In 2007, Apple launched the iPhone, a monumental device that became synonymous with the advancement of mobile technology. At that time, it also included a dreadful alarm feature: the 9-minute snooze. The latest iPhones are bezel-free, can shoot 4K videos in slow-motion and we can unlock these devices by looking at them, just to name a few of the many advancements that have been made over the past 18 years. These iPhones are a far cry from the original model Apple launched in 2007, and yet the alarm's 9-minute snooze has persisted -- until iOS 26.
The tech giant announced the next iPhone update at its Worldwide Developers Conference 2025, and the software upgrade will bring a lot of new features to your iPhone when Apple releases it later this year, like new tools in Messages and a new Games app. But the company could also loosen its grip on your alarm's snooze duration in your Clock app in the software. In the iOS 26 developer beta, you can set your default snooze duration to anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes. After messing around in the developer beta, this is one of my favorite tweaks. I should note that the developer beta of iOS 26 is an early version of the software that is specifically aimed at software developers. This means that part of it could change over the coming months, including this new snooze feature.
But first, why does snooze last 9 minutes? According to CNET's sister site Mashable, the snooze button was introduced to alarm clocks in the mid-1950s, and the snooze duration was -- that's right -- 9 minutes. It was supposedly easier on the hardware to set the snooze duration to a single digit as opposed to a double digit. Thus, the wretched 9-minute snooze was born.
The 9-minute snooze also has some scientific backing. Science says 9 minutes might be an ideal snooze time before we fall back into a deep slumber.
This is an early version of iOS 26 aimed at developers. The Snooze Duration menu could look different in the final version of iOS 26. Apple/Screenshot by CNET
"In terms of sleep, 9 minutes is just enough time for a brief rest," Holly Schiff, a licensed clinical psychologist, told Reader's Digest. "Once you get past the 10-minute mark, your body can start to fall back into a deep sleep, which will make waking up again difficult and more unpleasant."
However, it's 2025: My iPhone can stream videos from Netflix, play games from Xbox Game Pass and Android devices can set snooze for 10 minutes, so we know we can leave those 9 minutes in the past. As for health science, it would probably say I should do a lot of things, like eat more vegetables and less cheese. My doctor hasn't mentioned my cheese intake at my annual checkup, so will one more minute of snooze really be that detrimental? I don't think so.
But at the end of the day, my true reason for loving this change is not nearly as nuanced: This tweak makes my brain happy because in my mind, 9 is an uncomfortable number for me.
For starters, nine is an odd number, and everyone knows that even numbers are superior to odd numbers. The only exception to this rule is any odd increment of five, which are honorary even numbers, as everyone also knows. Is nine divisible by five? No. Strike one.
Next, despite nine being an odd number, it isn't even a prime number. In fact, it's the only single-digit odd number that isn't also a prime number, so it's even weirder. That's strike two.
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