Hum is a tone, noise and binaural-beat generator for iPhone, made by Faba Development / Luke Fairbanks.
For anything not answered below, email luke_fairbanks@icloud.com with “Hum” in the subject. Please say which iPhone and iOS version you are on, and what you were doing when the problem happened. Do not send passwords or payment details.
Binaural beats need headphones. Each ear is sent a slightly different frequency, and the effect depends on those two tones staying separate — over a speaker they mix in the air before they reach you, and the effect does not occur. This is how binaural beats work generally, not a limitation of the app.
It should not — Hum keeps playing in the background and shows controls on the lock screen. If it stops, check that Hum has not been force-quit from the app switcher, and that a Focus or Screen Time rule is not suspending it.
Above roughly 15 kHz, whether you hear a tone depends on your hearing and your speaker. Most phone speakers roll off well before 20 kHz, and adult hearing usually does too. The tone is still being generated.
Open Settings in the app and tap Restore purchases. That asks the App Store for anything previously bought with your Apple Account. If it still shows Free, check you are signed in with the same Apple Account used for the purchase.
Open Settings in the app and tap Manage subscription, which opens the App Store’s own subscription screen. You can also reach it in iOS Settings by tapping your name, then Subscriptions. Cancelling stops the next renewal; access continues until the current period ends.
Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription.
Apple allows one introductory offer per subscription group per Apple Account, ever. If you have subscribed to Hum before, the trial has already been used and the purchase starts as a paid period. Hum only advertises the trial to accounts the App Store reports as still eligible.
Free covers the whole generator from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, all four waveforms, all three noise colours, binaural beats, sleep timers, background playback, and 13 of the 17 presets. It also includes one saved mix and up to two layers in a mix.
Pro adds unlimited layers, unlimited saved mixes, and the four layered presets.
Names like “Solfeggio”, “432 Hz” and “528 Hz” are the conventional names people use for those numbers. They are labels, not claims. Hum makes no health or medical claims, is not a medical device, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent anything.
No. Every sound is generated on the device from numbers, and Hum’s audio session is set to playback only, so it never asks for microphone access.
Apple requires any app whose code references the microphone APIs to state a reason for it, even when the app does not use them. Hum is built on a general-purpose audio library that can record, which is why you may see a microphone entry listed. Hum does not record, and you should never see a permission prompt.
Listen at a comfortable level. Prolonged exposure to loud sound can damage hearing, and sustained pure tones are harder to judge by ear than music is — they can be louder than they seem. Hum starts at half volume for that reason. If you have ringing or discomfort after listening, turn it down.
Hum requires no account and sends none of your mixes, favourites or settings to us. The full notice is at Hum privacy policy.