. 
5. Select one of the sounds like Waves, Deep Space, and Contemplation or you can select Spotify® or other options like Record New to record your own sound. 
6. When you’re ready for sleep, open the Clock app and tap Bedtime. 
7. Tap Play, then select how long to play the sound (10 - 60 minutes). 
8. Tap Play again. 

Use your voice command to play ambient noise

“Say Hey Google, play ambient noise,” and Google will choose soothing sounds to play. Or, say, “Google, play ocean sounds,” or “Google play rain sounds.”

You can also install an app from the Google Play™ store like BetterSleep or Sleep Sounds to give you more options to help you fall asleep. Many apps have both free and paid versions with more features.