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How to enable the iPhone 14 boot chime (and why it’s not available on older devices)

One of the new changes in iOS 16 exclusive to the iPhone 14 lineup is a boot chime that can play when you power on your iPhone; this is the first time Apple has offered a boot chime on the iPhone and you can enable with a few simple steps. There’s also a new chime that can be played when you shut down an iPhone 14.

Why the boot chime is exclusive to iPhone 14

The new startup chime is exclusive to the iPhone 14 lineup, including the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max. It’s not available on the iPhone 13 Pro or any other previous generation iPhones, even if you install iOS 16.

This is because the boot chime plays right when the Apple logo shows up when you hold down the side button. When the Apple logo appears, there is no operating system running. Instead, the boot chime is built into the bootrom itself and embedded in the A16 Bionic firmware.

The bootrom is read-only and can’t be modified after the fact, hence, Apple can’t add this boot chime to older iPhones that were manufactured prior to the iPhone 14 lineup. I promise you that Apple is not limiting the boot chime to the iPhone 14 as a way to get you to upgrade.

How to enable the boot chime on iPhone 14

The toggle for the new boot chime is located in the Accessibility menu of the Settings app. At its core, this feature is meant for iPhone 14 users who are blind or low vision. The boot chime gives them a surefire way to tell when their iPhone 14 has turned on, as explained by Steven Aquino on Twitter.

  1. Open Settings
  2. Choose Accessibility
  3. Tap “Audio/Visual” under the “Hearing” menu
  4. Toggle on the “Power on & Off Sounds” option

Once you complete these steps, your iPhone 14 will play a sound when it shuts down and when it powers on.

Note: The first developer beta of iOS 16.1 appears to have a bug that sometimes prevents the boot chime from playing.

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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com