How to Change the Alarm Sound on iPhone, Step by Step, With Photos

Key Points

• Changing the alarm sound on iPhone is a simple process that allows you to personalize your morning routine.
• Reasons to change the alarm sound include personalizing motivation, differentiating sounds from notifications, and changing mental associations.
• To change the alarm sound, open the Clock app, select the Alarm tab, tap Edit, choose the alarm you want to change, select a new sound, and save your changes.

Sick of hearing the same old iPhone alarm sound every morning? Wishing you could add a bit of personality to your morning routine? You’re not the only one who feels this way. Luckily, there’s an easy fix. All you have to do is change the alarm sound on your iPhone. This straightforward process is an effective way to personalize your alarm sound and give yourself a break from that Apple default tone you know so well. Let’s walk you through the steps required to change the alarm sound on your iPhone.

Why Change the Alarm Sound on iPhone?

There are quite a few reasons to change the alarm sound on the iPhone. Before getting into the step-by-step process, let’s explore the three most prominent reasons below. From personalization to differentiation, motivation to association, these are a few of the most important explanations as to why a person might want to change the alarm sound on their iPhone.

Personalize Your Motivation

One of the biggest reasons to change the alarm sound on your iPhone? Personalizing the sound that motivates you to silence the alarm. Apple’s default tones can quickly become monotonous and blend into your daily routine — especially if you’ve been an Apple user for years now. This makes it easier to tune them out subconsciously. By changing the tone to a more unique sound, you can add a more personal touch to your alarm routine.

Differentiate Sound From Notifications

Longtime iPhone users can identify an Apple default tone in an instant. From the sound of an email sent to the noise of a text message arriving to the alert of a new voicemail, you’ve probably familiarized yourself with many of the sounds in the Apple library at this point. Changing the alarm sound on your iPhone helps you better distinguish one noise from all the others. That way, you’ll never miss (or ignore) a notification again.

Change Mental Association

After a certain amount of time, we all start to despise our alarm sounds. For instance, a song that was once your favorite now immediately makes you think of being woken up from a peaceful night’s sleep. When you start resenting your alarm tone, it helps to know how to change things up. Select a more calming or enjoyable alarm tone according to the steps below, and you can better train your mind to react more positively to the sound. No more rude awakenings.

How to Change the Alarm Sound on the iPhone

Now, let’s go over the steps required to change the alarm sound on the iPhone. We should note that this process will also work for any alarms you have on your iPad. Make sure your sound is turned up before you begin so that you can hear the alarm sounds loud and clear. You can raise or lower it using the buttons on the side of the iPhone or with the slider under “Sounds & Haptics” in your Settings app. With that, let’s get right into it.

Step One: Open the Alarm App

First, open up the Clock app. This is on your home page by default, but you may have moved it at some point or another. If you’re having trouble finding it, simply drag your finger down on the screen to open up the search box. Then, type “Clock” and tap the top hit.

Step Two: Hit Edit

Second, select the Alarm tab at the bottom of the screen. This will take you to your list of alarms. Then, tap “Edit” in the top left corner of the screen. You can now customize any alarm of your choosing on your screen. Select the alarm you’d like to change the sound of.

Step Three: Tap Sound

The Alarm section of your Clock app gives you several customization options for each alarm. You can tweak Repeat settings, change the Label, toggle the Snooze option, and — most importantly — change the Sound. Tap the Sound tab to see a list of available options.

Step Four: Change Sound

Next, select a new alarm sound from the list of available options. You’ll see a few possible choices on the screen: songs in your library, default ringtones, and any tones you may have bought (or wish to buy) from the Tone Store. Take your pick! Choose carefully, as this will be the new sound for your alarm of choice. As a note, the sound will only change for this one particular alarm — not every alarm in the Clock app.

Step Five: Hit Save

Return to the previous page using the button in the top lefthand corner. Then hit Save before exiting the Edit screen. If you don’t hit Save before you leave the app, then your new alarm sound will return to the default. It’s very important to save your progress.

Step Six: Toggle Alarm

Upon returning to the Alarm page in the Clock app, you’ll see that the alarm you just edited has been toggled to the “On” position. You can either leave it this way, or turn it to the “Off” position using the green switch. That’s all it takes! You’ve now successfully changed the alarm sound on your iPhone. Repeat as many times as necessary for however many alarms you please.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com.