What the iPhone does by itself, what an Apple Watch adds, and which apps record breathing patterns worth showing a doctor.
No. An iPhone has no built-in sleep apnea feature, and no app can diagnose it. A clinician does that from a home sleep test or an in-lab sleep study. What your iPhone can do is collect patterns to show that clinician. Paired with an Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Ultra 2 or later, or SE 3, it shows nightly Breathing Disturbances in the Health app and can notify you of possible sleep apnea after a 30-day review. A microphone app such as Snore Timeline records the whole night and flags silences that end in a gasp or a loud breath, so you can play each one back.
If you or a partner notice choking, gasping, or stopped breathing during sleep, talk to a clinician. Book that appointment now. You do not need a week of recordings first, and a quiet night in an app does not cancel what a partner saw.
| Setup | Signal | What you get | Playback of each event | Purchases | Privacy label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snore Timeline | Sound from the phone or Bluetooth mic, plus watch data through Apple Health | Timestamped breathing disruptions, rate per hour, gasps, longest pause, time below 95% SpO2 | Yes | None | Data Not Collected |
| Apple Watch sleep apnea notifications | Wrist movement from the accelerometer | Nightly Breathing Disturbances, a notification after 30-day review, a PDF for your doctor | No audio | Needs a Series 9 or later, Ultra 2 or later, or SE 3 | Built into watchOS |
| SnoreLab | Sound | BreathFlow breathing stability, breathing rate and possible interruptions (Premium) | Yes | $5.99 to $59.99 | Data Used to Track You; Data Linked to You |
| Sleep Cycle | Sound | Breathing disruption data and respiratory rate (Premium) | Snore recordings are Premium | $2.99 to $57.99 | Data Used to Track You; Data Linked to You |
| Somnio+ | Sound | Long silences without breathing sounds marked as possible pauses | Yes | $4.99 to $29.99 | Data Not Collected |
| Snorly (Snore Tracker & Recorder) | Sound | Pauses and gasps counted per hour | Not stated | $1.99 to $29.99 | Data Used to Track You; Data Not Linked to You |
| Apnotrack | Sound | A screening result for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea risk (CE marked in the EU) | Not stated | None listed | Data Linked to You |
| Empirical Sleep | Apple Watch data through Apple Health | Apnea risk questionnaire, Apple Watch apnea alerts, booked doctor visits (select US states) | No audio | $6.99 to $194.99 | Data Linked to You; Data Not Linked to You |
Apple's sleep apnea notifications run on the watch, and you read the results on the iPhone. According to Apple Support, the accelerometer picks up small wrist movements that go with interruptions in breathing, and each night gets marked Elevated or Not Elevated [1]. Every 30 days the watch reviews that data. If it sees Elevated breathing disturbances on a consistent basis, it sends a notification.
In the Health app, go to Browse, then Respiratory, and you'll find Breathing Disturbances and Sleep Apnea Notifications. You can export a PDF from there for your doctor [1]. Apple announced the feature with FDA 510(k) clearance in September 2024 [2].
Apple is careful about the limits. Its support page says the feature isn't intended to diagnose, treat or aid in the management of sleep apnea, and that not everyone with sleep apnea will receive a notification [1]. So silence from the watch isn't an all-clear. It also records no sound, so you can't hear what happened on an Elevated night. Does Apple Watch track snoring? covers the rest of what the watch measures at night.
A microphone app fills the gap the watch leaves. It records the night and marks the moments where your breathing went quiet and came back hard. When you compare them, four things matter: whether you can play back each flagged moment, whether the app counts events per night so you can follow a trend, whether you can export the recordings for a doctor, and what the app does with your data. I searched the App Store for sleep apnea and breathing apps on 3 October 2026 and describe each one below from its own listing or help center. None of them claims to diagnose sleep apnea on its own.
I built Snore Timeline. It flags a breathing disruption when it hears at least a minute of breathing, then 10 or more seconds of silence, then a recovery sound that breaks the silence, such as a loud snore, a gasp or a breath. Each one lands on the timeline as a gray-blue marker. Tap it in the nightly summary and you jump to that moment and hear the silence end.
The summary grades every pause by length (under 12 seconds mild, 12 to 20 moderate, over 20 severe), calls out the longest one, and rates disruptions per hour from Minimal to Significant. Gasps get their own count. If you wear an Apple Watch that records blood oxygen, the same screen shows how much of the night you spent below 95% saturation and your lowest reading, and both come from the watch through Apple Health. The Breathing Disruptions page has the full rules.
Patterns show up over weeks. The Weekly Summary compares this week with last, and the sleep factors let you tag nights with things like Alcohol, Slept on Side, Elevated Pillow or Mouth Taping. After 5 nights, with at least 2 tagged and 2 untagged, the app compares them, disruption counts included. It also estimates your sleep stages from the same audio, with no watch needed. CSV data, per-episode clips and full-night audio all export at no cost, and nothing leaves your phone unless you share it. The App Store label reads Data Not Collected, and there's no subscription or in-app purchase.
SnoreLab has 57K ratings on the US App Store and a long history in snore tracking. Its listing describes BreathFlow as a measure of breathing stability, correlated with apnea severity, that looks at sound patterns for signs of irregular breathing [6]. A Breathing Rate feature tracks your respiratory rate and picks out possible interruptions. Both sit in SnoreLab Premium, which costs $5.99 to $59.99. The listing says SnoreLab is not intended to diagnose or treat sleep apnea. Its privacy label declares Usage Data used to track you and Health & Fitness data linked to you. Snore Timeline reached the App Store in September 2025, and I build it alone with no outside funding or marketing budget, so it has far fewer ratings. Snore Timeline vs SnoreLab compares the two in depth.
