How to get an iPhone to vibrate in my pants?

September 5, 2007 7:36 PM

There has GOT to be iPhone vibration/alarm settings I am missing.

So I have an iPhone, and I usually use vibrate. AND I usually just get texts, and get them all day. I've figured out how to make it vibrate when someone calls, and it makes no sound, but I can't seem to locate an option to have a short burst of vibe when a text arrives.

this may be a royally stupid question, but i've owned a handful of phones, was able to do this very thing on each, without cracking a manual on any. and one of them was a razr, not the most intuitive. could it be theres just no way to have it bzzz upon delivery?

ditto for making the alarm SOUND while the rest of the phone is on vibrate. other phones i've had have been smart enough to enter a 'ok, plugged in, not in pocket, vibration less than useful' mode when being charged.

posted by tremspeed to Technology (8 answers total)

Go to settings > sounds > make sure text message is toggled to "off", and that vibrate is "on". this should make it silent and vibrate when u get a text.
posted by ofthestrait at 7:52 PM on September 5, 2007

Response by poster: thats how it was set.

button on side: vibrate (red dot).

sounds menu:
silent
vibrate: on

ring
vibrate: on

volume slider all the way down.

everything else set to off.
posted by tremspeed at 8:01 PM on September 5, 2007

As far as I can tell, if the side button is set to vibrate, that's going to vibrate everything. That's like a master button. When I flip my side button to vibrate, all calls and incoming text messages vibrate.

But my defaults are all set to ringtones, either a main default ringtone or an individually assigned tone for a specific contact.

I run in and out of libraries and other places where a ringtone would be inappropriate all the time, so I rely on that master switch to flip the phone to vibe-only on a daily basis.
posted by padraigin at 10:05 PM on September 5, 2007

other phones i've had have been smart enough to enter a 'ok, plugged in, not in pocket, vibration less than useful' mode when being charged.

Really? I've never had a phone that did that.
posted by limeonaire at 5:12 AM on September 6, 2007

other phones i've had have been smart enough to enter a 'ok, plugged in, not in pocket, vibration less than useful' mode when being charged.

My current phone does that and it's annoying. If I set it to vibrate, then I want it to vibrate, plugged in or not. Because if it's plugged in and not vibrating then it's not alerting me at all when a call comes in. Stupid.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:47 AM on September 6, 2007

Response by poster: well my last one, a razr, and the one before that, a small sony ericcson, both switched to ringer mode when charging. obviously silent mode is less useful than vibrate when its plugged in.
posted by tremspeed at 12:37 PM on September 6, 2007

Response by poster: alright well, setting the global switch to vibrate and the sounds menu switch to ring seems to have done the trick, but jesus, there must be an easier way.
posted by tremspeed at 7:53 PM on September 6, 2007

Sounds like a bug. You might want to mention it to Apple. It should be able to vibrate properly when set to vibrate whether the orange dot is visible or not.
posted by TeatimeGrommit at 2:19 PM on September 7, 2007