Do you just need a little distance from the world and the constant cacophony of noise? Relaxing sounds are a great way to get away from it all, and your iOS 15 iPhone can now play a collection of different noises to help you shut out the wider world. Hidden away under Accessibility in the Settings of your iOS 15 iPhone is an option called Background Sounds — and it contains a number of different relaxing sounds, including rainfall, white noise, and the sounds of ocean waves. These can play over other music or podcasts, truly making them background sounds. So, whether you’re looking to relax or just fancy listening to a different background sound, here’s how to use background sounds in iOS 15.

Don’t have iOS 15 yet? We have the lowdown on how to download iOS 15. Or, if you’re using an older iPhone or an Android phone, check out our list of the best meditation apps, which often offer similar soundscape experiences.

How to use Background Sounds in iOS 15

Background Sounds is actually fairly well hidden away in iOS 15’s Settings menu, and you might not stumble upon it unless you’re checking out the Accessibility options. However, it’s still not hard to find once you know where it is.

Step 1: Open your Settings app and scroll down until you find Accessibility.

Step 2: Tap Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Background Sounds.

Step 3: Tap the Background Sounds slider to turn on a constant background sound.

Background sound options

You can choose from a few different noises to listen to in the background. Head to Sound to choose which sound you’d prefer to hear. The sounds you can pick from are as follows:

Background sound controls

There are a few other options in the Background Sounds menu as well. These are largely self-explanatory, but just to summarize: