In 2007, Apple launched the iPhone, a monumental machine that grew to become synonymous with the development of cell expertise. At the moment, it additionally included a dreadful alarm function: the nine-minute snooze. The most recent iPhones are bezel-free, can shoot 4K movies in slow-motion and we are able to unlock these units by taking a look at them, simply to call just a few of the various developments which have been remodeled 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 continued — till iOS 26.
The tech large introduced the following iPhone replace at its Worldwide Builders Convention 2025, and the software program improve will convey plenty of new options to your iPhone when Apple releases it later this yr, like new instruments in Messages and a brand new Video 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 wherever between one and quarter-hour. After messing round within the developer beta, that is certainly one of my favourite tweaks. I ought to observe 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 accordance with CNET’s sister web site Mashable, the snooze button was launched to alarm clocks within the mid-Nineteen 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 is perhaps 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 Period menu might look totally different within the closing model of iOS 26.
“When it comes to sleep, 9 minutes is simply sufficient time for a short relaxation,” Holly Schiff, a licensed medical psychologist, informed Reader’s Digest. “When you get previous the 10-minute mark, your physique can begin to fall again right into a deep sleep, which can make waking up once more troublesome and extra disagreeable.”
Nonetheless, it is 2025: My iPhone can stream movies from Netflix, play video games from Xbox Sport Cross and Android units can set snooze for 10 minutes, so we all know we are able to go away the nine-minutes prior to now. As for well being science, it could most likely say I ought to do plenty of issues, like eat extra greens and fewer cheese. My physician hasn’t talked about my cheese consumption at my annual checkup, so will yet one more minute of snooze actually be that detrimental? I do not suppose so.
However on the finish of the day, my true purpose for loving this modification is just not almost as nuanced: This tweak makes my mind completely satisfied 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 correct 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 at any time when 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 completely satisfied. And is not that basically what snoozing is all about?
Consider it like this: Should you needed to manually set a sleep timer, how lengthy would you set it for? I would wager virtually everybody would choose some increment of 5. Completely nobody would choose 9, besides perhaps some clock lovers 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? Most likely 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? Most certainly. Am I relieved on the considered snoozing for numerous 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’d like 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 apart from your main machine. As a result of this is not the ultimate model of iOS 26, the replace is perhaps buggy and battery life could also be brief, so it is best to maintain these troubles on a secondary machine.
Notice that the beta is just not the ultimate model of iOS 26, so there might be extra options to land in your iPhone when iOS 26 is launched. Apple wrote on its web site that iOS 26 can be launched to most people this fall, however there isn’t any phrase on an actual date. Till then, iOS 18 customers are caught with the horrid nine-minute snooze.
For extra on Apple, this is what it is advisable to learn about iOS 26 and every part the corporate introduced at WWDC 2025.