Ringback Tones Spice Up Your Cellphone

If you have heard of ringtones, then chances are you have also heard of ringback tones. They are similar, but then again they are different. Ringback tones as a service came after ringtones, so there are a few people out there who might not have heard of them.

First of all, just to make sure you know what I'm talking about, ringtones is the sound or ditty that plays when someone is calling you. Until you pickup, or your cellphone goes to voicemail, you will hear your ringtone coming from the external speaker of your cellphone.

The difference with ringback tones as compared to ringtones is that they are not played on your phone when you have an incoming call. Instead, they are the sound or ditty played to the person who is calling you. So if someone calls you, and you have a ringback tone set up on your cellphone, then the person trying to reach you will hear the ringback tone in their earpiece until you pickup, or the call goes to voicemail.

So just to review - you are in charge of setting up both ringtones and ringback tones on your cellphone. Ringtones will be heard by you on the external speaker of your own phone when someone calls you. Ringback tones will be heard by the person calling you, on their internal speaker of the phone they are calling from. Another example is that ringback tones are kind of like elevator music for the person calling you, although the ringback tone only plays while the phone is ringing, before you answer the call.

Now that I've sorted out ringtones and ringback tones for you, you may realize by now that ringback tones can add quite a bit of fun to your cellphone. Now I want to give you some new ideas about how to make the most of this feature on your mobile phone. I personally use verizon ringback tones, but you'll be able to find ringbacks with all of the major wireless carriers.

One of the coolest versions of ringback tones that I've discovered are simply audio clips. The majority of ringtones and ringback tones available are generally songs, current pop hits playing on mtv and the radio. The audio clips that I like are anything from greetings recorded by a celebrity, to classic comedy sketches. Adding an audio clip to your selection of ringback tones adds a lot of originality to your cellphone greeting, rather than replaying the same rap tune that everyone else has downloaded to their phones.

As I've mentioned, the typical ringback tones that you will encounter will be a music clip. Instead of downloading current pop hits, I've found that browsing the classics and less mainstream musical genres allows me to add a unique personality to my cellphone greeting. Sometimes this has led to new conversations with friends, and sharing a new musical genre with friends is always fun. You may find it a bit harder to find these types of ringback tones since they are not the most popularly requested files, but keep looking, you will eventually find some hidden gems worthy of downloading to your cellphone.

Those are two of my favorite ways to spice up your ringback tone use on your mobile phone. I hope you take advantage of this great feature, since it is a fabulous way to add interest and personality to your mobile phone. You just may be surprised to learn who you have obscure musical tastes in common with.