On the App Store, Somnio+ goes by Sleep Apnea Detector. Its listing says it analyzes sound while you sleep and marks long silences without breathing sounds as possible pauses, alongside snoring and sleep talking [7]. It also says the app is not a medical device and gives no diagnosis. Its label reads Data Not Collected, and it sells weekly and annual plans from $4.99 to $29.99.
Sleep Cycle is a smart alarm and sleep tracker with 30K ratings on the US App Store. It listens through the iPhone microphone. Its help center lists breathing disruption data and respiratory rate as Premium, and says that data only appears when you start the session from the iPhone so sound tracking runs [8]. Premium costs $2.99 to $57.99, and its label declares Identifiers used to track you and Health & Fitness data linked to you [9]. Snore Timeline's breathing flags, playback and export carry no charge. Snore Timeline vs Sleep Cycle compares them side by side.
On the App Store, Snorly is listed as Snore Tracker & Recorder App. Its listing says it counts pauses and gasps per hour and marks them as something to discuss with a doctor, and calls that "not a diagnosis" [10]. Plans and add-ons run $1.99 to $29.99, and its label declares Usage Data used to track you. Snore Timeline counts gasps per hour too, and rates breathing disruptions per hour from Minimal to Significant.
Apnotrack, from Asleep Inc., is the one app I found that calls itself a medical device. Its listing says it holds CE marking as a Class I software medical device under EU rules, records breathing sounds through the microphone, and gives a morning screening result for the risk of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea [11]. It says it doesn't diagnose, and the listing mentions no FDA clearance. On the US store it has a single rating, and that review says the app asks for an activation code after sign-up. Its label declares contact info and a user ID linked to you.
Empirical Sleep doesn't record sound. It reads your Apple Watch data from Apple Health, including breathing disturbances and Apple's sleep apnea notifications, and adds an apnea risk questionnaire [12]. Its listing says it can book a video visit with a doctor for testing and treatment in select US states, and that it takes most major insurance. Its plans run $6.99 to $194.99. It suits someone who already has an apnea alert from the watch and wants a fast route to a doctor.
Of the 14 snoring apps I compared on the privacy labels page, four declare Data Not Collected. Snore Timeline is the only one of those four with no purchases of any kind.
One flagged night means little. Phones get knocked over, people roll away, a fan kicks on. A doctor learns more from what repeats. Look for:
The count will run low. A microphone can't hear events that make no sound, like central apneas with no breathing effort or partial blockages that reduce airflow without a clean silence. Noise from a fan, a partner or a CPAP machine can cover quiet breathing. I checked Snore Timeline's flag against 57 overnight recordings from PSG-Audio, a public sleep-lab dataset with clinician-scored events [15], and it catches only some of the lab-scored events. The app has not been clinically validated. Research on phones points the same way. A 2022 meta-analysis of 11 smartphone studies found good pooled accuracy for moderate to severe sleep apnea, but with wide limits of agreement against a sleep study, and its authors caution against making clinical decisions from these devices [5]. Snoring apps that flag breathing pauses goes deeper into what a microphone can and can't hear.
Most people start with a home sleep apnea test. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine describes it as equipment you wear in your own bed that measures your breathing and blood oxygen, and sometimes your heart rate [3]. A sleep team scores the results and a sleep doctor goes over them with you.
A home test suits people who likely have moderate to severe sleep apnea and no other major medical conditions. The AASM says you shouldn't use one if your doctor suspects a different sleep disorder, or if you have lung disease, neuromuscular disease or congestive heart failure. Those cases call for an in-lab sleep study. It also says a negative home test can't rule sleep apnea out when your symptoms still fit, and more testing may follow [3].
Some apps handle that step for you. Ognomy, for one, books video visits with sleep doctors and sends a home sleep test kit, and its listing says it takes most insurance [13]. That route ends in a diagnosis from a clinician.
Bring what you've collected to that first appointment:
The Doctor-Ready Data guide walks through a week of recording with that appointment in mind.
Snore Timeline analyzes audio. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose sleep apnea or any other condition. Bring recordings to a doctor if you suspect breathing pauses.
Not by itself. iOS has no sleep apnea feature that runs on the phone alone. A microphone app can record your breathing all night and flag silences that end in a gasp or a loud breath, which gives you something to play for a doctor. No app diagnoses sleep apnea.
Apps that listen at night can show breathing patterns, though none of them diagnose. Snore Timeline flags each breathing disruption with audio you can replay, rates them per hour, and tracks the trend across weeks with no purchases. SnoreLab and Sleep Cycle put their breathing data in Premium, Somnio+ marks long silences as possible pauses, and Snorly counts pauses and gasps per hour. Apnotrack gives a screening result and is CE marked in the EU. Apple Watch sleep apnea notifications add a 30-day signal from wrist movement.
Apple's notifications need the watch on for at least 10 nights in a 30-day period. For a microphone app, a week or two of full nights gives you a trend to look at. Snore Timeline's breathing assessment needs at least 2 hours of sleep in a night.
No. Audio apps miss events that make no sound, and Apple says not everyone with sleep apnea gets a notification. Even a negative home sleep test can't rule it out when symptoms fit, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. If you snore loudly, gasp at night or feel sleepy during the day, see a clinician.
Apple's sleep apnea notifications come from the accelerometer, per Apple Support. Blood oxygen readings are a separate feature, and they appear under Respiratory in the Health app. Snore Timeline reads them through Apple Health and shows how much of the night you spent below 95% and your lowest reading. A clinician has to interpret those numbers.
No. Samsung says its sleep apnea feature runs on a compatible Galaxy Watch paired with a Samsung Galaxy phone. It received FDA De Novo authorization in 2024 and checks for signs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea over two nights of tracking within ten days, for adults 22 and older who haven't been diagnosed.
Free. No subscription, no account, no in-app purchases.
