Kayla Dube · February 6th, 2025 · 7 min read 
Setting your iPhone to vibrate prevents calls and alerts from disturbing others. This can be great when you’re in important meetings or don’t want your ringtone making unwanted noise. We’ll show you how to turn on vibration on your iPhone for ringtones, alerts, and alarms. You’ll also learn to create custom vibration patterns to enhance your notification experience.
Why is Your iPhone Vibrating Randomly?
If you’re getting a cellular phone call, your iPhone will vibrate continuously (for 15-30 seconds), especially in Silent mode. FaceTime and other VOIP applications like WhatsApp and Telegram sometimes vibrate longer for incoming calls.
iPhones (and iPads) may also vibrate randomly when they receive emergency or government alerts. Depending on the emergency alert, your iPhone will make a random alarm sound and vibrate until you view or dismiss the alert.
Additionally, faulty or broken charging accessories can trigger incessant vibrations on an iPhone. By default, iPhones give a short haptic feedback (vibration) when plugged in and charging. A faulty charging adapter or cable can cause your iPhone to vibrate randomly at intervals.
If your iPhone keeps vibrating randomly, and you don’t see any incoming call or alert, there’s likely a temporary system glitch causing it to do so. You can resolve this issue by rebooting your iPhone, installing a software update, or resetting it to factory settings. If your iPhone vibrates randomly while charging, use a different charging cable and adapter. Contact Apple Support or visit a nearby Apple Store if the issue persists.
How to Turn on Vibrate on iPhone?
There are several ways to enable vibrations on your iPhone. In this section, you’ll learn how to enable vibration for your iPhone sounds and create custom system haptics. We’ll also show you how to turn on system haptics or system-wide vibration.
How to Enable Vibration for Calls and Alerts
Follow the steps below to enable vibration for calls and other alerts (text tone, voicemail, app notification, etc.) in iOS.
- Tap the gear icon on your Home Screen or App Library to open the Settings app.
- Select Sounds & Haptics > Haptics to access the vibration settings screen.
- Choose Always Play to have your iPhone vibrate or play haptics for all calls and other notifications in Silent and Ring mode. Select Play in Silent Mode to play haptics only in Silent mode.
Quick Tip: Flip down the Silent/Ring switch on the top-left side of your iPhone to enable or disable Silent mode. Flip the switch back up to turn off Silent mode (and enable Ring mode).
How to Enable System-Wide Vibration
If your iPhone won’t vibrate for calls or notifications, system-wide vibration is likely turned off. Check your iPhone’s accessibility settings and turn on system-wide vibration. Here’s how:
Open the Settings app, select Accessibility > Touch, and switch on the Vibration toggle.
That’ll enable vibration and play system haptics for all notifications (including emergency alerts) on your iPhone.
How to Set Custom Vibration Patterns on iPhone
If you set your iPhone to play haptics, you can always change or customize the vibration pattern. Follow the step-by-step instructions below to manage vibration alerts for your ringtone, text tone, and other notifications.
- Open the Settings app and tap Sounds & Haptics to open the sound and vibration options menu.
- Next, choose the alert for which you want to create a custom vibration—Ringtone, Text Tone, New Voicemail, etc.
- Next, select Haptics to access the vibration settings page.
- Choose a preferred haptics from the “Standard” section.
- You can also create a custom vibration for the alert. Tap Create New Vibration in the “Custom” section to make your customized vibration.
Tap the on-screen pad for short vibrations and hold your iPhone screen for longer vibrations. Tap on Stop to end the recording or Record to continue. Tapping the Play option plays back the vibration you created. If you like the pattern, tap Save in the top-right corner, name the custom vibration, and select Save.
How to Turn Off Vibrate on iPhone?
In your iPhone’s sound settings, you can turn off vibration for your ringtone or silent mode. The accessibility settings menu also offers an option to turn off system-wide vibration.
How to Turn Off Vibrate for Calls and Alerts
Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Haptics to open the vibration settings menu. Then, choose Never Play to stop your iPhone from vibrating for all alerts in Silent and Ring mode.
How to Turn Off System-Wide Vibration
You can stop making your iPhone vibrate for all alerts from the accessibility settings menu. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch and switch off the Vibration toggle.
When Should You Use Continuous Vibration?
There’s no harm in having your iPhone vibrate non-stop for calls and alerts. In fact, you can create a custom vibration that continuously vibrates when you receive calls and notifications. Although it all boils down to personal preference, continuous vibration provides several benefits.
For instance, if you often miss important reminders, setting a continuous vibration pattern for “Reminder Alerts” could fix that problem. You can also use continuous vibration for high-priority notifications like new emails, voicemails, text messages, etc.
Finally, continuous vibration offers practical and functional benefits to iPhone users with visual or hearing impairments. Hence, if you have any form of visual or hearing impairment and often miss high-priority alerts despite always having your iPhone on you, we recommend using prolonged or continuous vibration.
Some third-party applications provide continuous vibration effects that let you use your iPhone as a massager. With these vibration apps, your iPhone can double as a mobile massage gun. Although continuous iPhone vibrations can be beneficial, one major downside is that your battery will drain quicker than usual.
FAQs
Can You Adjust the Vibration Intensity on an iPhone for Long Alerts?
You can’t adjust the haptic/vibration intensity for preset ringtones or alerts. However, you customize the haptic strength for custom vibrations. When creating a custom vibration, tap the on-screen pad quickly for softer vibrations. Long-pressing the pad creates heavier or more intense vibrations.
How to Create a Custom Vibration Pattern That Never Ends on iPhone?
You can only create custom system haptics that vibrate non-stop for up to five seconds.
Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics, choose a ringtone or alert, select Haptics > Create New Vibration, then tap and hold the screen until it stops recording the vibration (typically after 5 seconds). Save the recording, give the custom vibration a name, and tap Save.
Can You Set an iPhone to Vibrate Endlessly for Alarms?
Yes, you can—and it’s a straightforward process. You simply need to create a custom vibration alert pattern for the alarms. Open the “Alarms” tab in the Clock app and choose the alarm you want to vibrate endlessly. Next, select Sound > Haptics > Create New Vibration, then tap and hold the screen until it stops recording the vibration. Save the recording, and your alarm should now vibrate endlessly.
Are There Any Apps That Allow Continuous Vibration on iPhones?
Several third-party applications on the Apple App Store let you create customizable vibration patterns on your iPhone. These apps have a vibration timer, adjustable vibration intensity, preset vibration patterns, and other vibration features. Some great third-party apps include Strong Vibes – Vibration App, Strong Vibration, and Massager: Strong Vibration!.
What to Do If iPhone Vibration Won’t Operate Continuously?
Reboot your iPhone if it doesn’t vibrate continuously after creating a custom vibration that should vibrate non-stop. If the issue persists, delete and recreate the custom vibration. If you’re using a vibration app, update it in the App Store and try again. We also recommend updating your iPhone’s software to the latest version. Contact Apple Support or the app developer if nothing changes. Resetting your device’s settings can also fix the issues, but you should only try that as a last resort.
