I keep my iPhone on silent all the time because I hate repeated alerts from messaging apps, but I worry I’ll miss important phone calls in doing so. I’d love to keep my ringtone volume up to hear these, while lowering the volume for those annoying message notifications. That just hasn’t been possible on iPhone—at least, until iOS 27. As spotted by eagle-eyed Reddit users, you can now set up custom volume levels for different types of alerts in Apple’s upcoming iPhone update. Here’s how.

How to set custom volume levels for notifications in iOS 27

Credit: Pranay Parab

To set this up right away, you’re going to have to install the iOS 27 developer beta, as iOS 27 won’t be out until the fall. I don’t recommend this for most people, and instead suggest waiting until iOS 27 is released to the general public, or at least until Apple releases the public beta next month. If you proceed with installing the developer beta, be prepared to deal with an unstable version of iOS, and the risk of bricking your phone or losing all data. Once you’re on iOS 27, however, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics on your iPhone.

2. Under “Alarms and Timers,” turn off Match Ringtone Volume. This lets you set a custom volume level for alarms and timers.

3. Use the volume slider below this option to set your desired level. Note that moving the slider all the way to the left reduces the volume of alerts significantly, but it does not mute alerts entirely.

4. Next, under “Alerts and System Sounds,” turn off Match Ringtone Volume. This will delink notification sounds from the system volume level.

5. Use the slider under this button to set your preferred volume level for notification sounds.

6. At the top of this page, you can use the slider to set a custom volume for your ringtone, too.

With these changes, you can set volume levels individually for the three types of alerts. Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t yet introduced per-app volume controls in iOS 27. If you want to set a louder volume level specifically for YouTube or Netflix and a softer one for WhatsApp, you’re out of luck. I hope Apple has per-app volume controls in the roadmap, as it’s the next stage for the feature I’ve covered here.