A ring tone is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming call. The term, however, is most often used to refer to the customisable sounds available on mobile phones. This facility was originally provided so that people would be able to determine when their phone was ringing when in the company of other mobile phone owners.
Whereas older telephones simply used a pair of bells for the ringer, modern ringtones have become extremely diverse, leading to phone personalization and customization.
Newer mobile phones allow the users to associate different ringtones for different phonebook entries. Many also allow users to create their own music tones, either with a "melody composer" or a sample/loop arranger (such as the MusicDJ in many Sony Ericsson phones). Often these are native formats only available to one particular phone model or brand. However, other formats, such as MIDI or MP3, are often supported; they must be downloaded to the phone before they can be used as a normal ringtone. Commercial ringtones take advantage of this functionality, which has led to the success of the mobile music industry.
An alternative to a ring tone for mobile phones is a vibrating alert. It may be useful:
In noisy environmentsIn places where ring tone noise would be disturbingFor the hearing impaired