1685. Custom iPhone Vibration Notifications

Like a good citizen of the world, I have set my phone to vibrate when someone calls me, so that it doesn't make much noise during meetings. (Yes, I know I could turn off notifications altogether, but that's not really an option during the work day.) I would love it if there was some way to set up a different vibration alert for specific people, so I could tell if it was a call from a family member, for example, as opposed to a sales call. Is there some way to do this?

You can definitely do this, both on Android and iOS. Android devices do this in varying ways, depending on the specific version and features you have installed, so we'll just suggest a quick online search for "custom vibration alert Android" for instructions for your device.

On iOS, starting with iOS 5, you can easily create custom vibration alerts. Just as you can create custom ringtones, you can create custom vibration patterns, store them on your phone, assign them a name, and then assign the alert to incoming calls from specific people or groups. The article here provides detailed instructions: http://www.imore.com/how-set-custom-alert-vibrations-or-disable-them-your-iphone-and-ipad. Once you have created the custom vibration alert, you can select the alert for any contact by editing the contact, and selecting the new alert from the list of available vibrations.

Given this configuration, when your phone rings/vibrates while you're in a meeting, you'll be able to tell specifically who's calling! (If you're really clever, you'll tap out the person's name in Morse code as the vibration alert. That won't be distracting or anything...)

http://heresthethingblog.com/2014/04/09/ios-7-tip-create-custom-vibrations/