Apple Watch Silent Alarm: How to Wake Up With Wrist Taps Only

An Apple Watch silent alarm taps your wrist instead of playing a sound, which makes it a popular way to wake up without disturbing a partner, a baby or a share house. The setting that controls it isn't where most people expect, and there's one option that can make a "silent" alarm play out loud. This guide covers how to set a silent alarm on the watch, how to send iPhone alarms to your wrist, how to make the taps stronger, the sleep schedule alarm, and the practical limits around charging and comfort.

The short answer: turn on Silent Mode on your Apple Watch and set an alarm in the Alarms app. Apple says that's how you create an alarm that taps your wrist but doesn't make a sound. Check that Break Through Silent Mode is off for that alarm, or it will play sound anyway. Set Haptics to Prominent if the taps feel too light. The main catch is battery: you need enough charge to wear the watch all night.

How to set a silent alarm on Apple Watch

Apple's guide gives the steps below. Menu names can differ slightly between watch models and watchOS versions (source).

1. Turn on Silent Mode. Open the Settings app on your watch, tap Sounds & Haptics and turn on Silent Mode. Apple's tip is that to create an alarm that taps your wrist but doesn't make a sound, you turn on Silent Mode.
2. Open the Alarms app on your watch and tap the add button.
3. Set the time. Tap AM or PM, tap the hours or minutes, turn the Digital Crown to adjust, then confirm.
4. Open the alarm to edit it. Tap the alarm time to see Repeat, Label, Snooze and Snooze Duration.
5. Check Break Through Silent Mode is off. When it's on, Apple says sound always plays while you're wearing the watch.
6. Make sure the alarm's switch is on in the list.

Test it once while you're awake. Set an alarm a couple of minutes ahead and check it taps without a sound.

Getting your iPhone alarms on your wrist

If you'd rather keep setting alarms on your phone, you can have them tap your wrist too. Set the alarm on your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app on the iPhone, tap My Watch, tap Clock and turn on Push Alerts from iPhone. Your watch then alerts you when the iPhone alarm goes off so you can snooze or dismiss it (source).

The catch is that the iPhone alarm itself still plays on the phone unless you've made it vibration-only there as well. Apple notes that iPhone alarms sound even in Silent mode. Our iPhone vibrate-only alarm guide shows how to set the phone's alarm sound to None.

Making the taps easier to feel

Wrist taps are subtle by default. To make them stronger, open Settings on your watch, tap Sounds & Haptics and set Haptics to Prominent. The options are Default, Prominent or Off, and you can change the same setting from the Apple Watch app on your iPhone under My Watch, then Sounds & Haptics (source).

A few other things help:

• Wear the watch snugly enough that the back sits against your skin.
• Leave Snooze on at first so you get a second go while you learn how well you wake to taps.
• Don't set Haptics to Off. That turns off the wrist taps that a silent alarm relies on.

If you're not sure wrist vibration will wake you, see do vibrating alarms work for heavy sleepers.

Sleep schedule alarms

If you use the Sleep app, your wake-up alarm is part of a sleep schedule rather than a regular alarm. When you set up the schedule, you can turn the alarm on or off and tap Sounds & Haptics to choose an alarm sound, choose whether you always want the alarm to play on your iPhone, and choose snooze options. To change the next wake-up alarm, open the Sleep app, tap the wake-up time, then tap Sounds & Haptics to change the vibration or ringtone (source).

Two things to check for a quiet morning:

• Break Through Silent Mode exists for sleep alarms too. Leave it off if you want taps only.
• The iPhone option. If your alarm is set to always play on your iPhone, the phone can still make noise.

Charging and other practical limits

An Apple Watch can be an excellent silent alarm. The limits are practical rather than about the vibration itself:

Consideration	What it means for a silent alarm
Battery	You need enough charge to wear it all night. Apple says the watch prompts you to charge if it's under 30 per cent before bed.
Charging time	If you charge overnight, you'll need another time in your day to top up so you can wear it to bed.
Comfort	Some people find a watch bulky to sleep in. A softer band can help.
Settings	Silent Mode, Haptics and Break Through Silent Mode all affect whether the alarm stays silent.
Nightstand Mode	If the watch is on its charger, the alarm wakes you with a sound, not a wrist tap.

That last point is easy to miss. Apple's guide says that in nightstand mode, the watch gently wakes you with a unique alarm sound. If it's on the charger, it's not on your wrist.

If you're weighing up a smartwatch against a dedicated band, we compare them in smartwatch vs vibrating alarm wristband. For quiet wake-ups in a shared bed, see wake up without waking your partner.

Where the Sovune Nudge fits

We make the Sovune Nudge, a silent vibrating wristband alarm, so we're not neutral. It does one job, which suits people who don't want to sleep in a smartwatch or charge one every day.

• Up to 14 days of nightly use per charge, rechargeable via USB.
• Under 20 grams, with a slim, soft adjustable strap. It can also be worn on the ankle.
• Builds gradually. It starts as a gentle tap and builds through three intensity levels over a full minute, and you can switch it off sooner.
• Set on the band itself, with three separate alarms. No app, no phone and no pairing.

It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Quick answers

How do I make my Apple Watch alarm vibrate only? Turn on Silent Mode on the watch and set the alarm in the Alarms app. Make sure Break Through Silent Mode is off for that alarm.

Why did my Apple Watch alarm make a sound? Either Silent Mode was off, Break Through Silent Mode was on, or the watch was on its charger in nightstand mode.

Can my iPhone alarm vibrate on my Apple Watch? Yes. Turn on Push Alerts from iPhone under My Watch, then Clock, in the Apple Watch app.

Can I make the taps stronger? Yes. Set Haptics to Prominent under Sounds & Haptics on the watch.

For every type of silent alarm compared, see our complete guide to vibrating alarms in Australia.

See the Sovune Nudge →