People are freaking out over the iOS 17 text tone — here's how to change it back

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iOS 17's new default tone is controversial, but it can be changed back

iOS 17 logo on iPhone sitting on MacBook keyboard
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

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

(Image: © Future)

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

2. Tap Text Tone > Classic

(Image: © Future)

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

(Image: © Future)

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 Pritchard
Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

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.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Cabo77
    People are not talking about the sound for text messages, rather, the sound for notifications. Totally separate thing. It is now very difficult to hear the default "notification" sound for apps that use the notification center. So anytime we get notifications from various apps like doorbell cameras, security cameras or any other app that uses the notification center, you can't hear them well since the notification sound has been changed in iOS17 (to Rebound) and you can't change it. This is especially difficult for people such as myself that only have 25% hearing in one ear. I have missed numerous notifications since the upgrade.
    Reply
  • Rob Daddy
    admin said:
    iOS 17 has a new default text tone, and it's proving unpopular. Thankfully it can be changed back to the old sound.

    People are freaking out over the iOS 17 text tone — here's how to change it back : Read more
    Here lies in the problem - and I am on the Developer Beta Program:

    You can change it to a different tone, however you LOSE ANY personal tone options that you had. Example: I tried to change mine back to the original tone. No problem. When I tried to change it to a tone that I made myelf, those tone options are unavailable. You can ONLY change the tone to one of the DEFAULT options. If you do NOT change your TEXT TONE sound, it will stay the same - the tones are still on tour phone. So - if you can deal with the NOTIFICATION tone change and WANT to KEEP your personal (made yourself) tone the option is no longer there... ONLY one of the default/Apple Provided tones are available... AND... you cannot change it BACK!. So, do NOT try to change the NOTIFICATION tone via changing the (for one example) text tones unless you want to LOSE ALL of the options to change it to your OWN text tones... as it will change ALL of them to the default tone that you choos. I am currently in conversation with Apple about this - and hopefullt this will change in the future.
    Reply
  • tingtongposhka
    admin said:
    iOS 17 has a new default text tone, and it's proving unpopular. Thankfully it can be changed back to the old sound.

    People are freaking out over the iOS 17 text tone — here's how to change it back : Read more
    Solved : QcAawzBiByoView: https://youtu.be/QcAawzBiByo?si=XHiMuSnPIYgopjmG
    Reply
  • bcojoe
    Well written article, but unfortunately it's almost completely inaccurate... Or at the very least, irrelevant to what anyone is upset about. NOBODY is complaining about the new text tone, because it CAN be changed back. That's the one thing you were correct on. The old text tone was Note, not Tri-Tone as you said. The new text tone is Droplet (I think... I already changed it back to Note), not Rebound as you said. The old notification sound (which is 100% the issue everyone is complaining about, and 0% the topic of your article) was Tri-Tone, and the new notification sound is Rebound. And it CANNOT be changed.

    My upgrade to iOS 17 was via the beta program, so these changes occurred for me a week prior to the release of iOS 17, when I got the iOS 17 RC. I assume everyone else's text sound changed along with their notification sound changing when they upgraded to iOS 17, but since it oddly still showed Note as the default in settings, I wasn't sure about that.
    Reply
  • MamasBoyz
    There are indeed original iOS sounds missing since the 17 update. I was using “Sonar” for messages/texts the past several years and stopped getting sounds alerts for these. I checked notification settings for messages and it showed Sonar on the first screen but when I selected that to go further into the menu, Sonar was no longer listed. I scrolled through all the other options but didn’t like any and backed out, but it saved the last sound I selected so I went back in a selected the best I could for now but none of the current sounds available are as good for me as Sonar. Go check it for yourself, it’s gone! It is available for a “phone” sound, but no longer available for messages. I almost think this had to be a mistake. 😠
    Reply