{"id":586118,"date":"2026-08-07T15:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T15:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586118\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T15:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T15:42:14","slug":"i-use-this-hidden-iphone-feature-to-get-my-baby-to-sleep-every-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586118\/","title":{"rendered":"I Use This Hidden iPhone Feature to Get My Baby to Sleep Every Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AA baby sleeps in the arms of a caregiver.Pekic\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

My wife and I have been working on sleep training our baby, and my iPhone has been very helpful in our pursuit thanks to its Background Sounds features. This feature transforms your iPhone into a white noise machine. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a>, playing sounds from a white noise machine can help soothe your baby and get them to settle down, giving you a moment of respite. <\/p>\n

\"Tech<\/a><\/p>\n

When Apple released iOS 15<\/a>\u00a0in 2021, the operating system brought a hidden feature called\u00a0Background Sounds<\/a>. You can play these sounds by themselves or under a podcast, music or video streaming app.<\/p>\n

When Apple introduced Background Sounds, there were six ambient sounds to play on a loop: rain, stream and ocean waves, which are natural sounds, and bright, balanced and dark noise, which are different pitches of\u00a0white noise<\/a>. But if you have iOS 26 on your device, you have over a dozen sounds to choose from now, including rain on roof and babble, which sounds like a busy cafe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you want to use these sounds to lull a baby back to sleep, or for any other reason, here\u2019s how to enable Background Sounds on your iPhone.<\/p>\n

How to access Background Sounds from your Control Center<\/p>\n

Instead of searching through Settings each time you want to turn Background Sounds on, here\u2019s how you can set up a toggle in the Control Center to turn the feature on to use on your iPhone.<\/p>\n

1. Open\u00a0Control Center.
2. Tap the plus (+) sign in the top left of your screen.
3. Tap Add a Control near the bottom of your screen.
4. Tap the\u00a0Background Sounds control under Hearing Accessibility to add to Control Center.<\/p>\n

\"TheYou can find the Hearing control under Hearing Accessibility in your Control Center.Apple\/Screenshot by CNET<\/p>\n

Once the Background Sounds control icon is in Control Center, tap it to start playing a background sound. Press and hold the icon to open a menu showing you the volume as well as what sound is playing. Tap Sounds to open the full list of sound options, like Ocean and Rain. Tap any of these to choose them.<\/p>\n

\"AThese are a few of the sounds you can access in Background Sounds.Apple\/Screenshot by CNET<\/p>\n

Use Accessibility Shortcuts for Background Sounds<\/p>\n

You can also set up an accessibility shortcut to turn Background Sounds on or off from your home screen or within an app. Here\u2019s how to set it up.<\/p>\n

1. Tap Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Accessibility Shortcut.
4. Tap Background Sounds.<\/p>\n

Now, when you press the side button on your iPhone three times, Background Sounds will turn on. You can tap the button three times again to turn it back off.<\/p>\n

\"TheYou can set up an accessibility shortcut to turn on Background Sounds. Apple\/Screenshot by CNET<\/p>\n

\tDiscover These Hidden AirPods Features and Boost Your Listening Experience<\/p>\n

More Background Sound options<\/p>\n

If you want more control over Background Sounds, here\u2019s where to go.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Tap\u00a0Settings.
2.\u00a0Tap\u00a0Accessibility.
3.\u00a0Tap\u00a0Audio & Visual.
4.\u00a0Tap\u00a0Background Sounds.<\/p>\n

Here you can turn Background Sounds on by tapping the\u00a0Background Sounds\u00a0toggle near the top of the menu, and you can change the Background Sound by tapping\u00a0Sound\u00a0and choosing a new sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are also two other toggles in this menu:\u00a0Use When Media Is Playing\u00a0and\u00a0Stop Sounds When Locked. Tapping the toggle next to\u00a0Use When Media Is Playing\u00a0allows Background Sounds to keep playing while you watch a video or listen to music. And tapping the toggle next to\u00a0Stop Sounds When Locked\u00a0ensures Background Sounds will turn off when your device locks. If you don\u2019t have this enabled, the sounds will continue to play when your device locks.<\/p>\n

\"MoreYou can play your background sounds while other media is playing if you\u2019d like.Apple\/Screenshot by CNET<\/p>\n

There are also two new menus in iOS 26: Equalizer and Stop Sounds with a Timer. Equalizer lets you adjust the tone and contour of Background Sounds, as well as balance more toward the right or left speaker or headphone. Stop Sounds with a Timer allows you to turn Background Sounds off at a specific time that you can choose or after a certain amount of time has passed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

The Stop Sounds with a Timer (left) and Equalizer menus in iOS 26.<\/p>\n

Apple\/Screenshot by CNET<\/p>\n

For more iOS news, here\u2019s what you should know about iOS 27<\/a> and our\u00a0iOS 26 cheat sheet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Apple\u2019s<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Zachary\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZachary McAuliffe\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSenior writer\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZach began writing for CNET in November, 2021 after writing for a broadcast news station in his hometown, Cincinnati, for five years. You can usually find him hanging out with his wife, son and dog in their home.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A baby sleeps in the arms of a caregiver.Pekic\/Getty Images My wife and I have been working on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[61,60,202,80],"class_list":["post-586118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}