Some of us get a bunch of calls and notifications throughout the day. And while ringtone and alerts are good at grabbing your attention, they can become very distracting or annoying after some time. If you’re like me, haptic notifications and feedback might be a better solution. In this article, we’ll show you how to set your iPhone to vibrate when on silent.
When your iPhone is in your pocket or bag, a vibration helps to inform you about an incoming call or text. If you’re in a quiet place like a library, it’s even more important to ensure your iPhone vibrates instead of rings so that you don’t disturb others.
Even if you don’t want your phone making noise, you may still need to answer calls and texts. This is where vibrations come in. Having your iPhone vibrate for incoming calls and texts is a subtle way to be notified. Below, I’ll walk you through the settings you can customize to get your iPhone to vibrate but not ring.
How to make your iPhone vibrate on Silent Mode
Your iPhone’s vibrations are called haptics. There are a couple of settings you need to enable to make your iPhone vibrate for an incoming call when the Ring/Silent switch is set to silent.
1. Enable Vibration in Accessibility
To make your iPhone vibrate on silent, you need to ensure vibration is enabled in Accessibility. Otherwise, your iPhone won’t vibrate at all. Here’s how to check:
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go into Accessibility.
- Select Touch.
- Make sure Vibration is toggled on.
2. Check Your Vibration Setting for Silent Mode
Now, if your iPhone vibrates on Ring mode but doesn’t on Silent mode, it’s likely because you set a different vibration preference for each mode. Here’s how to check this:
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go into Sounds & Haptics.
- Select Haptics.
- To make your iPhone vibrate on silent, select Play Haptics in Silent Mode.
3. Check the Selected Vibration Pattern for Each Alert
If you have enabled the above settings, but your iPhone is not vibrating on Silent mode, it’s time to check your haptics settings. This is where you can set custom vibration alerts on your iPhone. But among the vibration options available, one of them is None. If you select None, your iPhone will not vibrate for an incoming call when the Ring/Silent switch is set to silent. Here’s how you can check this:
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go into Sounds & Haptics.
- Under the Ringtone and Alerts section, tap on Ringtone.
- Tap Haptics.
- Check that you have Synchronized or one of the Standard haptics selected, such as Accent, Staccato or Symphony. If you have Custom selected, tap on it to play the vibration recording and make sure it’s not just an accidental replica of None.
- After you select a valid Haptic for Ringtone, go back to the Ringtone and Alerts section.
- Repeat these steps for Text Tone, New Voicemail, New Mail, and so on.
