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Sound and Haptic feedback?

M

MacFan1957

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 21, 2010
81
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I have noticed that I only get haptic feedback if I also have sound on for the corresponding iPhone app. At first I thought it was just me, the sound working with the haptic to alert me. However, I muted the sound on my AW and I still feel the "bumps". Is this a bug, my AW, or is that how it should be?

Thanks,
Keith
 
Haptic feedback can be turned on and off independently of sound. So yes, you can have your Watch on mute and still receive taps. That's actually the majority (I believe) use their Watch.
 
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Bbqthis said:
Haptic feedback can be turned on and off independently of sound. So yes, you can have your Watch on mute and still receive taps. That's actually the majority (I believe) use their Watch.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I know that. What I was talking about was the sound being turned on in the notification section of the relevant iPhone app. As I an example, I use a soccer app called "OneFootball". In the iPhone notification setting I had the sound off. I received alerts on my AW but with no sound (expected) and apparently no haptic either. I then decided to turn the sound on in the iPhone notification setting for that app. Now I get haptic feedback on my AW even if the AW is on mute. Make sense?

I would like to have the sound off in the iPhone notification settings but still get haptic feedback on my AW. Why is that not possible?
 
Apple Watch ties taptic to sound the same way the iPhone ties vibrate to sound (i.e., the iPhone doesn't vibrate when you have sound for a notification turned off). I doubt this will be changed since it's been the same way on the phone all these years. But who knows…

Couldn't you turn the sound on for the alert on your iPhone, since you'll only get the notification on your watch anyway?
 
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JTravers said:
Couldn't you turn the sound on for the alert on your iPhone, since you'll only get the notification on your watch anyway?
Click to expand...

I could do and indeed have done. I would however prefer to have no sound, on the phone or my AW. I was just trying to see if anyone knew that was an option.

Thanks anyway,
Keith
 
MacFan1957 said:
I could do and indeed have done. I would however prefer to have no sound, on the phone or my AW. I was just trying to see if anyone knew that was an option.

Thanks anyway,
Keith
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, it isn't an option. I had the same issue and ended up turning sounds back on for some notifications. Not ideal, I agree, but works just the same as long as the watch stays connected to the phone.
 
The Watch's mute setting does indeed apply only to noises. The assumption is that the taps are not intrusive and can't be heard by anyone near you (unlike a phone vibrating, which, you have to admit, can be pretty annoying).

Since getting my AW, though, I've turned my phone's vibrations off completely, even in silent mode. Alerts that come through on the phone and would normally make a sound still make my watch tap and ding.

How's that for an idea?
 
Pretty good idea. I'll have to think this through a little to make sure it fits in with all my use cases. The only issue I can think of is when I have my phone on me while my watch is charging. I sleep with my watch on so it can tap me awake, which means I have to find an hour here or there to take it off and charge it before bed. In that scenario, I might miss an important notification if my phone is on silent. Of course, I could just remember to turn the mute switch off whenever I charge the watch.
 
BarracksSi said:
The Watch's mute setting does indeed apply only to noises. The assumption is that the taps are not intrusive and can't be heard by anyone near you (unlike a phone vibrating, which, you have to admit, can be pretty annoying).

Since getting my AW, though, I've turned my phone's vibrations off completely, even in silent mode. Alerts that come through on the phone and would normally make a sound still make my watch tap and ding.

How's that for an idea?
Click to expand...

I agree with all of that and it does sound like a reasonable workaround but its still a workaround. I'd much prefer it if Apple gave us the option, maybe one day?

As of now I have my iPhone ringer and alert volume set to low. Not bad but also not ideal.

Anyway, thanks for the input,
Keith
 
I think the reasoning is that a sound, vibration and taptic notification all serve the same purpose of immediately alerting you to a notification, with a couple of conditional checks to determine which of the three it uses to alert you.

Think of the "Sound" setting as more of an "Urgent" setting. If you have Sound/Urgent disabled for a particular notification, the logic is that you don't consider the notification urgent enough to alert you immediately, and you are implicitly accepting that you won't see the notification until the next time you check your Watch or iPhone.

I can see the appeal of configuring a notification to only alert you on Apple Watch and just silently go to the Notification Center on your iPhone if you aren't wearing your Watch. It's easy to have your Apple Watch tap you and quickly glance at a notification on your wrist telling you that your soccer team scored. But, you may not consider it worth the effort to retrieve and unlock your phone for the same, non-urgent, non-actionable notification. I ran all the way over here to check my iPhone for this?

This may just be a use case that Apple hasn't fully considered yet.
 
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It'd probably need another toggle in the Notifications preferences on the iPhone. "Always send alert to Apple Watch" or something like that.
 
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