Stay Focused or Chill Out With This Hidden iPhone Feature

[Unity451]

...and this is why I follow MacRumors. Keep it up. Ya'll are doing yeoman's work.

 

[klasma]

need to stay on line, hard to find ones that last all night, and there may be ads and sometimes the adblocker fails. Also you just want the *sound*. you don't want the static or nearly-static picture to be sitting on the OLED tv's screen all that time. (Not that the ad blocker works there, so doubly useless.)

You can lock your phone: https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/listen-youtube-background-iphone-free/

Admittedly, I have YouTube Premium, so all of these are not an issue (no ads, videos can be downloaded and played on repeat in the background). The real issue is that I find Apple’s offering too limited and repetitive in the options offered.

 

[rwilliams]

I'd like for this to be available on the Apple Watch. I don't always want my phone nearby, so this would be great on the watch. For some reason, Dark Noise isn't available on it either, so I use the free version of Endel.

 

[name99]

Hah! Another feature I'm going to claim credit for
I suggested Apple provide something like this for situations (like a coffee shop) where you want to use your AirPods Pro to tune out background noise, but your brain still latches onto the conversation that breaks through the AirPods Pro noise cancellation, so you want a "neutral" sound to overwhelm that conversation.


There are some WILD options in Accessibility and Accessibility Shortcut that Apple (for who knows what reasons) never publicizes. Magnifier is great for anyone over 45 (ie bad eyes) but take a look at Live Captioning, for example. Did you know your phone could do that?

 

[name99]

Alternatively, you can add the Hearing icon to Control Center and activate the sounds by long pressing it.
Plus, you get the decibel meter to see if you are using a sound volume past recommended levels.

View attachment 2375165

Fantastic! That's even better than how I was controlling this.

 

[victorvictoria]

"If you are looking to minimize distractions when you focus on something…"
Instead of playing white noise on your iPhone, just turn it off and put it down.
No cost, no distraction, and won't drain your battery!

 

[Edsel]

Will this work with spousal "noise"?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Can the individual sounds be seamlessly looped for several hours?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Will this work with spousal "noise"?

The correct Jeopardy answer is "What is a vacation from your spouse?"

 

[NEPOBABY]

Do you sometimes struggle to maintain focus while you're working, or find it difficult to unwind and relax at the end of the day?

That’s called life. There’s no fix for this.

(Maybe eat the rich works)

 

[wins_lord]

My focus lost it at “Keep reading to learn how.”

 

[kurtfoster]

As much as I love technology, the better idea would be to switch off all your gadgets and take a day or two off and sit down with an actual book or take a walk in the forest. Just an idea.

 

[allenvanhellen]

Drinking less coffee — or less alcohol the night before — also helps, and probably more.

 

[lfaa]

Or open Music and select your favorite ambient album. Or listen to SomaFM drone zone channel. This is my two options when I need to focus on something

 

[gusmula]

I use “rain sounds” every night.

 

[jchurchill]

I've been using this feature for years (MacOS and iPhone). But it's very buggy. Always has been. There are many complaints on apple's website about it going dead randomly and not coming back on. Not a great feature when you are surrounded by sounds you want to drown out and suddenly you can't.

 

[Kay_Ess]

Hey yo wow wow I didn’t even know that that Control Centre was editable. So I can replace the timer (I have a Watch/Siri for that) for something I do use and can even replace the Home thing with 8 (!) useful functions..??!

Thanks for the guide!

 

[svish]

Good article. Background sounds are useful sometimes.

 

[fanboy-ish]

Thanks!!! This is so cool!!!

 

[carlsbergbeer]

Thanks! I need to play noise for my infant and toddler to sleep and this is way better than the app (full of screen ads) I was using.

 

[patearrings]

I use “rain sounds” every night.

How do you stop this background noise by using a timer, is there a way?

I tried a timer with "when this ends - Stop playing" but it doesn't stop it.

 

[Marzzz]

I have been using an App called “Sleep Fan” and a Bluetooth speaker at bedside for quite some time now. It does have a timer so that it fades out after a specific amount of time.

 

[i4k20c]

Or just add Hearing to Control Center—I have mine positioned so that it’s right under the volume slider. As an added bonus it also lets you know if your music volume goes over 80 decibels when using headphones.

how do you reposition control center icons to where you want?

 

[iLuddite]

how do you reposition control center icons to where you want?

Slide each section/button using the three-line slider in the Control Center section of Settings