You're Not Crazy, Your iPhone Is Making Strange Noises

Apple hasn't really changed notification sounds on the iPhone since iOS 7. So how come you hear strange pings, plunks, and doots coming from your iOS device? No, it's not an app you downloaded (although third-party apps can have their own notification sounds). Instead, what you're experiencing is likely the result of updating your iPhone to iOS 13.

The latest iOS update comes with over 200 new features, not to mention over 20 additional changes that iOS 13.1 brings to the table. Among these changes is a new suite of sounds for Tapback, an iMessage feature introduced in iOS 10. If you don't know Tapback by name, you know it by experience — they're reaction options available in Messages to Love, Like, Dislike, Laugh, Emphasize, and Question.

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The six Tapback reactions.

In the past, Tapback notifications would use the same notification sound as your other messages, and would even arrive silently when in chats. With iOS 13, however, each Tapback has its own, unique alert tone. What you're hearing are the three-pings of someone "loving" your message, the "boing" of a "question" reaction, or any of the other four new reaction alerts. Apple uses these sounds both in-chat and throughout iOS, so you can quickly distinguish between a true message and a simple Tapback reaction.

If you aren't a fan of these new sounds, tough luck. True to form, Apple doesn't include a way to customize the alert tones for Tapback, nor does it provide an option to mute them entirely. If you don't want to hear Tapback outside of Messages, you'll need to disable sounds for all Messages notifications, which is a bit much if you ask me.

A less drastic measure? Just silence your iPhone with the mute switch.

Cover image and screenshot by Jake Peterson/Gadget Hacks