A system and a method are disclosed for activating haptics during a one-way communications session with a mobile bug. The system may establish a one-way communications session between a mobile bug and a monitoring device, and may receive, from the monitoring device, a request to notify a user of the mobile bug of a circumstance. The system may compare data of the request to entries of a database, and may identify, based on the comparing, an entry of the request that matches the data. The system may determine a haptic output indicated by the entry, and may transmit a command to the mobile bug to vibrate according to the haptic output.