How to set up Apple Watch-only vibrations for on-call paging systems
Disclaimer: I currently use an iPhone and an Apple Watch, so this guide is specific to the Apple ecosystem.
I’m one of those people that keeps their phone on silent mode 24/7. It’s always set to vibrate, which is perfect for the day, however it creates a specific problem at night.
Normally, turning on Sleep Focus or Do Not Disturb (DND) mode would solve night-time interruptions. But when you are on call and get a PagerDuty alert, you have to let those critical calls bypass your DND settings. When they break through, the phone vibrating against a wooden nightstand is incredibly loud.
I wanted a very specific setup: PagerDuty calls and texts to vibrate my phone normally during the day, but at night, when Sleep Focus is active, I want my Apple Watch to tap my wrist to wake me up, while the iPhone on the nightstand stays completely still and silent.
This sounds like it should be easy (and kinda is, you just need to know what settings to change).
Prerequisite: Set up a Silent Ringtone
First, you need to follow the foundation from Atul Kale’s article on PagerDuty & Apple Watch Silent Alarms. He explains how to set a “silent” audio file and assign it as the specific ringtone for your PagerDuty contact with Emergency Bypass turned on. This ensures the call breaks through your Sleep/Do Not Disturb modes without actually making a noise.
Once you have done that, if you, like me, always keep your phone on silent mode with vibration on, you will still have the problem of the phone vibrating.
The Fix: Break the Apple Watch mirroring
To stop the nightstand rattle but keep the wrist taps, you have to force the Watch to use its own independent settings rather than mirroring the phone.
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap Phone.
- Change the alert setting from “Mirror my iPhone” to Custom.
- Make sure the Haptic toggle is turned ON.
- Go back to the main menu in the Watch app, tap Messages, and do the same thing: set it to Custom and make sure Haptic is ON.
Why this works perfectly for day and night
By switching the Watch settings to “Custom,” you break the link between the two devices for incoming calls and texts.
During the day, everything works as expected: your iPhone vibrates in your pocket, and your Watch taps your wrist.
However at night, when you are in Sleep Focus or Do Not Disturb mode, Apple naturally routes alerts to the active device (your Watch).
This setup gives you peace of mind. You get woken up, but your partner gets to sleep right through the page.