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If your Apple Watch isn’t vibrating strongly enough, there’s a setting for that. Here’s how to find it.
The Apple Watch can vibrate to let you now about a notification. But you might find that the vibration isn’t strong enough for you to notice. Or, you might want to disable vibrations completely.
Apple offers three vibration settings: Off, Standard, and Distinct. If you’ve bought an Apple Watch and never changed this setting, Standard is the default. There are two ways to adjust it: directly on your Apple Watch or in the Watch app on your paired iPhone.
To adjust the vibration on the Apple Watch, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Haptics.
To adjust the Apple Watch vibration in the Watch app on your iPhone, open the Watch app and got to My Watch > Sounds & Haptics > Haptics.
Select the option you want from the list there. Off turns off vibration for notifications completely. Standard makes the Apple Watch vibrate twice. Distinctive makes it vibrate once for a long time and then twice briefly.
This setting only adjusts the vibration for notifications. There are also two other, less noticeable types of vibration: that of the Digital Crown and system haptics. Both are simply used to provide feedback when operating the Apple Watch.
While the Digital Crown’s vibration is largely self-explanatory, system haptics generally serve to confirm various interactions with the Apple Watch. For example, when you use the double-tap and wrist gestures, the Apple Watch vibrates to confirm.
You cannot customize these two types of vibration; you can only switch them on or off. They can be found under Settings > Sounds & Haptics or My Watch > Sounds & Haptics in the System Sounds & Haptics section at the bottom of the list. To disable the Digital Crown vibration, toggle the switch under Haptics (Crown); to disable system haptics, toggle the switch under System Haptics.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication Macwelt and was translated and localized from German.
