How to use your iPhone as a white noise machine

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

It's not uncommon to wake up in the middle of the night to hear your neighbor trimming their nails or rearranging furniture in your hotel room.

Sometimes seasoned travelers will pack a travel white noise machine or use an app to get a little peace, for just these kinds of occasions. White noise is built into your phone's operating system if you have an Apple device. Here is how to set it up. I used an Apple device for this article.

• Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual (under Hearing) > Background Sounds (basically, Apple’s term for white noise).
• Tap the on / off toggle at the top of the page to start Background Sounds.

You have the option of choosing from a few different sounds. Pick from the following options.

• Balanced noise
• Bright noise
• Dark noise
• Ocean
• Rain
• Stream

You can adjust the volume of the white noise on the main Background Sounds menu page. Background sounds can be enabled while playing other media on your phone and sounds can be stopped when the screen is locked.

If you want to access all of this quickly, you need to not dive into the menus every time you want to turn on white noise. Once you have set your preferred sound, follow these steps.

• Navigate back to the Accessibility menu.
• Scroll down to the bottom and tap Accessibility Shortcut (under General).
• Tap Background Sounds to select it from the list.

If you triple-click the side button, the white noise will be set as your accessibility shortcut. If you prefer, you can map this function to Back Tap.

You have instant access to relaxation-inducing sounds whenever you need them.