White noise has become one of the world’s worst kept secrets at helping people relax and fall asleep. Whether you prefer the sound of rain on a window, the buzz of an oscillating fan, or the haunting hum of the universe itself, these are the best white noise apps on the most popular platforms.
White Noise Generator: Best White Noise App for Android
The White Noise Generator from Relaxio is a fully featured white noise application offering a wide range of available sounds, including brown noise, fan, rain on window, forest, rustling leaves, crackling fire, ocean waves, and more. It features a colorful, intuitive interface and the ability to mix your favorite sounds together.
A wide variety of sounds to choose from.
The ability to mix and match sounds together.
Quick timer so it turns off after you fall asleep.
No pink noise option.
Some sounds have sudden volume changes.
Download White Noise Generator for Android
White Noise Lite: Free White Noise App for Chromecast
The wide variety of white noise sounds available in the White Noise Lite app provides great background noise for a variety of activities, including sleeping. They loop well, with no obvious cuts between them, and you can mix the sounds together yourself with customizable intensity for your own personal soundscape.
You can easily mix various white noise sounds.
Alarms can fade in over noise so you aren’t jarred awake.
Support for Chromecast to TV play.
There are some reports of it draining batteries fast.
Subliminal sounds may irritate white noise purists.
The smart alarm system helps wake you up feeling refreshed, without jarringly jumping from relaxing white noise to a rousing alarm.
This “Lite” version is ad-supported, but there’s a paid, premium version that removes the advertisements and offers additional alarms and background audio options.
Download White Noise Life for Android
Download White Noise Life for iOS
White Noise Sleep Sounds HD: Free White Noise Background App
White Noise: Sleep Sounds HD is a great sleep aid app from Dream_Studio that comes with a wide selection of different types of white noise. There’s options for pink and brown noise, as well as a timer, so you don’t have to leave it playing all night; save battery and ensure you can awake alert, if needed.
Good selection of white noise types.
Timer system for fading audio out.
Automatic pause during calls.
Sound descriptions aren’t immediately obvious.
A few too many adverts.
It also has some sounds which are rarely found in other white noise apps, like the sound of cicadas and snowstorms.
Download White Noise Sleep Sounds for Android
White Noise Ambience Lite: Best White Noise Rain App
Featured in a number of international publications and hailed by many as the best “Nap app,” White Noise Ambience Lite contains a mixture of 40 different white noise sounds, each accompanied by a high-resolution image to help you relax. It can also run in the background if you prefer, giving you the freedom to use your phone as before, while listening to the soothing sounds of different types of white noise.
High quality images accompany each sound.
Create a favorites list and playlists of sounds.
Can be played in the background.
Some reliability problems.
Requires Android 5.1 or newer.
There’s also a premium version of the app, which removes the adverts, doubles the number of sounds and images, and introduces new clock styles.
Download White Noise Ambience Lite for Android
Download White Noise Ambience Lite for iOS
White Noise Sleep Pillow Sound: Best White Noise App for Sleep
If you feel like other white noise apps don’t have enough breadth of sound options, White Noise Sleep Pillow Sound for iOS goes above and beyond. Combine the noise of ice in a glass with the sound of city nightlife and a luxury car ride, or go for simple fan sounds. It’s all up to you.
Sounds are all recorded in nature.
The ability to mix any combination of white noise you like.
Includes relaxing sounds beyond simple white noise.
Lots of sounds that won’t work like white noise.
Only compatible with iOS 9 or later.
With so many sounds to choose from and the ability to mix them together in up to 300,000 combinations, you’ll never grow bored of the sounds available within this app. Not all of them are strictly white noise, but even those complement the ones that are.
Download White Noise Sleep Pillow Sound for iOS
Bed Time Fan White Noise Sound: Best White Noise Fan App
Bed Time Fan White Noise Sound isn’t the most varied, the most in-depth, or the most versatile, but what it does do it does very well. It combines some varied fan noises with relaxing nature scenes to help enhance your calm state before sleep, and promises to get most listeners to fall asleep within 20 minutes. You can also have some additional sounds in the background, like crickets, rain, or a crackling campfire.
It keeps it simple with limited sound options.
Relaxing images to enhance the white noise.
Lots of adverts in free version.
If you like to mix up your white noise sound on a regular basis, this app probably isn’t for you, but if you want to find a buzzing fan sound and stick to it, these are some of the best.
