How to make your iPhone alarm sound at full volume even when your calls are muted

One really annoying thing about the iPhone is how alarm and ringer volumes have always been linked. If you turn down the ringer volume, there’s a good chance you’ll oversleep the next morning. But Apple seems to have listened to its users after numerous complaints and finally added an independent volume control for alarms and timers in iOS 27. All you need to do is change a single setting on your iPhone, that is, of course, once you update your iPhone to the new operating system.

It’s generally a good idea to set alarm sounds to a high volume, but have some flexibility with the volume level of ringtones and alerts. The good news is that iOS 27 adds more control over the volume of every part of the system. You can now change this in the Sounds and haptics menu inside Settings on your iPhone. As you will see, there are many new options available. Simply disable Match ringtone volume in the Alarms and timers section. It really is that simple.

Disabling this option brings up a new slider for adjusting the volume of alarms and timers. The next time you adjust the ringtone volume, your alarms will not be affected. So you can sleep without worrying that your iPhone will silently (or silently) alert next to you.

There are also other volume settings that you can now control with iOS 27. Would you like system alerts, such as notifications and keyboard sounds, to also have a fixed volume? Simply turn off the toggle in this section and you’re ready to go. This is a great feature when you need a loud alarm but don’t want notifications to distract you.

That’s not all. You can even choose whether you want the volume buttons to affect ringtones or just media playback. This isn’t really new to iOS 27, however. However, some users may not realize that this option actually exists.

Undoing these changes is also easy. Just go back to Sounds and haptics settings and re-enable any toggles you previously disabled.

iOS 27 may not seem like a major update at first, but it comes with plenty of small quality-of-life improvements. There’s Siri AI, which attempts to fix whatever was wrong with Apple’s virtual assistant. Not only that, but Liquid Glass also becomes clearer and more readable. Apple has taken feedback on its design improvements seriously this year and is putting more control in the hands of users.

Apple’s major new software releases typically arrive in September alongside new devices, so there’s no exact date for when iOS 27 will be publicly available. However, if you really don’t want to wait, a public beta is also available for download.

Remember: Beta versions can be buggy, so be sure to back up your device and think twice before taking the plunge.