What do you want to listen for?
Some games ask you to identify a musical interval. Others ask you to recognise a sound, compare two calls, or follow a direction. The right choice depends on the challenge you enjoy, rather than how much music theory you know.
Echo Biomes begins in Echo Wadi, an illustrated world of dunes, savanna and an oasis. Its five games turn different listening tasks into encounters with animals and a changing day-and-night landscape.
Five small listening challenges
- Compare: Peacock Garden plays two calls. Choose the louder one.
- Locate: Whispering Dunes hides a fennec among burrows. Use the direction of its sound to find it.
- Remember: Serpent Song gives you a flute melody to rebuild.
- Follow: Starweaver uses notes from different directions to guide you through a constellation.
- Match: Hidden Chirps asks you to find the echo of a cricket rhythm.
Choose a game for your audio setup
Whispering Dunes and Starweaver require stereo headphones and a left/right check. Mono Audio combines the channels, so those two directional games are unavailable when it is enabled.
Peacock Garden, Serpent Song and Hidden Chirps can use the iPhone speaker. That gives you three places to begin when you do not have headphones. Use a comfortable volume; turning it up is not a way to improve your score.
Play on your own, or take turns
For shared play, start with a speaker-compatible game and pass the phone between rounds. Let each person make their own choice before discussing what they heard. Directional games are better explored by one headphone wearer at a time.
No microphone is required. After access is confirmed, the bundled games and audio can be played offline; starting the trial, purchasing and restoring access require Apple’s services.
When a different kind of game fits better
If your aim is named intervals, chords and a wider music-training routine, read our Echo Biomes and ToneGym comparison. If you want to name the thing that made a sound, Mumble Aloud’s spoken-answer puzzles take listening in another direction.
Echo Biomes is an entertainment game, not a hearing assessment. Its appeal is the discovery: a tiny difference in sound becomes your next move.
Try Echo Biomes. See the game and its screenshots, or open its App Store page.
Deliberately start one free 14-day trial. A separate lifetime unlock includes Family Sharing and future app updates. No subscription.