You’ll soon be able to hear Apple Watch alarms even in silent mode

You’ll soon be able to hear Apple Watch alarms even in silent mode

Apple released the watchOS 11.4 release candidate today, offering an early glimpse at new features coming to the Apple Watch in the coming weeks. While the update includes bug fixes, its most notable change affects Silent Mode, allowing alarms to sound even when other notifications remain muted.

Currently, when Silent Mode is enabled, the Apple Watch only delivers alerts through haptic vibrations, helping users maintain privacy, reduce distractions, and avoid unwanted noise—especially in quiet settings like meetings.

According to the release notes for watchOS 11.4, the update introduces “an option to allow Sleep Wake Up alarm to break through Silent Mode.” This means users can enable a new “Break Through Silent Mode” setting for individual alarms, including the wake-up alarm set within the Apple Watch’s sleep settings. When activated, alarms will play both sound and haptic vibrations, ensuring important wake-up calls aren’t missed, as reported by 9to5Mac.

The update may seem counterintuitive to Silent Mode, but even with the Apple Watch’s haptics set to Prominent—the highest intensity—I often sleep through the vibrations of my alarms. Since I won’t turn Silent Mode off, I’ve avoided using my Apple Watch for important alarms altogether. However, that might finally change with this update.

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