Apple users have been voicing their frustration over iOS's unified audio control system, which groups multiple sound levels under a single master setting. This made managing audio outputs for different things extremely difficult, leading to users missing their alarms and phone calls. Well, that's changing with iOS 27.
iPhone Users Can Now Set Volumes Independently
A highly requested quality-of-life update is finally making its way to iOS, and it gives Apple iPhone users granular controls over system-wide volumes. For starters, we installed iOS 27 on an iPhone 17 and could see independent volume sliders for separate system audio categories. These are located right inside the Sound & Haptics Settings.
One of the iOS 27 features is that it breaks the volumes into different categories, starting with the Ringtone, then Alarms, and System Alerts. There are Match Ringtone Volume toggles in each section, which allow users to sync the respective category's volume with the Ringtone volume.
The default volume action is mapped to Ringtone volume. Therefore, if you want one of these volumes to change with the Ringtone volume, a user may enable the Match Ringtone Volume option to sync with the same. The most common use case for this could be tying up Ringtone and System Notifications.
Each section also has a dedicated horizontal slider accompanied by a "Change with Buttons" toggle that can prevent physical volume keys from altering the ring level. By configuring these settings, iOS users can ensure that they never miss an alarm or a call.
That said, besides volume customisations, iOS 27 also brings an independent Liquid Glass slider, alongside a host of new customisation options. Besides, the update also introduces a new Siri AI with a host of new AI features, which will be rolling out on all the iOS 27 eligible devices.
