Giving friends custom text buzzes based on Morse code

The author found themselves in a predicament when they couldn't find time to write a blog post for September, so they quickly wrote a short blog post instead. They often received notifications on their phone, but had difficulty distinguishing which ones were important text messages. Having a custom vibration pattern for text messages helped them identify who had texted them, but the author found they had few distinctions between different people and no unique vibration pattern for each.

This annoyed them, especially given that most of the texts they received were from friends or colleagues. However, at any given time, only about 40% of the texts they received were relevant to what they were currently doing. The author generally kept their notifications off to avoid this problem, but there were times when they needed to quickly respond to a text message.

Using an iPhone, they were able to give custom text buzzes to different people by creating custom text tones based on the Morse Code of their initials. Though they wished they could have automated the process, they ended up creating custom text tones for about 25 people by hand. The entire process took approximately 45 minutes, as they recorded the buzz pattern for each person individually in the Sounds & Haptics section of their phone's settings.

They named the text tone after the person's initials and then updated the contact to reflect the new vibration pattern. To make the process easier, the author had Claude create an artifact where they could press on someone's initials and hear the Morse Code pattern as a series of beats. The overall experience was manageable, with each text tone taking between one to five attempts to get right.

They advised their friends to reach out to them by phone if they needed urgent assistance, as their phone was set to do not disturb for calls. If the author didn't pick up, they asked friends to leave a text or a call explaining why they called, as they may not see the text until later.