How to turn your old iPhone into an alarm clock

Engadget

15-05-2025

Getting a new phone might leave you wondering what to do with your old one. Trading it in, particularly for credit towards your new handset, is ideal and could make a future refurbished shopper happy. But if the trade-in value isn't worthwhile to you and you've been wondering what else your retired pocket computer can do, we have a few ideas. One suggestion is to turn it into a dedicated alarm clock. Yes, you can absolutely use your new phone for that purpose — you probably already do. But there are clear advantages to using your decommissioned device instead. Here's how to upcycle your old iPhone into an alarm clock.
Stuffing a retired gadget in a drawer does nothing — except make you half-heartedly contemplate doing something with it each time you open said drawer. Recycling is a valid option, but even if your old handset isn't as speedy as your new one, it's almost assuredly more powerful than any sleep machine or smart alarm clock on the market. And with the setup tips detailed here, it can actually perform more advanced functions, too.
Plus, using your current phone when you're trying to sleep is perilous. I've never picked up my phone without getting distracted. Finally, with on-again, off-again tariffs making electronic gadgets harder to come by for a good price, rethinking what an existing device can do is intelligent alchemy.
OK, not everything. But the idea is to make your phone as unexciting as possible — no Instagram, no Monument Valley , no Photos memories from last year's road trip. Your iPhone won't let you delete certain apps, such as Phone, Messages, the App Store and others — but you can hide them from your home screen so they'll only pop up if you search for them.
You'll still need a few apps to create your alarm clock, so don't delete or hide the following: Clock
Music (and iTunes store if you don't pay for Apple Music)
Shortcuts
Health
Settings Make your phone look exactly as boring as this. (Amy Skorheim for Engadget)
If you'd rather wake up to something more pleasant than the Clock app's chirps and bleeps, pick a personalized sound instead.
1. Set your sleep schedule in Health. Apple requires you to set your Sleep Schedule in the Health app before you can set an alarm in the Clock app.
2. Download a song. Theoretically, you can use any song you have downloaded to your phone as a sound for your alarm. But I couldn't get it to work with any song that supported Dolby Atmos or Lossless audio (even if I turned those options off in Settings > Music > Audio).
But standard quality songs worked great. If, like me, you're not a heavy sleeper, you might like something like singing bowls or a meditative flute. If you need the thunder of the gods to wake you, perhaps go for something more rousing.
3. Set your alarm. Open the Clock app and select the Alarms tab. Set your alarm as usual. Then tap Sound > Pick a song > Downloaded > and select the (non Lossless!) song you desire. Hit Save.
4. Turn off vibrate. If you don't want your phone to vibrate when it plays your alarm, turn the Haptics option to Never Play in Settings > Sounds & Haptics. Tap Sound then select any downloaded song as your alarm sound. Just be sure not to select a Lossless or Dolby Atmos track. (Amy Skorheim for Engadget)
My favorite thing about my sleep machine is the ambient music it plays as I drift off into slumber. Unsurprisingly, your old iPhone is capable of playing lulling tunes as well. And if white noise helps you stay in dreamland, you can program your phone to play those sounds, too. A combination of Shortcuts and Automations will make your sleep routine play automatically so you don't have to touch your screen at all.
1. Build a sleepytime playlist. Open Apple Music and make a playlist. (Unfortunately, Shortcuts doesn't work with Spotify.) I populated Amy's Sleepytime Mix with songs from Apple's Ambient Chill and Pure Ambient playlists. I made the set about 30 minutes long because that's a little longer than it takes me to drift off.
2. Turn off Autoplay. It's pretty jarring when you're drifting off and your dreamy playlist morphs into some algorithmically selected oontz oontz banger. To turn Autoplay off: Play any track in Apple Music.
Tap the name of the song to enlarge the album cover and track controls.
Tap the three lines at the bottom right. You'll now see upcoming tracks and three buttons at the top of the list: crossed arrows (shuffle), looped arrows (repeat) and an infinity symbol (Autoplay).
Toggle Autoplay off so it's greyed out. Tap the song that's currently playing to access the Autoplay option (left). Tap the infinity symbol at the top of the screen to toggle Autoplay off (right). (Amy Skorheim for Engadget)
Note: Turning Autoplay off turns it off across ALL your Apple devices. If you like it when Apple keeps the tunes flowing after a playlist ends, you'll have to complete a side quest, which is detailed at the end of this post.
