What white noise actually is
White noise is a sound that holds a steady, even level across the whole range of frequencies you can hear. Because every part of the spectrum is present at once, your ear stops picking out any single tone and settles into a smooth, unbroken wash of sound.
That evenness is the point. A steady background makes sudden changes less jarring, which is why so many people reach for it at bedtime, at their desk, or beside a sleeping baby. In Driftly, White Noise is one of the four free ambient sounds, so you can try it without paying anything.
Why it helps you sleep
Most sleep is disturbed not by constant sound but by sudden sound: a door, a car, a creak in the house. White noise raises the floor of quiet background sound so those spikes no longer stand out against silence. Your brain has less to react to, and it is easier to drift off and stay asleep.
Driftly is built for that moment. Sounds are saved on your device and play offline, background playback keeps going with the screen off, and the sleep timer fades out gently after anywhere from 1 to 720 minutes, so the sound is not still running at 3am.
Focus, masking and calming a baby
The same steadiness that helps sleep also helps focus. A consistent background covers open-plan chatter, traffic and other small distractions, so your attention has fewer things to snag on while you work or read.
For babies, a soft, familiar wash of sound can echo the muffled hum they were used to before birth and help smooth over the sudden noises of a busy home. Keep the volume gentle and let it sit quietly in the background.
- Cover sudden noises so they do not pull you out of sleep or focus
- Steady the background in a noisy room or open-plan office
- Give a baby a soft, consistent sound to settle to
Layer it, or try a softer noise
White noise does not have to stand alone. Driftly lets you mix up to 10 sounds at once with a volume slider for each, so you can set White Noise underneath Forest Rain or a fan and shape the blend until it feels right to you. When you find a combination you like, you can save it as a mix and come back to it.
If plain white noise feels a little bright, there are softer relatives. Pink noise eases off the higher frequencies for a rounder sound, and brown noise leans deeper still, closer to a low rumble or distant surf. Both pink and brown noise are part of Driftly Premium, a single one-time purchase with no subscription.
Calm by design
Driftly stays out of your way. There are no ads, no accounts and no sign-up, so you can open the app and start listening. Your practice history backs up privately to your own iCloud on iPhone and through Google backup on Android, and stays yours.
White noise, the sleep timer, the alarm and saved mixes are all free. Premium adds all 29 sounds including pink and brown noise, the full set of guided meditations with two warm voices, sleep stories, the wider breathwork library and the premium scenes, for those who want to go further.