Ringback Tones – Simply Fun

It sometimes seems like keeping up with all the new cellphone trends and features is a full time job. There is no doubt that cellphone manufacturers and cellphone provider companies are always developing new ideas to keep cellphones fresh. Ringback tones is the latest new cellphone feature that lets you personalize your cellphone, sort of in the same way that ringtones did, but with a few minor changes.

The same feature for T-Mobile is called Caller Tunes, if your carrier is AT&T it is called Answer Tones, and if you use Sprint, you need to look for Call Tones. Regardless of the name, some of you may still not have heard about them. Essentially it is a sound, tone or song that you can set to play for your caller instead of the ringing tone that they would normally hear through their cellphone.

So the ringback tone has nothing to do with you – it is all about what your callers hear. Except that you control it. And one of the coolest things is that you can program different tones for just about anything like play a certain ringback depending on the time of day, or specific tones for different callers.

So how do get them? How much do they cost? Is it hard to install them? Before I explain all that, I just wanted to use an example that everyone should know by know to make it easier to understand what they really are and how they work. The concept is similar to ringtones, where you go on the internet to find ringtones (basically sound files) and download them to your phone. Now the ringtone is in your phone, and you can choose it from your menu of ringtones to play when when certain people call you, or when your phone has a message etc.

When you go to setup ringback tones for the first time, there are two parts to getting them to work on your phone. First, you need to tell your cellphone provider that you want to use them. This means that they turn on the ringback tones service for your cellphone, and charge you a ringback service fee (which is small) each month. Then you go and look for ringback tones, like you would look for ringtones, and download them. Now, ringback tones for the most part will not be free. This is because you don’t download them to your phone, you are actually having them download to a server owned by your cellphone provider. This is because when the tone plays, it’s not playing on your phone, it is actually the cellphone provider that plays it for your caller. Similar to your answering machine message. Therefore, you need the cellphone provider to download the ringback, and for that they are going to charge you. In any event, once you’ve chosen you ringback tones and your account has been charged (again, this is a small amount) for each one, you will have these tones available for you to program how you wish.

Adding the ringback feature to your phone bill isn’t free – it will cost from $1.49 – $1.99 per month, and then you need to buy each ringback tone that you want downloaded to your account. Ringback tones typically cost $.99 to a few dollars, and remember that they will expire eventually, anywhere from a month to a year. Even with the extra cost I think this is a great feature to let you have some fun with your cell, and personalize what people hear when they call you.

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