Serenity app icon

Serenity: White Noise

White noise for sleeping, synthesized in real time.

Privacy Policy

What it does

Serenity plays six noise textures — Static White, Pink Noise, Deep Rain, Ocean Waves, Night Wind and Fan / Air — with a sleep timer from five minutes to four hours, or no timer at all.

Nothing in the app is a recording. Every texture is generated live from noise and filters, which is why there is no loop point to notice at three in the morning, nothing to download, and the whole app is under two megabytes.

A look at it

Swipe or scroll sideways.

The main screen playing Ocean Waves, with 59 minutes 55 seconds remaining on a glowing green timer ring.
Playing. The ring drains as the timer runs down, and the whole screen takes its colour from the texture.
Deep Rain selected in the texture grid, with the interface tinted blue.
Six textures. Each one retints everything — Deep Rain is blue, Night Wind violet, Ocean teal.
Night Wind selected, the timer ring part-way round after being dragged.
Drag the ring for any length between five minutes and four hours. The presets are shortcuts, not the only way in.
The settings sheet open, showing a Fade out toggle switched on and a Rate Serenity row.
Fade-out eases the final minute into silence instead of stopping dead.
The first-run tutorial, showing the words Drag the ring with Next and Skip buttons.
A two-page intro on first open, skippable, then never shown again.

Common questions

Does the sound keep playing when I lock my phone?

Yes. That is what the app is for. Lock the phone and playback continues; the Lock Screen shows the texture name, a countdown of the time left, and a play/pause button you can use without unlocking.

How do I set a length that isn't one of the presets?

Drag the ring around the countdown. It sets any duration from five minutes to four hours in five-minute steps. The presets are just shortcuts.

What does the fade-out setting do?

With fade-out on, the final minute eases down to silence instead of stopping abruptly. Find it behind the gear in the top-right corner.

If I pause, do I lose my remaining time?

No. Pausing keeps its place, and playing again continues from where you stopped. If you want to start a fresh full duration, tap a duration preset or drag the ring.

Why does the volume not match my other apps?

All six textures are matched to the same measured loudness, so switching between them changes the character of the sound and not how loud it is. Use the in-app volume slider for fine control and your phone's volume buttons for the rest.

The sound stopped when I got a phone call.

That is intended — the call interrupts playback, and Serenity resumes when the call ends. The sleep timer carries on against the time you originally set rather than starting over, so ten minutes on the phone does not buy you ten extra minutes of noise.

Can I use it with headphones?

Yes. If headphones are disconnected mid-playback the app pauses rather than switching to the speaker, so it will not suddenly play out loud.

Does it need an internet connection?

No. Serenity makes no network calls of any kind and works entirely offline, including in Airplane Mode.

Accessibility

Every control is labelled for VoiceOver, and the app respects Reduce Motion — with it enabled, the breathing glow holds steady instead of pulsing. This page does the same thing, for the same reason.

The app is dark-only by design. It is meant to be opened in a dark room at night, and a light mode would be a mode nobody opens.

Still stuck?

Email daniel.li.work@gmail.com and include your iPhone model and iOS version. If the problem is with sound stopping, it also helps to know whether the screen was locked and whether anything else was playing audio at the time.