This is fantastic, thank you. Recently when trying to sleep away from home, I went looking for a noise app and was grossed out by the state of the available apps, just like you said.
BTW One unfortunate feature that many noise apps/websites have (including Apple Music's official noise buttons) is that after a few minutes, they fade out and back in or have some other jarring transition when repeating. This is far from ideal for sleep, meditation, etc. So this is an enhancement request, if your app doesn't already solve this ;)
I'm also curious: do you think that the cost of maintaining the app (keeping it up to date with newer iOS versions, for instance) will eventually dissuade you from keeping it available in its pristine state? I've wondered why there seem to be ZERO free apps by hobbyists on the App Store in categories like this...
I built a free calculator for iOS because I found the free calculators (for iPad) were super spammy and ugly. There was (and still is?) literally video ads that play between calculations. And since Apple didn't (doesn't?) offer a calculator app that came bundled with iPad, it was a huge market.
But I was naive and thought I could just create an obviously superior app and it would find some users. Why hadn't anyone thought of this before? But the app market is so saturated and poorly managed that there's practically no chance you can find users. Or at least I didn't care enough because.. you know.. its a free app. How much can I invest to get you to have a decent experience.
And the other point which was really the death blow to my app, is the ridiculous $100+ a year fee to app store to even host a free app. So after a few years and very few users, I decided to kill it.
1. The search sucks and prioritizes "popular" spammy apps.
100% agree with you. Most of my time on this project actually went into making sure the loops play seamlessly—no gaps, glitches, or fades—since even the tiniest hiccup can throw off light sleepers. I’ve also tested the app across different headphones and speakers, with and without noise cancellation, but if you try it and notice anything off, please tell me. I’d really love to make it as smooth as possible.
For the app maintenance side, I’m intentionally keeping both the UI and backend super simple so updates are easy to manage. And honestly, I just enjoy iOS development, so even the maintenance part feels more like fun than work.
Fantastic. Love it. Love the collection of so many sounds.
One request I have: please play the white noise on the "other" track, so that one can also listen to music and white noise simultaneously. See how "White noise by sleep pillow" does it.
There are some formatting issues (i.e. stuff is off screen), but nbd, still usable. Perhaps that prevents me from layering multiple sounds, though.
Thanks for this - de-installed an alternative and installed this.
Any thoughts of some sort of equalizer feature? I like brown noise for sleeping in noisy environments, and would love to be able to add a bit more bass to your sample. (Brown noise plus some Airplane is actually pretty good.)
---
Side thought - there needs to be a club (with a curated list?) for simple apps that work well, and commit to staying ad-free. I'd love to be able to search amongst such apps prior to auditioning options from the App Store. (I mean, it would be great to be able to filter for such apps in the App Store itself, but that's not going to happen.)
1) The thunder sounds loop too quickly; can you find sources that are longer perhaps (like 15+ mins)?
2) Can you try to source more unique thunder sounds?
Downloaded this. It drowned out perfectly the noise from my upstairs neighbour sitting on her balcony watching YouTube videos above my open bedroom window. Thank you!
For those unaware, iOS includes a limited selection of such sounds. You cant mix or anything, but it might be good enough, at least it is for me. Search for Background Sounds in settings.
- There are all curated from bunch of different online sources like pixabay that allow usage without any restrictions
- Not too hard. I just need to test it thoroughly to make sure the experience is as good as the latest os
Wow this looks incredible! I quite like the Overcast model where you can optionally pay a little just to support the author rather than for extra features or nagware.
That's a great suggestion. I haven't given much thought to monetization. And personally I really this to be freely available to all who need and enjoy it. But an optional payment option doesn't sound too bad.
My goodness, thank you. The other white noise apps I use for my kids when we travel work on a subscription. I have to remember to subscribe, to play a single sound, then cancel my subscription. Made me want to learn iOS development out of spite.
I was thinking of building something similar to the point of even learning music production, for the similar reasons you have listed. I think I can postpone my idea now.
I don’t think many people would mind watching once a day ad just to support your work. But, whatever makes you happy.
Thanks for trying:) and its definitely a great way to develop a good ear for sounds and pickup basic audio engineering. i certainly got comfortable with audacity along the way
I love the idea, and thanks for doing this. I would like to create free apps too just for the heck of it but one of the biggest issues I find with creating free app store apps is that, regardless of whether you are charging money or not, you need to keep feeding Apple $100 per year, which is excruciating, especially for countries where the developer population is much higher and the income disparity is high. Since the Play Store only charges 25$ ish and one time, it is much more feasible to do it on the Play Store, hence the availability of such apps is more on Play Store.
