How to bring Google’s custom vibration brilliance to any Android phone today

Have you heard the buzz? Good vibrations are on their way to Android — or at least to Google’s own homemade Pixel devices.

As we discussed in my Android Intelligence newsletter on Friday, word broke the other day about a still-under-wraps plan to bring custom vibration patterns into the ever-evolving Android arena. The feature appears to be connected to the Pixel-specific Google Sounds app and designed to let you pick from a series of distinctive, recognizable vibration patterns for different types of alerts.

That way, you’d know exactly what’s happening without even having to pull your phone out of your purse and/or pantaloons — as you’d be able to tell that a certain series of vibrations means “important call from work,” whereas another series of vibrations means “incoming message from a guy named Trent” (and we all know you never stop what you’re doing to deal with a guy named Trent).

As reported by famed Android code-sleuther and notably not Trent-named human Mishaal Rahman, the vibrations vary not only in their patterns — with presets such as “Blip,” “Rumble,” “Fireworks,” and “Waves” — but also in their intensity and duration (and for the love of all things holy, get your mind out of the gutter, lest I be forced to bring HR into this conversation).

It’s an interesting new way to make our devices less disruptive and more useful. But it’s also not available to anyone as of this moment, and it’s not entirely clear when that might change or how far the eventual rollout could reach.

But hold the phone! As usual here in the land o’ Android, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And with the inspiration of Google’s good vibrations guiding us, I’ve got an extremely easy way to bring this same custom vibration capability onto any Android device this instant — no matter who made it or how old it might be.

In fact, the setup we’re about to go over takes Google’s core concept and makes it even more versatile and customizable. And it’ll take you all of four minutes to get up and running on whatever Android gizmo you’ve got.

Ready?

[Keep the knowledge flowing with my free Android Notification Power-Pack next — six powerful notification enhancements for any Android device.]

4 minutes to smarter Android vibrations

The trick to bringing custom vibration patterns onto any Android device immediately resides in one of my all-time favorite Android power-user tools.

It’s an app called BuzzKill, and it might just be the best Android customization tool most people don’t know about.

The best way to think about BuzzKill is as a system that lets you create filters for your phone’s notifications — kind of like Gmail filters, only for Android notifications instead of incoming emails.

I’ve got an in-depth guide to all the ins and outs of BuzzKill and the many incredible things it can do for you, in case you’re feeling extra ambitious. But for our purposes here today, I want to focus specifically on the custom vibration flirtation and how you can bring that situation out of gestation, to your elation (and possibly with some celebratory gyration or libations). Whew! Can I get an ovation?!

All superfluous rhyming aside, this thing really is awesome. And it can bring you the benefit of easily recognizable, situation-specific vibration patterns in no time — no specific device or yet-to-be-released updates required.

Here’s all you’ve gotta do:

Download BuzzKill from the Play Store. It’ll cost you four bucks as a one-time purchase, and it’ll be worth every penny — and then some.

BuzzKill doesn’t require any unusual permissions, doesn’t collect any form of data from your phone, and doesn’t have any manner of access to the internet — meaning it’d have no way of sharing your information even if it wanted to.

Once you’ve gone through the app’s initial setup and gotten to its main screen, tap on the circular button in the lower-right corner of the screen to create a new rule.

That’ll cause a fill-in-the-blank “if this, then that”-style rule to show up. And all that’s left is to fill in those blanks with the specific info we want.

The blank canvas for your Pixel-style custom Android vibration rule.JR Raphael, IDG

So first, consider what exact type of notification you want to target to start. Maybe it’s a message from your boss or a text from important client in Messages. Maybe it’s an update in a high-priority channel in Slack or a DM that contains a specific phrase. Or maybe it’s an especially critical calendar event with a certain keyword in its title.

Whatever the case may be, tap the text that says “any app” and select the app you want. You’ll then see that change reflected in the rule on your screen.

Next, tap “contains anything” and think about the exact circumstances you want this rule to affect. If you want the rule to affect all notifications from the app you selected, you can just leave this as-is and not fill in any additional info for that part of the equation. But if you want the rule to be limited only to specific notifications within the app — those including a certain name, word, or phrase — this is where you’d configure that.

Now we’ve got just one field left to faff with — the one that currently says “do nothing.”

For this step, you’ll tap the words “do nothing” to create your own custom vibration pattern.JR Raphael, IDG

That field, as you may have surmised, controls what happens when a notification that matches our conditions appears. And that’s where the real magic comes into play.

Tap those two words, then scroll down and select “Custom alert” from the list of possibilities that pops up. That’ll expand your rule and set the stage for our final piece of our Android vibration customization creation. (Oh no. Here we go again with my sublime rhyme pastime…)

Last but not least, tap the newly present “default vibration” text — and now, in a twist even Google’s under-development custom vibration system doesn’t support, you can create your own original vibration pattern that you’ll be sure to recognize and immediately associate with this specific type of event.

Your custom Android vibration creation station — elation!JR Raphael, IDG

Just tap that “Add buzz” button to get going. That’ll let you select from a variety of vibration styles for the first buzz in this custom sequence.

Pick whatever combination of buzz lengths and gap lengths you want to create your unique pattern, and be sure to look at the “Intensity” option to adjust how strong or gentle the vibrations are, too. 

Here, for instance, I’ve attempted to recreate the drumbeat to Led Zeppelin’s classic “Immigrant Song” — sans the high-pitched screams, of course:

My own custom vibration creation.JR Raphael, IDG

Use the “Preview” option to feel your pattern in action, and once you’re satisfied, tap the “Pick pattern” button at the bottom of the screen to save it.

And that’s it: All that’s left is to tap “Save rule” to, y’know, save your rule — and it’ll then be up and running and ready to vibrate you in all the right ways.

The final step is simply saving your rule — then letting it work its magic.JR Raphael, IDG

Just follow those same steps to set up additional custom vibration rules for any other types of notifications you want, and you’ll be buzzin’ away and recognizing specific alerts simply by the way your phone is a-shakin’.

And again, all of this is just scratching the surface of what BuzzKill can accomplish. I use it for all sorts of sanity-saving purposes — from keeping low-priority notifications out of my hair during the workday to auto-hushing back-to-back alerts from nuisances named Trent.

It’s one heck of a resource — and you’d better believe it’s yet another one of those powers that’s possible only here on Android.