Ringtones are the sounds that mobile phone make to signal incoming calls or text messages. The essential characteristics of ringtones is that it can be customized to suit the individual's taste and that feature could be said to influence consumers so much in the choice of phones.

Ringtones are popular for several reasons:

They can be assigned to specific numbers so you know who is calling by the sound

They help individuals in crowded settings to know their phone is the one ringing

And for the youth, it is a way of carrying their popular songs with them wherever they go to.

There are three kinds of ringtones in operation now.

Monophonic ringtones are basic sequential notes that makes a single tone at a time. In effect they are not musical as one note success the other like a piano composition.

Polyphonic ringtones can play i6 notes at a time and therefore highly musical. It can produce harmonic sounds and they are a regular feature of modern phones.

Digital samples use mp3 and wav files as ringtones; making them the most sophiscated as it means computer generated sounds can be used as ringtones.

Technically, a ringtone is a program that activates the phone's speakers anytime it picks text messages or incoming call signals.

Ringtones are based on a programming language called Ringing Tone Text Transfer Language (RTTTL) which was developed by Nokia .

Ringtones are available in various forms. They can be hard-coded onto your phone from the factory. In that case, you only have to scroll the phone menu and pick the one you would like to use as your tone.

You can also download ringtones from the web. In this case, you can use a data cable and transfer the files to your phone and then use as ringtones. Ringtones on the web can also be downloaded onto phones through WAP services or SMS transfer. You can alternatively use the key press sequence offered by various sites. With this method, you only follow the steps on the web page to accomplish the composition.

Lately, you can compose your own tones by pressing the various keys on your keypad to mimic various notes. Generally, the alpa keys on the phone correspond to the tonic solfa and with a little ingenuity you can compose some primary tones.

If mobile phones have increased in popularity, ringtones have played a big role. As more and more ways to generate tones evolve, so will be the demand for them.