It is still disgusting. There is no need for that fee to be there, because remember, it sits on top of the purchase of at least $1,500 (a decent Mac).
I tried to see if I could make improvements to Immich. No can do, as half of their entitlements require a team account (and even then begging Apple to get the entitlements).
Now, they do offer a private account, so I spent time removing those entitlements. Guess what? Starting over 3 times and you're hit with a 'you can only sign 10 apps / week'.
Why do apps built for my iPhone, which I explicitly need to put in Developer mode, need to be signed by daddy Cook?
Apple can charge you that because they have a platform which is a monopoly.
Granted, they did the work that built and maintain the platform, but at some point it's actually the countless developers who contribute value, not Apple.
You're doing God's work. I used to use my white noise generator for a lot of things-- not just, "creating blinding noise" but sampling authentic pink and white noise had applications where having this over an aux cable was pretty handy.
...now my buttfucking IPhone has no aux out and the app I use charges 6.99 to access the mixer. Go figure.
If you're on Android and want something similar, try Atmosphere.
For years now it's the first app I install on every phone I buy.
It's ad-supported though.
This is fantastic, thank you. Recently when trying to sleep away from home, I went looking for a noise app and was grossed out by the state of the available apps, just like you said.
BTW One unfortunate feature that many noise apps/websites have (including Apple Music's official noise buttons) is that after a few minutes, they fade out and back in or have some other jarring transition when repeating. This is far from ideal for sleep, meditation, etc. So this is an enhancement request, if your app doesn't already solve this ;)
I'm also curious: do you think that the cost of maintaining the app (keeping it up to date with newer iOS versions, for instance) will eventually dissuade you from keeping it available in its pristine state? I've wondered why there seem to be ZERO free apps by hobbyists on the App Store in categories like this...
I built a free calculator for iOS because I found the free calculators (for iPad) were super spammy and ugly. There was (and still is?) literally video ads that play between calculations. And since Apple didn't (doesn't?) offer a calculator app that came bundled with iPad, it was a huge market.
But I was naive and thought I could just create an obviously superior app and it would find some users. Why hadn't anyone thought of this before? But the app market is so saturated and poorly managed that there's practically no chance you can find users. Or at least I didn't care enough because.. you know.. its a free app. How much can I invest to get you to have a decent experience.
And the other point which was really the death blow to my app, is the ridiculous $100+ a year fee to app store to even host a free app. So after a few years and very few users, I decided to kill it.
1. The search sucks and prioritizes "popular" spammy apps.
Native calculator is available on iPad now. I think starting last year.
100% agree with you. Most of my time on this project actually went into making sure the loops play seamlessly—no gaps, glitches, or fades—since even the tiniest hiccup can throw off light sleepers. I’ve also tested the app across different headphones and speakers, with and without noise cancellation, but if you try it and notice anything off, please tell me. I’d really love to make it as smooth as possible.
For the app maintenance side, I’m intentionally keeping both the UI and backend super simple so updates are easy to manage. And honestly, I just enjoy iOS development, so even the maintenance part feels more like fun than work.
Fantastic. Love it. Love the collection of so many sounds.
One request I have: please play the white noise on the "other" track, so that one can also listen to music and white noise simultaneously. See how "White noise by sleep pillow" does it.
There are some formatting issues (i.e. stuff is off screen), but nbd, still usable. Perhaps that prevents me from layering multiple sounds, though.
Thanks for making this avialable.
I am Linux (ZorinOS, FTW) and I use SoundScape https://github.com/ddanilov/soundscape
There is https://freesound.org/ which can provide a multitude of free sounds too.
Really nicely done. Love the mixing capabilities, that was particularly nicely implemented.
Thanks for this - de-installed an alternative and installed this.
Any thoughts of some sort of equalizer feature? I like brown noise for sleeping in noisy environments, and would love to be able to add a bit more bass to your sample. (Brown noise plus some Airplane is actually pretty good.)
---
Side thought - there needs to be a club (with a curated list?) for simple apps that work well, and commit to staying ad-free. I'd love to be able to search amongst such apps prior to auditioning options from the App Store. (I mean, it would be great to be able to filter for such apps in the App Store itself, but that's not going to happen.)
