iOS 26 Will Finally Let Us Get Rid of the Dreadful 9-Minute Snooze

CNET

3 days ago

In 2007, Apple launched the iPhone, a monumental device that became synonymous with the advancement of mobile technology. At the time, the iPhone included the 9-minute snooze, a dreadful and outdated alarm feature. While the latest iPhones are bezel-free, can shoot 4K videos in slow-motion and have face recognition, the 9-minute snooze persists -- until iOS 26.
The tech giant announced the next iPhone update at its Worldwide Developers Conference 2025, and the software upgrade will bring a lot of new features to your iPhone when Apple releases it later this year, like new tools in Messages and a new Games app. But the company could also loosen its grip on your alarm's snooze duration in your Clock app in the software. In the iOS 26 developer beta, you can set your default snooze duration to anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes. After messing around in the developer beta, this is one of my favorite tweaks. I should note that the developer beta of iOS 26 is an early version of the software that is specifically aimed at software developers. This means that part of it could change over the coming months, including this new snooze feature.
But first, why does snooze last 9 minutes? According to CNET's sister site Mashable, the snooze button was introduced to alarm clocks in the mid-1950s, and the snooze duration was -- that's right -- 9 minutes. It was supposedly easier on the hardware to set the snooze duration to a single digit as opposed to a double digit. Thus, the wretched 9-minute snooze was born.
The 9-minute snooze also has some scientific backing. Science says 9 minutes might be an ideal snooze time before we fall back into a deep slumber.
This is an early version of iOS 26 aimed at developers. The Snooze Duration menu could look different in the final version of iOS 26.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
"In terms of sleep, 9 minutes is just enough time for a brief rest," Holly Schiff, a licensed clinical psychologist, told Reader's Digest. "Once you get past the 10-minute mark, your body can start to fall back into a deep sleep, which will make waking up again difficult and more unpleasant."
However, it's 2025: My iPhone can stream videos from Netflix, play games from Xbox Game Pass and Android devices can set snooze for 10 minutes, so we know we can leave those 9 minutes in the past. As for health science, it would probably say I should do a lot of things, like eat more vegetables and less cheese. My doctor hasn't mentioned my cheese intake at my annual checkup, so will one more minute of snooze really be that detrimental? I don't think so.
But at the end of the day, my true reason for loving this change is not nearly as nuanced: This tweak makes my brain happy because in my mind, 9 is an uncomfortable number for me.
For starters, nine is an odd number, and everyone knows that even numbers are superior to odd numbers. The only exception to this rule is any odd increment of five, which are honorary even numbers, as everyone also knows. Is nine divisible by five? No. Strike one.
Next, despite nine being an odd number, it isn't even a prime number. In fact, it's the only single-digit odd number that isn't also a prime number, so it's even weirder. That's strike two.
And why would you pick nine when 10 is right there? There's a reason people say, "On a scale from 1 to 10," and not, "On a scale from 1 to 9." See how weird that sounds?
So now whenever I make an alarm in the iOS 26 developer beta, I'm changing my alarm's snooze duration to 10 minutes. It's an even number, and in my head it's a nice, smooth number that makes my brain happy. And isn't that really what snoozing is all about?
Think of it like this: If you had to manually set a snooze timer, how long would you set it for? I'd bet almost everyone would pick some increment of five. Absolutely no one would pick 9 minutes, except maybe some clock enthusiasts and whatever mad scientist at Apple made it the default for all these years.
Is 10 minutes a scientifically better snooze time than 9 minutes? Probably not. Will it leave me in the same trap of just barely falling back asleep only to be abruptly woken up once more? Most likely. Am I relieved at the thought of snoozing for a number of minutes that is comfier for my brain? Absolutely.
It's also nice to have the option to set it for a shorter time, like five minutes, so if you want a couple more minutes to wake up, you don't risk actually falling asleep again.
Since this is a developer beta, I recommend downloading it only on something other than your primary device. Because this isn't the final version of iOS 26, the update might be buggy and battery life may be short, so it's best to keep those troubles on a secondary device.
Note that the beta is not the final version of iOS 26, so there could be more features to land on your iPhone when iOS 26 is released. Apple wrote on its site that iOS 26 will be released to the general public this fall, but there's no word on an exact date. Until then, iOS 18 users are stuck with the horrid 9-minute snooze.
For more on Apple, here's what you need to know about iOS 26 and everything the company announced at WWDC 2025.