3. Pick your white noise sound. An accessibility feature gives you the option of eight different white noise sounds, including Rain, Ocean, Fire and Night (with more functions coming soon). Open the Settings app
Tap Accessibility
Tap Audio & Visual
Tap Background Sounds
Toggle Background Sounds on
Tap Sound then pick your favorite
Press back and toggle Background Sounds back off
Toggle on Use When Media Is Playing
Toggle off Stop Sounds When Locked
3. Create a Shortcut. This will make your phone play your playlist with white noise beneath it (which softens song transitions) and when the playlist ends, the white noise continues. Open Shortcuts and tap All Shortcuts, then tap + in the upper right
Search for the term 'volume,' tap Set Volume and choose a percentage, such as 25-percent or your desired level
Search for 'background,' tap Set Background Sounds. The shortcut should read: [Turn] [Background Sounds] [On]
Search for 'play' and tap Play Music
Tap Music > Library > Playlist > [Your sleepy time mix]. Then tap the tiny ⊕ in the upper right
Tap the arrow next to the Shortcut title at the very top to rename your shortcut, perhaps something like Sleep Routine or Night Night.
Tap Done.
4. Trigger your Shortcut with an Automation. To run your Shortcut, you can just ask Siri by saying 'Hey Siri, Night Night' (or 'Hey Siri, Sleep Routine' or whatever you named the above shortcut). But if you want your routine to start at the same time each night, create an automation. In the Shortcut app, tap the Automation tab at the bottom
Tap + to create a new Automation
Tap Time of Day and enter your preferred start time and days
Make sure there's a checkmark near Run Immediately (and not Run After Confirmation) and keep Notify When Run toggled off
Tap Next
If you don't see the name of the Shortcut you created at the top, search for its name and tap on it Create a Shortcut that sets the volume, turns on white noise and plays a playlist (left). Set an Automation that automatically runs the Shortcut at bedtime (right), or just say "Hey Siri..." and the name of your shortcut. (Amy Skorheim for Engadget)
5. Turn off Background Sounds. Whether you want your white noise to play all the way up to your alarm or just for an hour or two, it's wise to create an automation to turn it off so you don't have to do it manually. Create a new Shortcut
Search for 'background'
Tap Set Background Sound
Tap [On] to [Off] so the Shortcut reads [Turn] [Background Sounds] [Off]
Rename the Shortcut: Background Sounds Off
Hit done
Create a new Automation in the Automation tab
Tap Time of Day
Set it for your alarm time or a couple hours after you're usually asleep
Tap Run Immediately and make sure Notify When Run is toggled off
Hit done and choose the shortcut you just made (Background Sounds Off) To enable an Automation that turns off Background noises (left) first, create a Shortcut that turns Background Sounds Off (middle). You can change which background sound you want in Settings > Accessiblity > Audio & Visual (right). (Amy Skorheim for Engadget)
Phones running iOS 17 or later have StandBy mode, which displays your choice of stylized clock faces when the handset is charging and oriented horizontally. To enable StandBy: Open Settings
Tap StandBy and toggle it on
Toggle on Night Mode (This makes the clock dimmer when it's dark in the room)
If you put your phone in a stand, it'll look a lot like an alarm clock (and be easier to see from afar). Whether you use a MagSafe wireless stand or a basic stand-and-cord combo, your new alarm clock (aka old phone) will likely be plugged in all the time. So you may want to change your battery settings to keep it from reaching 100 percent. (Being fully charged or fully empty is what strains batteries the most). To do that: Open Settings
Tap Battery
Tap Charging
Set Charge Limit to 80 percent Putting your phone on a stand and plugging it in enables StandBy mode and makes it look like a real alarm clock! (Amy Skorheim for Engadget)
Some people like it when the algorithm tries to keep the party going with related songs after a playlist ends. But, playing random music all night probably isn't great for sleep. The good news is, you can set a timer to have your sleep tunes play for a specified period, so it ends on its own without you having to disable Autoplay across all your devices. Note the length of your playlist
Open the Clock app and tap the Timers tab
Tap When Timer Ends and scroll down to and tap Stop Playing
Tap Set
Open Shortcuts and edit your night time routine by tapping the three dots in the Shortcut card (the one with your playlist and Background sounds)
Search for 'timer'
Tap Start Timer
Enter the length of your playlist in the Duration field
Tap Done
Because the Background Sounds are a setting and not technically media that's playing, your white noise selection will still play until the automation that ends it runs.