A woman called out a new iPhone 15 feature after she discovered the real reason she’s been sleeping in: The alarm was on silent.
TikTok user Elizabeth (@elizabethannswenson) posts videos about mental wellness, pre-law, and life in your 20s. Recently, she posted a video excoriating Apple for its latest iPhone features.
“I just discovered something I have been suspecting, but now know for sure. Why have I been sleeping through alarms since getting an iPhone 15?” she says in the video, which has amassed more than 8.2 million views. She reveals in the video’s text overlay the reason why: “iPhone 15 alarms are silent.”
Elizabeth discovered the issue after setting a timer on her phone after cooking a meal. “I take my crockpot meal out to set on the counter to cool off a little bit before I put it in the fridge so that it doesn’t crack—because I think that might happen,” she says. “So I set a little five to 10 minute alarm to remind myself to go put it in the fridge. I fall asleep.”
But did Elizabeth wake up to her iPhone alarm in a mere 5 to 10 minutes? No. “I wake up at 6am with this alarm going off in like the lowest volume known to man. Singing to itself,” Elizabeth says.
To make matters worse, Elizabeth says she was previously concerned about the volume of her alarm, and had in fact double checked to ensure it was at the highest possible setting. “The phone was primed to have this sound go off,” she says, outraged. “I do some Googling. This is a thing. I don’t know why Apple decided to optimize our alarms and timers. I’m sorry, did we ask? I love how Apple used to really care about meeting our needs.”
“Whatever. You need to go to your settings, go to Face ID, and passcode,” Elizabeth says. “And in there, you need to turn off something related to attention. Because, I guess, if your phone thinks you know about this alarm, … it will turn the volume down. Why? That makes me want to get violent, because, like, Apple, are you trying to get people fired? That is so beyond serious. Play with any other part of the phone.”
Elizabeth also notes that her crock pot meal is likely ruined. “Do I have to throw it out?” she asks. “I think I do.”
@elizabethannswenson Turn off “attention aware features” inside of face id and passcode #iphone15pro #iphonealarm ♬ original sound – Elizabeth
In the comments, viewers shared their own observations about and frustrations with the change.
“Is THAT why my damn alarms are soooooo quiet?? God I thought I was losing my mind!” reads one top comment. Elizabeth responded, “Ok I fixed the setting yesterday, and today that alarm was on FULL BLAST.”
Another user suggested, “Y’all need to download alarmy. I started sleeping through apple alarms years ago and so I downloaded alarmy and have had no problems ever since. She has never failed me.”
One user wrote, “I feel like suing for my missed time at work because this has been happening to me since April. It’s NOT just the 15.”
Another user said this issue is they pick up their phone while still asleep. “My alarms turn themselves off if it recognizes that I looked at my phone, which isn’t great because I pick my phone up and set it back down while STILL ASLEEP. Who told you I was ‘aware’ … I am not,” they wrote.
Three years ago, a Reddit user posed a question about this very issue and was directed to the “attention aware” setting. Users on that thread also expressed frustration about missing work due to the feature.
According to Apple, “attention aware” is a feature on iPhone X or later that does indeed use facial recognition to determine if you’re paying attention to your phone. If it determines that you are, it will lower the volume on your alerts.
The Daily Dot reached out to Elizabeth via email for comment.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
