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How to change the notification sound on the iPhone
September 19, 2025
I don’t know about you, but I quickly get tired of hearing the same notifications for months (or even years!). At some point, you’ll likely feel the same and want to change the notification sounds. We’re here to show you how to change the notification sound on the iPhone!
QUICK ANSWER
To change the notification sound on your iPhone, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics. You can change the notification sounds on this page for the Text Tone, New Voicemail, Calendar Alerts, Reminder Alerts, and Default Alerts. You can also change the Ringtone. Just tap on each option and pick the notification you prefer.
To change the notification sound for a specific app, go to Settings > Notifications and tap on the app in question. Not all apps support changing the notification sound, however. If your app does, you will see an option at the bottom that reads "X Notification Settings". You can then check the app's settings to see if it allows you to change the notification sound.
JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS
Editor’s note: We used an iPhone 15 running iOS 18.6.2 to formulate these instructions. Your steps may differ, depending on the specific device and which software version it is running.
How to change the notification sound on an iPhone
Changing general notification sounds on an iPhone is pretty simple if you just want to do it for system-wide controls.
- Launch the Settings app.
- Go into the Sounds & Haptics option.
- You will see options to change a variety of notification sounds. These include Text Tone, New Voicemail, Calendar Alerts, Reminder Alerts, and Default Alerts. Again, you can also opt to change the Ringtone here.
- Tap on the system notification sounds you want to change. Select the notification sound you prefer, and hit Back.
How to change the notification sound for a specific app on an iPhone
If you would much rather change a specific app’s notification sound, you can also do that, but there are plenty of limitations here. Not all apps support changing the notification tone. Other apps, such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, hide notification sounds in their app settings.
- Launch the Settings app.
- Go into the Notifications option.
- Look through the list of apps and select the one for which you want to change the notification sound.
- If you can modify the notification option, you will see an option at the bottom that reads “X Notification Settings“. The “X” would be the app’s name. Tap on this option.
- The app will launch. You can navigate through the settings and see if you can change the notification sound.
FAQs
Yes, you can make your own custom-made tones and set them as your ringtone.
This used to be a very laborious process of encoding audio files properly and ensuring they are in the correct format. Many people didn’t even bother and preferred downloading a paid tone from the App Store. That said, this changed with the release of iOS 26. If you already have that software version, you can just use regular audio files.
Yes, if you go to the Sounds & Haptics section in your iPhone settings, and select which notification sound you want to switch, you can tap a link to the Tone Store.
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