While the primary way to notice that a timer has gone off is to listen to the sound that your phone makes, there are situations where a loud ringing sound won’t be acceptable, such as when it’s late at night, which leaves vibration as the only solution.
That being said, if you are an iPhone user, you will quickly find that getting your phone to vibrate silently when the timer runs out is a more challenging task than you have expected it to be, as the iPhone timer does not have a built-in feature to make this possible.
Fortunately, there is a simple workaround that makes it possible to make the iPhone timer only vibrate and not emit a sound when it goes off, which we will be sharing with you below.
To make the iPhone timer only vibrate without emitting any sound, you will need to set the “When Timer Ends” option to a custom ringtone that is entirely silent, which you can either purchase through the iTunes Store, or create yourself by creating a silent sound clip in GarageBand.
In the upcoming parts of the article, we will go through the process of making the iPhone timer only vibrate with no sound in more detail with a step-by-step guide, find out how to manually create the silent ringtone required for the process, discuss how to get the iPhone alarm to only vibrate, and finally, take a quick look at the “stop playing” feature of the iPhone timer.
How to Make the iPhone Timer Only Vibrate with No Sound?
Even though making the timer only vibrate with no sound is not a built-in feature you will find on your iPhone, applying the workaround that makes this possible is a pretty uncomplicated task that won’t take a lot of your time or effort.
Here are the steps we recommend taking to create an iPhone timer that will only vibrate with no sound as conveniently as possible:
- Open the Clock app on your iPhone.
- Navigate to the Timer tab on the bottom right.
- Tap the “When Timer Ends” option.
- Tap the Tone Store option.
- Navigate to the Search tab.
- Type “silent” into the search input.
- Preview one of the silent ringtones that pop up, and purchase the one you have ensured is indeed quiet.
- Go back to the Clock app, and choose the silent ringtone you have purchased in the “When Timer Ends” ringtone selection menu. If the ringtone you have purchased doesn’t show up, tap the “Download All Purchased Tones” button.
- Tap the Set button.
- Set the timer, and tap the Start button to start it.
If you would prefer not to pay for a silent ringtone, skip steps 4 to 7 in the guide above, and follow the instructions in the next section to create your own silent ringtone for free.
Alternatively, you can also utilize a third-party iPhone app, such as MultiTimer, instead of the built-in timer, which will allow you to create a vibration-only timer without the need to create or purchase a silent ringtone, as the developer of the application has included a way to do so.
How to Manually Create a Silent Ringtone for the iPhone?
While purchasing a silent ringtone from the iTunes Store is the quickest way to obtain the required component to make your iPhone timer only vibrate, it’s also entirely possible to create the silent ringtone for free with some extra work.
To manually create a silent ringtone for the iPhone, you can follow the step-by-step guide below:
- Open the GarageBand app on your iPhone.
- Tap the Plus icon on the top right corner to create a new song.
- Navigate to the Tracks section by using the slider at the top.
- Find the Audio Recorder in the slider, and tap it.
- Bring the “Out” slider (located on the right side) all the way down.
- Tap the Record button (red circle at the top).
- Wait roughly 10 seconds, and tap the Stop button (white square at the top).
- Tap the bottom arrow button on the top left, and choose My Songs.
- Long press on the song file you have just created, and tap the Share button on the menu that comes up.
- Choose the Ringtone option from the Share menu.
- Give a name to the ringtone (such as “silent”) and tap the Export button on the top-right.
Once your silent ringtone is ready, you will be able to find it in the “When Timer Ends” section of your iPhone timer and choose it to create a timer that will only vibrate without making any sounds.
How to Make the iPhone Alarm Only Vibrate with No Sound?
The process of getting the iPhone alarm to only vibrate with no sound is a much more straightforward one than doing the same for the timer, as a built-in feature created for the task is already available for usage.
Below, you can find a step-by-step guide that will allow you to create an alarm that will cause your iPhone to vibrate without any sound when it goes off:
- Open the Clock app on your iPhone.
- Navigate to the Alarm section.
- Tap the Plus icon on the top right to create a new alarm.
- Tap the Sound button.
- Tap the Vibration button on the top, and set the vibration to an option of your choice.
- Go back to the Sound menu by tapping the back button on the top left.
- Scroll all the way down, and choose the None option.
- Tap the Back button on the top left.
- Set the alarm to the time of your choice, and tap the Save button on the top right.
If you would like to eventually turn this alarm into one that emits sound, as usual, you can quickly go into the details of the alarm, tap the Sound section, and choose a ringtone from the list instead of the “none” option.
What Is the Stop Playing Feature for the iPhone Timer?
One feature that might have grabbed your attention when you were looking for a way to get the timer of your iPhone to go off without sound is the “stop playing” option in the ringtone menu, as it allows you to create a timer without a ringtone.
The Stop Playing feature, which you can find by scrolling all the way down in the “When Timer Ends” section of the iPhone timer screen, causes the timer to go off without emitting any vibration or sound and also stop any media that is currently playing on your iPhone in the process.
Due to its effect, the Stop Playing feature is primarily used as a sleep timer, as it allows you to fall asleep with music or a video that will automatically stop when the timer runs out, preventing it from disturbing you in your sleep later on.
Conclusion
While it definitely doesn’t make a lot of sense that there is a built-in option to make the iPhone alarm go off without sound and only vibration, but not the timer, the workaround to get the iPhone timer to behave the same way is pretty straightforward.
To summarize, you can get your iPhone’s timer to only vibrate by setting it to a custom silent one, which is practically an empty sound recording that is technically a ringtone but without any sound.
While the quickest way to obtain a silent ringtone is to purchase it from the iTunes Store for a reasonably low price, you can also quickly create your custom silent ringtone by using GarageBand on your iPhone.
On the other hand, when it comes to the iPhone alarm, the process is a lot simpler, as we have mentioned above, since Apple has decided to allow you to choose a “None” ringtone that causes the alarm to go off with only vibration but no sound, without the need for a custom silent ringtone.
Mark’s first real encounter with tech was when he had to format his computer with Windows 98 around the age of 6 to quickly get back to playing Heroes of Might and Magic III without having to send the computer in for a repair, which he strangely found to be rather enjoyable since it was a new challenge for him at the time.
While he has always been particularly interested in the software side of things, which eventually led to him becoming a software developer, he enjoys keeping up with the advancements in consumer electronics and smart home technology when he’s not busy coding.