When you go to the Find Me app and select the “play sound” option for an iOS / iPadOS 16 device, you’ll now be greeted with what sounds like an electronic xylophone, instead of the ping sound that played in iOS 15 and before. . The change also applies to when you ask your Apple Watch to ping your phone for you, except the sound plays once instead of over and over. One of my colleagues described the new sound as louder and easier to hear, but I’ll let you judge for yourself how it sounds. Let me just say: I think this sound is much better than the old one. While iOS 15’s radar-like pings are a thematically appropriate soundtrack while searching for a lost phone, the new sound feels fun and playful, like my phone is doing the “here I am, come find me” dance. What I don’t like so much is the new Siri activation sound. While Siri’s classic two-point activation beep is briefly missing (when I say “hey Siri” or hold down the power button on your phone, Siri waits only a moment before uttering a slightly creepy “huh?” or ” hmm ?”), there’s one more place I hear it: when activating the voice assistant while using CarPlay. Now, that tone has been replaced with a softer bong, which I find less interesting. While I like the sound, I don’t I’m a big fan of the fact that it makes me second-guess whether Siri is actually listening while I’m trying to keep my eyes on the road. If you’ve made it this far in history, I think it’s safe to assume you’re interested in the sounds phones make to alert the people using them that something is up. If this is the case, you might want to check out our incredible article detailing the history of Nokia’s famous ringtones.
