Customize Ringback Tones

If you are more familar with ringtones than ringback tones, you'll know that they are very easy to customize. With ringtones you can create new ones, upload them to sites on the web which allow you to download them to your cellphone, you can edit them, copy them, share them, etc.  The option list is pretty huge.

On the other hand, ringback tones haven't been around for quite as long, and frankly the way that ringback tones are stored and utilized makes the user options a lot more limited. The fact that we can't control ringbacks, we need to depend on the cellphone carriers storing our ringback tones on their servers instead of our own cellphones, makes it harder to come up with a lot of options for customizing ringback tones.

So at the moment, the only way that you can customize ringback tones is to take the tones that are available from your cellphone company and customize the way that you use them. Here are a few ideas that will help you get started customizing your ringback tones.

1. Enable ringback tones. You will have to edit your account and select this feature to be enabled. You will get a monthly charge for the ringback tone service, either $1.49 or $1.99.
   
2. Go find some fun ringback tones (surf from your phone or your providers website) and download them. This will require that you pay for each one individually, or you could get a package allowing you to download a number of tones for a package price.
   
   
3. Login into your account (on your cellphone providers website) and select the options to play your ringback tones for different phone numbers or different times of the day.
   
   
4. Some cellphone carriers let you record an intro so you can tell your callers why they aren't hearing the ringing sound. Ringback tones are new to a lot of people, and some will just hang up thinking they have a weird connection or wrong number.
5. Set a default ringback, which anyone not assigned to an individual or timed ringback tone will hear.
6. Pick ringback tones for particular phone numbers.
7. Assign a ringback tone to a whole group of callers. All your peeps can hear your favorite song, and anyone else will hear the default.
8. Pick times or days that the ringbacks will be heard.

Well that's it - it's pretty simple really. Customizing your ringback tones is just a matter of getting the service, then downloading some ringbacks and trying it out. The best thing is you can tweak your tones and schedules as much as you want. The only thing you need to pay attention to is how long your ringback tones are valid for, remember, your ringback tones will expire eventually. Keep an eye on the status of your ringback tones so that you'll be able to keep using this cool feature to customize your cellphone.