Download Bed Time Fan White Noise Sound for Android
Download Bed Time Fan White Noise Sound for iOS
White Noise Market: White Noise Ambience App
White noise is a sound and sensation enjoyed by millions of people all over the world, so why not share that experience? Whether you like ASMR, pure white noise, relaxing daytime or evening sounds, there will be someone in the White Noise Market who shares your tastes and has already curated a list of great options for you.
A communal white noise experience.
Suggestions from other users and the ability to upload your own.
Explore sound categories outside of white noise, like ASMR and animals.
Community recommendations can be hit and miss.
Encourages buying additional sounds.
Not all of them are great, and the experience can feel a little pushy when it comes to buying new sounds, but there’s more on offer in White Noise Market than almost any other app on this list.
Download White Noise Market for Android
Download White Noise Market for iOS
White Noise HQ Sound Machine: Best White Noise Sleep App
Nature can be as relaxing as any artificial white noise sound and White Noise HQ focuses in on that like no other app. With over 75 high-definition sound recordings of waterfalls, ocean surf, evening crickets, blowing wind, and others, it has a breadth of relaxing noises from the natural world.
A focus on nature over pure white noise.
Options for brown and pink noise.
Mix and blend up to six sounds together.
No option to add additional sounds.
Requires iOS 9 or later.
You can’t install any additional sounds of your own, but you’re unlikely to run out any time soon due to such a wide enough selection, and you can always mix up to six of your favorites to create something new and interesting.
Download White Noise HQ Sound Machine for iOS
Ambient Sounds White Noise: Best White Noise Ocean App
A simple and effective white noise app, Ambient Sounds: White Noise gives you a vast array of sounds to choose from, including rain and running water, hairdryers, whale song, windy meadow, and heartbeat.
A wide spread of natural and synthetic sounds.
The ability to loop sounds for as long as you like.
Alexa can learn your preferences for certain sounds.
Rather pushy in asking for reviews.
It’s simple to set up and control with voice commands, but we wouldn’t recommend this for babies or animals, as it can intrusively ask for a review in the middle of nowhere, which can be quite disruptive.
The sounds will automatically play for one hour. If you want them to play for longer without stopping, simply say “Alexa, ask White Noise to loop.” To get it to stop, use the command, “Alexa, stop.” The skill will remember your preferences so you don’t need to do this every time.
Sleep Sounds White Noise: Great White Noise Skill for Alexa
A great selection of white noise and relaxing sounds.
Pink and brown noise included.
Simple commands.
Sound looping requires fading in and out which can be disruptive.
Pushy review requests at start of sounds.
Sleep Sounds: Best Alexa Skill For Sleep
The sounds offered in Sleep Sounds are a little more specific than some of the other apps and skills on this list. You have a selection of three different wind sounds, various colors of white noise, cats, crickets, frogs, birds, and babbling brooks, among tons of others.
Some interesting sounds not always found in other apps.
You can mix sounds together with voice commands only.
Quick and seamless fading between sounds.
Some users find they have to frequently re-register the skill.
Upgrade adverts can be annoying.
It also has the ability to mix sounds together, which not many Alexa skills do, and the fading between different sounds is much more seamless than most.
White Noise on Google Home
Google Home has its own built-in white noise machine, making it arguably the easiest way to access some of the relaxing sounds of white noise and its various incarnations. The selection isn’t exhaustive and the sounds only play for one hour, but for a basic white noise listening experience, Google Home has it from the get-go.
Built right into the platform. No need for additional downloads.
A good selection of ambient and white noise.
Not as broad a selection as bespoke apps.
Maximum of one hour play time.
To use it, say, “OK Google, play white noise.” You can also leave it up to Google Home to decide what it thinks you need to hear by saying, “Hey Google, help me relax.”
YouTube: Vast Selection of White Noise
If you don’t want to install an app or just want to be sure you’ll have access to white noise wherever you are on any device you want, YouTube is a great fallback option. The audio quality isn’t up to par with some of the other apps on this list and you must have a video playing, but the selection of sounds is unparalleled.
Exhaustive selection of white noise and relaxing sounds.
Relaxing videos often accompany the better options.
Accessible on any device in any browser.
You have to play the video too, which requires additional bandwidth.
Audio quality isn’t as good as some of the other apps on this list.
Adverts are frequent.
Unless you’re a YouTube Premium subscriber you’ll also need to put up with adverts and forgo background play, but for its sheer breadth and depth of white noise options, YouTube is hard to beat.
Download YouTube for Android
Download YouTube for iOS
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