I have heard that it is possible to command your iphone to listen out for key sounds. Is this actually possible?

Indeed it is. The feature is called Sound Recognition and it resides in the Accessibility section in your IOS Settings app. The main purpose of Sound Recognition is to aid people with hearing difficulties to alert them to everyday noises in their environment, such as doorbells, dog barks or smoke alarms. However, this feature can also help anyone regardless of their hearing ability. For example, you might be listening to music through headphones which is hampering your ability to listen out for key sounds. Here we’ll show you how to set up this feature and get notified whenever key noises are detected.

1 Open the settings

Go to Settings>accessibility and then scroll down to the Hearing section. Here you will see an option called ‘Sound Recognition’; tap on this.

4 Disable Siri

When you set up Sound Recognition, the “Hey Siri” command will be disabled as your iphone needs to listen out for specific noises. Bear this in mind.

2 Turn it on

Move the Sound Recognition switch to the On position and then a new ‘Sounds’ menu will become available. Tap on this to start choosing sounds.

5 Get notifications

Now, whenever your iphone detects the sounds that you have specified, it will send a notification to your device to alert you. Handy if you are unable to listen out yourself.

3 Pick some sounds

The sounds section is divided into various categories, such as Alarms, Animals and Household. Turn on whatever sounds you want your iphone to listen out for.

6 Take action

Now, whenever you see a Sound Recognition notification pop up on your Home or Lock Screen, you’ll know what’s going on without necessarily being able to hear it.