One of the more helpful accessibility iPhone features introduced this year was designed for people who are deaf and hard of hearing, alerting them to important sounds they may not be aware of.
But, the new iPhone feature can also be useful if you’re listening on headphones, or just sometimes don’t hear things in a noisy environment.
The feature is called “Sound Recognition”, and it does exactly what it sounds like – your iPhone will “listen” for specific sounds and will then alert you. In addition to detecting sounds like fire and smoke alarms, it can also be used to listen for door knocks, car horns, animal noises, and more.
Here’s how you can set up Sound Recognition on your iPhone…
1. Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone.

2. Scroll through the list and tap on the option labeled “Accessibility.”

3. Select the option labeled “Sound Recognition.”

4. Tap once on the toggle next to the “Sound Recognition” feature to turn it on.

5. Tap the option labeled “Sounds.”

6. Scroll through the list and tap the toggle next to the specific type of sound you want your iPhone to listen for.

That’s it! Once the feature is active, your iPhone will listen for those sounds and you’ll get a notification whenever they’re detected.
When I go to sound recognition my phone jumps back to the Home Screen. Does something else need turned on?
my does the same thing……So pressk ‘sound recognition’ and the second it pops up it the button. That turned mine on but I cannot get any further than that. I am calling apple today about various things and that is one . Will let you know…
Mine does too and it doesn’t offer sounds to listen for.
That’s awesome. I wish they had that for my iPad. I usually keep it closer than my phone
Love all the very useful info you send out!!
You need to do something to minimize an app you’re using so you can get back to it easy
Thanks sooooo much❤️
Tried this and it says that if you choose sound recognition, Siri will be disabled. I would guess that lots of people would not want to do without the ability to say “Hey Siri…”
Thank you.
Thank you this is awesome
As soon as my iPhone gets to sound recognition it switches back to the Home Screen.
When I turn on sound recognition button all I get is “ refreshing” – no sounds come up for me to choose from?
I have the same problem that several others have mentioned. I tap sound recognition… it comes up for a second… then goes back to the Home Screen.