Your iOS device will vibrate whenever someone calls or texts, if the alarm is ringing or if you have a new notification. You might not have noticed, but there are individual vibrations for each type of alert. For example, a phone call causes the phone to vibrate for a longer period of time than a text messages.

Hidden away in iOS 7 is the ability to create your own custom vibrations. These can be assigned to a contact, enabling you to recognize whoever is trying to get in touch while the phone is in silent mode. Creating custom vibrations is an easy and fun process, and takes just seconds to do. Read on to see how it’s done…

1. Contacts

Open the Contacts app and select a contact. Next, tap the Edit button at the top of the screen, then tap the Vibration button.

2. Create new vibration

Scroll down until you see the CUSTOM title, then tap the Create New Vibration button. A large grey box will appear on-screen.

3. Tap a rhythm

To create your custom vibration, tap anywhere on the grey box. Tap a rhythm all of your own, you only need to this once as the device will automatically loop it. Feel free to be as creative as you like. Once you’ve tapped out your vibration, tap the Stop button.

4. Preview

You can playback your custom vibration by tapping the Play button. If you’re happy with the result, tap the Save button in the top right corner of the screen, then give your vibration a name. It will now be assigned to your contact of choice.

5. Delete a custom vibration

Unhappy with the custom vibration you’ve created? If so then it’s easy to delete it. Just swipe right-to-left across the vibration, then tap the red Delete button. It will now be removed from your device.