How to change the iOS 17 text tone

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iOS 17 has seen countless changes come to the iPhone, and some are more subtle than others. One such change is the default text-tone, with Apple swapping out the classic “Tri-tone” for the much quieter “Rebound." And some people aren’t happy about it

This isn’t to say that Apple doesn’t give you a choice in what text tone you have, and you can change the tone back to Tri-Tone if you want to. Unfortunately, it seems that people aren’t quite aware of this, because the old notification tones now live in their own separate menu. But that hasn’t stopped people from complaining about how quiet Rebound is compared to the old default option.

Users have been expressing their displeasure on Twitter/X, declaring the new tone to be “weird”, “horrendous” or that the new sound is “like a submarine now." Another user even went so far as to claim the tone makes them feel like they were on a call that just hung up. Various threads on Reddit have some of the same complaints, with one user hoping that Apple CEO Tim Cook misses his notifications so that users get the option to change back.

If you’re one of the people that really doesn’t like Rebound, or any of the other standard text tones in iOS 17, here’s how you can change the sound back to the old hard-to-miss jingle.

Just be aware that this change won’t apply to all third-party apps, but changing some tones to something that’s easier to hear is better than nothing.

1. Head to settings > Sound & Haptics

how to change text tone to classic in ios 17

Your first step is to open the Settings menu and tap the Sounds & Haptics option

2. Tap Text Tone > Classic

From there open up the Text Tone menu, and scroll down to the very bottom of the page and tap the Classic option

3. Pick the Tri-Tone option

This page has all the old iPhone notification tones that existed pre-iOS 17. They’re in alphabetical order, so scroll down to the bottom and select Tri-Tone.

With that you should get text messages coming through with the old Tri-Tone sounds, or whatever other tone you might end up picking instead. After all, there are 20 new ring and text tones in iOS 17, plus all the options you had before the upgrade.

It should be significantly easier to find a sound that ensure you hear a notification pop-up — assuming you haven’t switched your phone into silent mode.

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Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.