Want to know if that buzz from your silenced iPhone is a call from your spouse, and not just some random cold call? Well, guess what: you can create a custom vibration pattern and assign it to any contact you choose.

The iPhone already comes with a few preset vibration options, ranging from Heartbeat (buzz-buzz, buzz-buzz) to S.O.S. (three short buzzes, three long buzzes, and three short buzzes again), and you can assign those patterns to specific contacts in your address book (more on that in a moment).

But you can also “record” your own personalized vibration patterns by tapping the “buzzes” on your iPhone’s touchscreen—neat.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Tap Settings, General, Accessibility, then scroll down until you find the “Custom Vibrations” setting and switch it to “On.”
2. Go back to the main Settings menu, tap Sounds, scroll all the way down and then tap “Vibration” under “Vibration Patterns.”
3. On the next page, scroll all the way down again and tap “Create New Vibration.”
4. Ready to create your own vibration pattern? If so, time to start tapping. You can tap rapidly to create little “dot-dot-dots” of buzzes, or tap and hold for a long, sustained buzz.
5. All done? Tap Stop, then tap Play to “listen” to your new vibration.
6. Happy with your creation? Tap Save and give your vibration a name.
7. Back on the vibration page, you’ll notice that your new vibration is now selected as the default vibration for everything. You can leave this setting be, or go back to the standard “Alert” vibration as a default.
8. Want to assign your new vibration to a specific contact? Go to your contact list, pick a contact, tap Edit, scroll down until you find the “Vibration” field, and then tap it to select your new custom vibration pattern.

Got more iPhone questions? Let me know!

Tagged as: iPhone