How To Change Vibration On Iphone

We've all been there: we're in a meeting or in a quiet, crowded place and our iPhone awkwardly rings, blaring across the room like a car horn. Yet still, many of us are apprehensive about turn off audio alerts for fear we miss an important message. But there is another option: setting your iPhone to vibrate instead. Here's what you need to know.

What Is Vibrate Mode Good For?

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Ever since the first iPhone came out, it's had a built-in motor that lets the iPhone vibrate when certain types of notifications come in. Once such notification: the phone call. By default, the iPhone will ring when you get a phone call, which, as mentioned above, isn't always ideal–especially if you're somewhere where silence is appreciated.

That's where vibration mode comes in. This means your iPhone will vibrate when you get specific notifications. What's nice about this is that a sound alert or a vibration alert isn't an either-or scenario. You can have your iPhone both provide a sound alert and vibrate at the same time when you get a notification, or simply choose one or the other.

Of course, while many people won't want to turn off audio alerts (by flipping the physical switch on the side of the iPhone to set it to "silent" mode the whole time, for some users vibration mode is the only mode that matters. I'm speaking about users who are deaf or hard of hearing. This is why vibration mode is considered an accessibility feature, too.

How Do I Make My iPhone Vibrate?

How to Make iPhone Vibrate? Here's What You Need To Do…

Putting your iPhone on vibrate is really easy. Here's what you need to do:

Open the Settings app.
Tap Sounds & Haptics (or just "Sounds" on iPhone 6s and earlier).
Under the "Vibrate" heading toggle one or both switches to ON (green). These are the switches that say "Vibrate on Ring" and "Vibrate on Silence". The first will cause your iPhone to both ring and vibrate when you get a call. The second will automatically switch your iPhone to vibrate mode when you flip the physical switch on the side of the iPhone to silence audio.

It should be noted that if you set both tootles to OFF (white) your iPhone will never vibrate.

Can I Set Custom Vibration Notifications?

What's really cool about the iPhone is that you can change the type of vibrations you feel for different types of alerts. For example, you can set your iPhone so that when you get a text you feel a series of three short vibrations, and when you get a call you feel two long vibrations.

Different vibration types allow you to know what type of notification the vibration is alerting you to without even looking at your phone. How it feels tells you what it is.

To set other vibrations on the iPhone:

Open the Settings app.
Tap Sounds & Haptics (or just "Sounds" on iPhone 6s and earlier).
Under the "Sound and Vibrations Patter" heading you'll see a list of alerts you can set custom vibrations for, including for ringtone, texts, mail, voicemails, and more. Tap on any one of these.
On the next screen, tap Vibration.
On the Vibration screen, under the "Standard" heading, select one of the predefined vibration patterns.

How Do I Create Custom Vibration Patterns?

How to Make iPhone Vibrate? Here's What You Need To Do…

Yes, you can also create custom vibration patterns for the iPhone! Custom vibrations can be anything you want them to be: short taps, long taps, fast, slow, or a combination of all the above. This really lets you give your iPhone vibration capabilities a unique touch, quite literally.

To create and set other vibrations on the iPhone:

Open the Settings app.
Tap Sounds & Haptics (or just "Sounds" on iPhone 6s and earlier).
Under the "Sound and Vibrations Patter" heading you'll see a list of alerts you can set custom vibrations for, including for ringtone, texts, mail, voicemails, and more. Tap on any one of these.
On the next screen, tap Vibration.
On the Vibration screen, under the "Custom" heading, select "Create New Vibration."
On the next screen, you'll see a big touchpad. Tap it to create a vibration pattern. You can multistep, long tap, short tap…anything you want. With each tap you'll feel another segment of the custom vibration you are creating.
Once you are done creating your custom vibration, tap the Stop button.
Now tap the Play button to feel it played back to you.
If you are happy with the results, tap the Save button and give it a name in the "New Vibration" window.
Then, apply that new custom vibration to one of the vibration alerts for mail, text, calls, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do iPhones support vibration alerts?

Yes! All iPhones offer vibration alerts. You can choose to have your iPhone automatically vibrate when on silent more, or receive both audio alerts and vibrations when you get a phone call and other alerts.
Q: Can I set custom vibrations on iPhone?

You bet. The iPhone not only offers vibration mode, but it allows you to create custom vibrations. You create these by tapping your fingers on the screen and then saving your touches as a vibration.
Q: What good is iPhone vibration mode?

iPhone vibration mode is good for receiving alerts without audible sounds. This is useful when you are in a meeting or at the theater. The vibrations allow you to know you have an alert without letting everyone else in the room know too.

Michael Grothaus

Apple expert and novelist, Michael Grothaus has been covering tech on KnowYourMobile for the best part of 10 years. Prior to this, he worked at Apple. And before that, he was a film journalist. Michael is a published author; his book Epiphany Jones was voted as one of the best novels about Hollywood by Entertainment Weekly. Michael is also a writer at other publications including VICE and Fast Company.