Make Your SMS Text Messaging Notification Repeat Until Read

I Miss My Pager

I’m not hearing some of my text message alerts. Clients, friends, or my boss will text me and sometimes I miss that one-time beep. I would like to enable repeated audible alerts of new SMS messages on my iPhone, and I want the alert repeated indefinitely, like an old Motorola beeper pager, until I open and read the message.

I need the alert to be repeated indefinitely until I open and read the message because no matter how loud I make the setting, most cell phones only beep once when they receive an SMS text message.  It is inconvenient to carry my phone around as I move about the house while working from home, but I need to hear an alert when I return to the room or hear an alert that is repeating in the distance because it’s more likely to get my attention nearby if it doesn’t stop after one chirp.

Back in the days of alphanumeric pagers, when you received a text message the Motorola pager would beep and continue to beep until you pressed the button to read the message you received.  It was really annoying, and it was kind of designed to be that way on purpose to make sure you wouldn’t miss a call.

Fast-forward to the modern days of cell phones and SMS text messaging and this convenience seems to be missing!  Why do I only get one notification when an SMS text message comes through?  Only one short vibration?  Not knowing another solution might be available is possibly why people still use pagers in 2025.

But no, I don’t want to go back to using a 1990’s pager.

The Secret iPhone Solution

Thankfully, there is a solution and it’s likely already built into the Apple iPhone you own!  The feature is called “Repeating Alerts” and here is how to activate it:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

2. Scroll down and tap on the Notifications menu.

3. Scroll and tap on the Messages item to show notification settings options.  (On this screen, you’ll also see an ability to tap Sounds to change the alert tone that plays.  I recommend selecting the longest and loudest alert tone of your choice.)

4. Scroll to the bottom and tap on Customize Notifications option.

5. Tap on the Repeat Alerts option and choose your desired repetition.  (Note: The maximum number of repeated alerts is 10 times, with a 2-minute interval between.  Not indefinate, but 20 minutes of notifications will hopefully get your attention!)

This will cause Messages notifications to repeat after the initial notification.  You could also assign a custom, loud and obnoxious text alert tone to a specific Contact that will make it more likely to get your attention over text messages you may receive from other contacts.

Need even more notification to get your attention from across the room or deep asleep at night?  Coworkers who were on-call 24/7 also found it useful to turn on “LED Flash for Alerts” in the Hearing section of Settings -> General -> Accessibility.

Looking for Something Even Better?

Give us a call, anytime, at +1.800.857.1517.  We’re always happy to help solve problems with custom solutions.  Need an escalating message notification system with on-call schedules and supervisor tools?  We can do that.