Giving friends custom text buzzes based on Morse code
The author describes a personal project to create custom vibration patterns for text notifications on an iPhone using Morse code based on friends' initials. This method allows the user to identify the sender of a text without looking at their phone.
Why it matters
It demonstrates a creative, low-tech solution to the modern problem of digital distraction and notification fatigue.
I ran out of time to write a good blog post for September , so I wrote a quick blog post for September. Oops!
I sometimes have my phone in my pocket with notifications on. When that happens, I can feel every time my phone buzzes. I know when someone has texted me because I have a custom vibration pattern for text messages that is distinct from other notifications. However, I have historically had few distinctions between different people, so I don't know who has texted me.
I find this annoying. Of all the notifications on my phone, texts have the highest signal-to-noise ratio. Most texts I receive are individual messages from friends or colleagues. However, at any given time, there's maybe only a 40% chance that a text is actually relevant to what I'm currently doing.
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