Best Brown Noise Apps

Seven options for iPhone and Android, with our pick first, and every app compared on what its own store listing states.

The Short Answer: Pick by What You Need

Our pick for most people is BRW. After that, choose by the one constraint that matters most to you:

• Our pick — BRW: built around brown noise first, with white, pink, blue and green as well. It plays fully offline, has a sleep timer that fades out, mixes brown noise with rain, ocean or a fan, and shows no ads label on Google Play. It is free on both Android and iPhone, and it holds a 4.51 rating from 541 ratings on Google Play.
• You want brown noise first, on Android or iPhone, with no ads: BRW (the app from this site) or myNoise. Both name brown noise in their listing, say they play offline, and carry no ads label on Google Play.
• You never want a subscription: myNoise. Its listing says one purchase unlocks everything for life. Dark Noise also sells a one-time lifetime unlock beside its other options.
• You only use Apple devices and want widgets and Shortcuts: Dark Noise. It needs iOS 26 or later, and it has no Android version.
• You do not want to install anything on an iPhone: Background Sounds, built into iOS. Apple's support page does not name a brown noise option, so try its sounds before you rely on it.
• You want sleep stories and meditation as well as sound: Calm or BetterSleep. Neither listing names brown noise.
• You want the largest free library and accept ads: White Noise Lite. The paid TMSOFT versions remove the ads.

How This Comparison Was Checked

BRW is listed first as our pick. Every fact about every app, including BRW, comes from the developer's own store listing, the “Contains ads” label on Google Play, or Apple's support documentation, checked on 24 September 2026 in the US stores. After BRW, the other apps are listed alphabetically. When a listing does not state a feature, the table says Not stated.

All Seven Apps, Side by Side

Ratings are the public store averages with the number of ratings in brackets, taken on the day in the caption. Store ratings move every day, so treat them as a snapshot.

Not stated means the developer's own listing does not say it. It does not mean the feature is missing. The app may have it and not advertise it.

Each App in One Paragraph

Our pick first, then in the same order as the table, with a link to each store listing so you can check the claims yourself.

BRW — Brown Noise for Sleep — Our Pick

On Android it is Brown Noise, Sleep Sounds: BRW, with more than 20,000 installs and a Google Play rating of 4.51 from 541 ratings. On iPhone and iPad it is Brown Noise for Sleep: Brw. It launched on the App Store in August 2026 and has no ratings there yet.

Its listings name brown noise first, plus white, pink, blue and green noise. They state offline play, a sleep timer that fades out, and mixing with rain, ocean and other sounds. Google Play shows no ads label. The download is free, and premium sounds are in-app purchases. You can try brown noise in the free player at the top of this page before you install anything.

Apple Background Sounds

Not an app but a setting: Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Background Sounds, also reachable from Control Center. It needs iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, and it works on Mac and Apple Vision Pro. On iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe it gained a timer and an equalizer.

Apple's support page names ocean, rain and "bright noise" sounds, but it does not name a brown noise option. It is the right first try for an iPhone owner who does not want another app. It is the wrong choice if you need Android, or a sound you can check is brown noise.

BetterSleep

A large sleep app with a sleep tracker, stories and guided meditation, where sounds are one part of the product. Its listing mentions timers and saved mixes. It does not name brown noise, so check its library before you pay for the premium subscription.

Calm

The best-known sleep and meditation app of the seven, and the one with the most ratings. Its listing says "there are never any ads", with some content free and the rest in a paid subscription. It does not name brown noise, a timer or mixing. Choose it for its stories and meditations, not as a noise machine.

Dark Noise

An Apple-only app known for its design and its deep system integration: its listing mentions custom mixes, a fade-out timer, voice start and home screen widgets. The download is free. The Pro unlock is an in-app purchase, including a $49.99 lifetime option. It now needs iOS 26 or later, so an older iPhone cannot install the current version.

Its listing does not name brown noise. It has no Android version. A Google Play app called "Dark Noise: Relax & Sleep" comes from a different developer.

myNoise

Built by a research engineer, with a set of sliders on every soundscape so you can shape the sound band by band. Its "White Noise & Co" soundscape covers white, brown, green, grey and pink noise. The listing states offline listening, no ads and no subscription: one purchase unlocks everything for life. It does not mention a sleep timer.

White Noise Lite (TMSOFT)

One of the oldest apps in the category: the first version shipped for the original iPhone. It has a very large sound list that includes Brown Noise, a Mix Pad for building your own soundscapes, and an alarm and timer system that fades sound in and out. The Lite version shows ads. The paid versions, White Noise and White Noise Pro, remove them.

What No Store Listing Will Tell You

Three things decide whether a brown noise app is any good, and none of them appear in a listing. First, the loop: a short recording that repeats every few seconds becomes audible once you notice it, and then you cannot stop noticing it. Second, whether it is real brown noise, with power that falls steeply as pitch rises, or white noise with the treble turned down. Third, how much bass survives the speaker you actually use.

Test for all three with headphones, for five minutes, before you pay for anything. The two-minute test for any brown noise app explains what to listen for. What brown noise is explains why the bass matters.

Try Brown Noise Before You Install Anything

The player at the top of this page plays brown noise in your browser, free, with no account. If you already know you like it and want it offline, on a timer, with the screen off, BRW is the app from the same maker. It is free on both stores.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related pages

• Brown Noise App — Which brown noise app to install, whether it is really free, and the five things an installed app does that a browser tab is not allowed to.
• Brown Noise — The deepest colour, measured at −5.98 dB per octave — best for traffic rumble and long overnight sessions.
• Best White Noise Apps — Nine white noise apps compared on their store listings, with the research on what white noise can do.
• Best Sound Mixing Apps — Eight ambient sound mixer apps compared on layers, per-sound control, saved mixes, ads and price.
• Best Tinnitus Masking Apps — Nine tinnitus apps compared on their store listings, next to what NICE, the AAO-HNSF guideline and Cochrane say about sound therapy.
• Brown Noise for Tinnitus — Masking versus habituation, why the pitch of your tinnitus decides the colour, and where sound therapy actually sits in the 2014 clinical guideline.
• Brown Noise Generator — A real brown noise generator in the browser: built live at a measured -5.98 dB per octave, with no file and no loop point.
• Sound Masking — Masking does not block sound. It raises the floor so the sound stops standing out — and the colour has to match the intrusion.