I'm a longtime fan of Web-based myNoise: https://mynoise.net/
some of the best sounds out there
Congrats! Two comments after trying the app out:
1) The thunder sounds loop too quickly; can you find sources that are longer perhaps (like 15+ mins)? 2) Can you try to source more unique thunder sounds?
Thank you!
Let's not forget https://neal.fun/ambient-chaos/
Couple Arguing + Nuclear Siren
Volcano + Rain + Coffee Shop is my jam.
cuuute!
Downloaded this. It drowned out perfectly the noise from my upstairs neighbour sitting on her balcony watching YouTube videos above my open bedroom window. Thank you!
:) glad its helpful!
For those unaware, iOS includes a limited selection of such sounds. You cant mix or anything, but it might be good enough, at least it is for me. Search for Background Sounds in settings.
Lovely! Couple questions…
- where did you get the noises, are they your own recordings?
- how hard it is to support earlier iOS? For folks like me who are on older phones that cannot be upgraded anymore (iOS 16 personally)
Not the author. I built one of these years ago and had fun finding and using sounds from radio aporee.
https://archive.org/details/radio-aporee-maps
https://aporee.org/maps/info/
- There are all curated from bunch of different online sources like pixabay that allow usage without any restrictions - Not too hard. I just need to test it thoroughly to make sure the experience is as good as the latest os
Wow this looks incredible! I quite like the Overcast model where you can optionally pay a little just to support the author rather than for extra features or nagware.
That's a great suggestion. I haven't given much thought to monetization. And personally I really this to be freely available to all who need and enjoy it. But an optional payment option doesn't sound too bad.
Exactly, no harm if people want to thank you for a great app!
My goodness, thank you. The other white noise apps I use for my kids when we travel work on a subscription. I have to remember to subscribe, to play a single sound, then cancel my subscription. Made me want to learn iOS development out of spite.
Just downloaded! Thanks for your efforts on it.
I was thinking of building something similar to the point of even learning music production, for the similar reasons you have listed. I think I can postpone my idea now.
I don’t think many people would mind watching once a day ad just to support your work. But, whatever makes you happy.
Thanks for trying:) and its definitely a great way to develop a good ear for sounds and pickup basic audio engineering. i certainly got comfortable with audacity along the way
I love the idea, and thanks for doing this. I would like to create free apps too just for the heck of it but one of the biggest issues I find with creating free app store apps is that, regardless of whether you are charging money or not, you need to keep feeding Apple $100 per year, which is excruciating, especially for countries where the developer population is much higher and the income disparity is high. Since the Play Store only charges 25$ ish and one time, it is much more feasible to do it on the Play Store, hence the availability of such apps is more on Play Store.
The $100 is per year.
It is still disgusting. There is no need for that fee to be there, because remember, it sits on top of the purchase of at least $1,500 (a decent Mac).
I tried to see if I could make improvements to Immich. No can do, as half of their entitlements require a team account (and even then begging Apple to get the entitlements).
Now, they do offer a private account, so I spent time removing those entitlements. Guess what? Starting over 3 times and you're hit with a 'you can only sign 10 apps / week'.
Why do apps built for my iPhone, which I explicitly need to put in Developer mode, need to be signed by daddy Cook?
Apple can charge you that because they have a platform which is a monopoly.
Granted, they did the work that built and maintain the platform, but at some point it's actually the countless developers who contribute value, not Apple.
True. I completely forgot about that part. I absolutely love my windows PC, but I had to buy a mac so I can support cross platform
yeah. sorry my brain was on auto pilot.
Very nice :) The ability to add my own mp3 loops would be choice. Is that possible? I’m choosy about the exact cafe-train mix I work to…
This is great. I’ve been looking for something like this for a long time after giving up on Portal. Thank you
Sounds like a convienet app, but is there any advantage to just looping an ambient sound clip in a generic audio player?
Not having to go find the ambient sound clips yourself.
But one could find it on YouTube (ad free with Firefox and ublock origin) in less time than it would take to install an app.
This is awesome, did you use SwiftUI for this?
Wonderful, thanks so much!
ok what is Your TOMO llc mean???
does we really need to register LLC to upload into appstore???? that's seem excessive no? especially if your app isnt generating profit
No you don't. You can submit an app as a solo developer. I formed the LLC for my design consultancy so just used the same for my Apple dev account.
You're doing God's work. I used to use my white noise generator for a lot of things-- not just, "creating blinding noise" but sampling authentic pink and white noise had applications where having this over an aux cable was pretty handy.
...now my buttfucking IPhone has no aux out and the app I use charges 6.99 to access the mixer. Go figure.