Play ambient sounds while you focus
Pick brown noise, pink noise, rain or a café hum that plays during focus sessions, made on your device and available offline.
Ambient sound is a steady background that masks the noise around you. Prior makes it on your device with the Web Audio system of your browser or app: there is no audio file to download, nothing is sent over the network and it works offline.
Choose a sound
Open the Focus page and press the sound button at the top right, next to the sliders. A small panel opens with:
- Off
- Brown noise
- Pink noise
- Rain
- Café
- Volume, a slider that is off while no sound is chosen.
Pick one and, when no session is running, Prior plays a three-second preview so you can judge the sound and the volume. Press Esc, or click elsewhere, to close the panel. The same choices are also in Timer settings, under Ambient sound.
When it plays
The sound plays during focus sessions only, wherever you are in the app, and it fades in and out. It stops during breaks, when you pause, reset or skip the session, and when the session ends. Prior remembers your sound and your volume.
To silence everything, choose Off.
Good to know
- The sound is generated on the spot, not recorded, and the choices are noise with different filters: brown noise is deeper than pink noise, and rain and café are made of layers of filtered noise.
- Keep the screen on in Timer settings holds the screen awake during a focus session, where your device allows it. It is separate from the sound.
- Ambient sound is a setting of the timer, so it stays on the device where you set it.
See Run a focus session for the timer itself.
Updated 5 November 2026