How to change the alarm sound on an iPhone

Apple’s default iPhone alarms can potentially be jarring, and that’s by design — it’s better to be startled by an alarm than miss it entirely. If you’d like a gentler wake-up, though, knowing how to customize sounds and vibrations can be essential.

How to change the alarm sound on your iPhone

Changing the alarm sound on your iPhone is dead easy and very quick.

• Open the Clock app. If you can’t find it, do a quick down-swipe on the homescreen to bring up search.
• Within Clock, select the Alarm tab.
• Tap the alarm time you want to change the sound for, or else create a new alarm.
• Tap Sound.
• In most cases, you’ll want to pick one of Apple’s stock sounds under Ringtones. When you select one, you’ll hear a short preview.
• Whenever you’re done, tap Back, then Save once your alarm is otherwise ready to go.

How to add a new alarm sound on your iPhone

While there’s usually at least one stock ringtone that should work for you, Apple offers a couple of paid options if you’re not satisfied.

From the Tone Store

After tapping on Sound in an alarm’s settings, you’ll see a button marked Tone Store. This is actually a section of the iTunes Store that sells pre-trimmed ringtones for as little as a dollar.

Note that if you’ve uninstalled the iTunes app (not to be confused with Music), you’ll be prompted to reinstall it to gain access.

From Apple Music

If you’re an Apple Music subscriber, you can choose any song in the service’s streaming catalog as your alarm. Be careful — while you might think you’d like wake up to the same music every day, that can actually ruin favorite songs through repetition and unpleasant associations.

Within the Sound menu for an alarm, tap Pick a song. This will take you to the Music app, where you can search for whatever track you want. It will then appear in the Sound menu’s Songs section, where you can select it.

As you may have gathered, you’re not strictly limited to Apple Music. If you’ve synced music from your Mac or Windows PC library, those files are treated equally — it’s just that most people are now streaming music rather than downloading or ripping it, so we’re making an assumption.

How to change an alarm’s vibration

Along with changing an alarm’s sound on an iPhone, you can also change its associated vibration.

• To start, go to an alarm’s Sound menu.
• At the top, tap Vibration.
• Choose a new vibration pattern. You’ll feel a short preview whenever you pick one. You can use Create New Vibration to tap out a custom rhythm (see below).
• To finish, navigate to Sound > Back > Edit Alarm and hit Save.

How to create a new alarm vibration pattern

• On the Vibration page, scroll down and tap Create New Vibration.
• Use your finger to tap out a new vibration pattern. Keep going until the screen tells you to stop.
• Name your pattern.
• Back on the Vibration page, you’ll find your addition under the Custom section.

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