Best tinnitus masking apps in 2026: what to look for
No app on this page does anything to tinnitus. What a sound app can do is hold a steady sound in the background, which many people with tinnitus use to make the ringing less noticeable, and controlled trials of sound therapy have not shown it beats a placebo. So the useful way to compare apps is by their controls: how finely the volume moves at the quiet end, whether there’s a timer you set yourself, and how much of the sound’s pitch you can change by ear.
We make one of the four. Slo has 200+ sounds in its iPhone, Android and Mac apps, with 89 free; 180 sounds play in a browser at slonoise.com, free and with no account. Slo has no tinnitus frequency matching, and the section below says where it loses to the others.
Read this before the list
Some tinnitus wants an appointment before it wants a download. Sudden onset, ringing in one ear only, a beat that keeps time with your heartbeat, or a drop in hearing are all reasons to get it looked at instead of covered up, and why tinnitus gets worse at night goes into those in more detail. A primary care doctor is the place to start, on the advice of the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, partly because a blocked ear canal is quick for someone to rule out. If your real question is what to do about tinnitus over the coming months and not just how to get through tonight, ask an audiologist about cognitive behavioral therapy, which carries stronger clinical support than sound. None of the four apps here is a medical device, ours included.
A note on prices. Every app on this page changes its pricing, and several sell a one-time purchase whose amount differs by storefront. We checked the listings on 2 August 2026 and describe the model rather than a number, because a number goes stale within weeks. Check your own store page before you buy.
Slo, the browser-first option
Slo opens in a browser tab, which makes it the cheapest way to find out whether a masking sound suits you at all. Each sound has its own player with a volume control and a timer, and the mixer runs several sounds at once with a level on each. The apps for iOS, Android and Mac are there for people who want it on a phone.
Slo has no per-frequency shaping and no tinnitus frequency matching. It doesn’t measure your hearing and makes no claim about changing it. The app has 200+ sounds, 89 free, while all 180 browser sounds are free; check what your plan covers.
Try white noise, brown noise or rain in the browser first.
myNoise, for spectrum control
myNoise does the one thing Slo can’t, and for masking it’s the one worth having. Its soundscapes hand you a row of sliders across the pitch range, so you can lift the part where your ringing sits and pull the rest down until it suits you. Slo’s mixer balances whole sounds against each other, which is a blunter tool for this.
The listing on 2 August 2026 shows a free download with a one-time in-app purchase and no subscription. Stéphane Pigeon records and calibrates the soundscapes himself, and the app carries several hundred.
The catch is the interface, which asks more of you. A row of sliders is exactly the sort of thing an anxious listener will sit and adjust at 3am, when the point was to stop adjusting things.
Dark Noise, if you live on Apple devices
Dark Noise is the Apple-only one, and the automation is the reason to pick it. It carries 50+ sounds, custom mixes and a fade-out timer, plus Shortcuts, Siri and widget support, so a bedside sound can start from a voice command or one tap in Control Center rather than an unlocked phone and a hunt for the right screen. The listing on 2 August 2026 shows a free download with a small free sound set, and a Pro tier sold either as a subscription or as a one-time lifetime purchase. There is no Android version.
White Noise, the one-time purchase option
White Noise by TMSOFT runs on iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows, layers sounds on a mix pad, and comes with an alarm and a library of recordings other users uploaded. The developer states plainly on its own site, checked 2 August 2026, that there is no subscription: a free Lite version carries ads, and a single payment removes them and adds more. If you expect to play something most nights for years, paying once works out cheaper than renting.
How we judged them
| What we looked at | Why it matters for masking |
|---|---|
| quiet-end volume control | the level you want sits near the bottom of the slider |
| timer | a masking sound needs a stopping point you choose |
| layering | two quiet sounds can sit lower than one loud one |
| spectrum shaping | lets you lift the pitch where your ringing sits and leave the rest alone |
| pricing model | a nightly habit outlives most subscriptions |
We didn’t score sound quality, because that’s a preference and not a measurement. We didn’t rank the apps by store ratings either, since a rating tells you how people feel about an app and nothing about tinnitus.
Questions people ask
Which app is best for tinnitus masking?
None of them is best for tinnitus, because none of them acts on tinnitus. myNoise gives you the most control over the pitch of the sound, and the browser players are the quickest thing to try because nothing installs. Pick on the controls and on what you can stand listening to for an hour.
Do any of these apps do notched or frequency-matched therapy?
No. None of the four matches a sound to the pitch of your ringing, and Slo has no frequency matching either. A consumer player is not the clinical intervention a guideline describes, so take a frequency-matching question to an audiologist.
Is there a free tinnitus masking app?
Enough of one to find out whether steady sound helps you. myNoise, Dark Noise and White Noise all download free and charge for the full version, and the 180 browser players at slonoise.com run free with no account. A week on a free tier tells you more than any list will.
Does paying more get you a better masking sound?
No evidence says so. A higher price buys a bigger library and a nicer interface, and that is all it buys.
Could I use a speaker or a fan instead of an app?
Often, yes. A fan across the room or a small bluetooth speaker covers the same ground, and a phone speaker is the one thing to avoid for a deep rumble, which it cannot carry. What an app adds is a timer, fine volume control at the quiet end and the same sound every night. Keep your alarm audible whatever you play it through.
Read next
- Sound masking for tinnitus sets out what masking is, how loud to set it, and what the research stops short of.
- White noise vs brown noise for tinnitus helps you pick which of the two to start from.
- How to sleep with tinnitus walks through the bedtime routine one step at a time.
- Why tinnitus gets worse at night explains what changes once the house goes quiet.
Sources
- App Store listing for myNoise, checked 2 August 2026: myNoise on the App Store
- Pricing model stated by the myNoise developer, checked 2 August 2026: myNoise blog
- App Store listing for Dark Noise, checked 2 August 2026: Dark Noise on the App Store
- Pricing model stated by the White Noise developer, checked 2 August 2026: tmsoft.com white noise page
- Cochrane review of sound therapy for tinnitus, Sereda and colleagues 2018: CD013094
- Tinnitus page at the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Explore more sounds in Slo
Stack two or three sounds, keep the blend, and let the timer stop it. Slo, on iOS, Android and Mac.
