In 2007, Apple launched the iPhone, a monumental gadget that grew to become synonymous with the development of cell know-how. At the moment, it additionally included a dreadful alarm function: the nine-minute snooze. The newest iPhones are bezel-free, can shoot 4K movies in slow-motion and we will unlock these gadgets by them, simply to call a couple of of the various developments which were revamped the previous 18 years. These iPhones are a far cry from the unique mannequin Apple launched in 2007, and but the alarm’s nine-minute snooze has endured — till iOS 26.
The tech big introduced the following iPhone replace at its Worldwide Developers Conference 2025, and the software program improve will carry a whole lot of new options to your iPhone when Apple releases it later this 12 months, like new instruments in Messages and a brand new Games app. However the firm might additionally loosen its grip in your alarm’s snooze period in your Clock app within the software program. Within the iOS 26 developer beta, you possibly can set your default snooze period to anyplace between one and quarter-hour. After messing round within the developer beta, that is one among my favourite tweaks. I ought to be aware that the developer beta of iOS 26 is an early model of the software program that’s particularly aimed toward software program builders. Which means a part of it might change over the approaching months, together with this new snooze function.
However first, why does snooze final 9 minutes? In response to CNET’s sister web site Mashable, the snooze button was launched to alarm clocks within the mid-Fifties, and the snooze period was — that is proper — 9 minutes. It was supposedly simpler on the {hardware} to set the snooze period to a single digit versus a double digit. Thus, the wretched nine-minute snooze was born.
The nine-minute snooze additionally has some scientific backing. Science says 9 minutes may be an excellent snooze time earlier than we fall again right into a deep slumber.
That is an early model of iOS 26 aimed toward builders. The Snooze Length menu might look totally different within the ultimate model of iOS 26.
“By way of sleep, 9 minutes is simply sufficient time for a short relaxation,” Holly Schiff, a licensed scientific psychologist, advised Reader’s Digest. “When you get previous the 10-minute mark, your physique can begin to fall again right into a deep sleep, which is able to make waking up once more tough and extra disagreeable.”
Nonetheless, it is 2025: My iPhone can stream movies from Netflix, play video games from Xbox Game Pass and Android gadgets can set snooze for 10 minutes, so we all know we will go away the nine-minutes up to now. As for well being science, it will most likely say I ought to do a whole lot of issues, like eat extra greens and fewer cheese. My physician hasn’t talked about my cheese consumption at my annual checkup, so will another minute of snooze actually be that detrimental? I do not assume so.
However on the finish of the day, my true purpose for loving this alteration just isn’t almost as nuanced: This tweak makes my mind pleased as a result of in my thoughts, 9 is an uncomfortable quantity for me.
For starters, 9’s an odd quantity, and everybody is aware of that even numbers are superior to odd numbers. The one exception to this rule is any odd increment of 5, that are honorary even numbers, as everybody additionally is aware of. Is 9 divisible by 5? No. Strike one.
Subsequent, regardless of 9 being an odd quantity, it is not even a first-rate quantity. In actual fact, it is the one single-digit odd quantity that is not additionally a first-rate quantity, so it is even weirder. That is strike two.
And why would you choose 9 when 10 is true there? There is a purpose individuals say, “On a scale from 1 to 10,” and never, “On a scale from 1 to 9.” See how bizarre that sounds?
So now each time I make an alarm within the iOS 26 developer beta, I am altering my alarm’s snooze period to 10 minutes. It is a fair quantity, and in my head it is a good, clean quantity that makes my mind pleased. And is not that actually what snoozing is all about?
Consider it like this: In the event you needed to manually set a sleep timer, how lengthy would you set it for? I would wager nearly everybody would choose some increment of 5. Completely nobody would choose 9, besides perhaps some clock fans and no matter mad scientist at Apple made it the default for all these years.
Is 10 minutes a scientifically higher snooze time than 9 minutes? In all probability not. Will it go away me in the identical entice of simply barely falling again asleep solely to be abruptly woken up as soon as extra? More than likely. Am I relieved on the considered snoozing for quite a lot of minutes that’s comfier for my mind? Completely.
It is also good to have the choice to set it for a shorter time, like 5 minutes, so if you need a pair extra minutes to get up, you do not danger truly falling asleep once more.
Since it is a developer beta, I like to recommend downloading it solely on one thing aside from your main gadget. As a result of this is not the ultimate model of iOS 26, the replace may be buggy and battery life could also be brief, so it is best to maintain these troubles on a secondary gadget.
Observe that the beta just isn’t the ultimate model of iOS 26, so there could possibly be extra options to land in your iPhone when iOS 26 is launched. Apple wrote on its site that iOS 26 can be launched to most people this fall, however there is not any phrase on a precise date. Till then, iOS 18 customers are caught with the horrid nine-minute snooze.
For extra on Apple, this is what you have to find out about iOS 26 and every little thing the corporate introduced at WWDC 2025.
