Every smartphone comes with a slate of built-in ringtones and alert sounds. But after a while, they can get annoying and confusing. Was that your phone ringing or the guy behind you in line at the grocery store? That’s one reason you may want to create your own ringtones.
But hey, what if you just want a new ringtone without having to do the work? No problem. We gathered a collection of the highest-rated ready-made ringtones and authoring tools for both iPhone and Android devices. These should get you started in installing some pleasing tunes and switching them out whenever you wish.
Though its in-app advertisements can be a bit intrusive and irritating, Zedge remains one of the most popular Android apps for ringtones and notification sounds. There’s a huge variety of ringtones, notification sounds, and alarm tones to choose from across various genres, and the search function makes it easy to find what you’re looking for. The app has wallpapers for your phone, too. You can even upgrade to Premium to banish those pesky ads.
This collection of free ringtones and alert sounds is sure to breathe new life into your Android phone. Use them to set up a sound as a default or contact ringtone, SMS message, notification melody, or alarm sound. It’s all perfectly legal — no copyright issues. Sounds and tones used in the Free Music Ringtones app are under Creative Commons License, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, Public Domain Mark 1.0 License, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, and Creative Commons Attribution 2.5. Generic.
Many of today’s smartphone users probably don’t even know what an old telephone ring used to sound like. The Old Telephone Ringtones app, featuring free retro ringtones, remedies that with the best old classic ringtones for your device. Old rings may be out of style, but they’re the height of fashion. Providing nostalgia for the sounds of old office and home phones, these vintage sounds will help you remember or acquaint you with the good old days. Download free classic ringtones to search among various retro phone ringtones and alarm sounds to personalize your contacts’ ringtones, alarm sounds, or SMS sounds. All sounds are under the Creative Commons License and/or public domain.
Bird Songs is a free ringtone app for your phone. Get familiar with different bird calls from all over the world and use your favorite ones as ringtones for WhatsApp, Messenger, Line, or Viber. Choose a ringtone, notification, or alarm sound from over 160 high-quality bird sounds — from nightingale to rooster — and many other singing or funny bird sounds for free on your phone or tablet. The built-in search option makes it easy to select and switch out any bird.
Never pay for ringtones for your iPhone, as this app touts its unlimited free tone choices. The Ringtones for iPhone app lets you convert music and record tones with your device’s microphone, and it also provides an extensive library of built-in tones. A designer module can convert all MP3 and AAC iTunes music to ringtones. A recorder lets you record voices as ringtones, allowing easy adjustment of start and end markers, fade in and out options, pitch and volume variations, and trim and cut tones. You can share whatever you create on social media. The app also comes with unique wallpapers for your viewing pleasure. The service offers new ringtones every week, in addition to wallpaper and stickers. The first three days are free, but thereafter the app costs $8 per month or $35 per year. This may be worth it for high-volume users.
The RingTune app lets you fully customize your phone by choosing or creating your own unique ringtone and adding a live wallpaper to your lock screen. The app’s ringtone catalog offers an easy-to-use live wallpaper and ringtone maker, all-modern iPhone support for iPhone 6S and newer, content updates, and holiday content refresh. Browse thousands of new and popular ringtones for iPhone or create an unlimited number of ringtones using songs from your library.
Are you looking for fun sound effects, classic ringtones, and special holiday tunes? The Cool Ringtones app lets you find and set your phone ringtones, text tones, email alerts, alarm clock alerts, voicemail alerts, tweet tones, and reminder alerts. The app facilitates the creation of unlimited ringtones, or you can use its ringtone collection to customize your sounds. The app lets you create ringtones from your favorite songs and personalized tune collections, complete with pitch and volume adjustment. The app adds new tunes and sounds with its frequent updates as well.
Jackie is an obsessive, insomniac tech writer and editor in northern California. A wildlife advocate, cat fan, and photo app fanatic, her specialties include cross-platform hardware and software, art, design, photography, video, and a wide range of creative and productivity apps and systems. Formerly senior editor at Macworld and creativity editor at The Next Web, Jackie now writes for a variety of consumer tech publications.
Freelance technology journalist and writer living in (somewhat) sunny Scotland. Gamer, tea addict, never without a good book.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.
Apple's first foldable phone is now on shelves, in short supply, but with an unreal amount of buzz around it. After all, it's the first foldable iPhone, and there's plenty that this phone gets right. But there's also a lot that is either broken or underwhelming. What's peculiar is the dialogue around this phone, and how it has completely overshadowed every other attempt at making a phone with a similar form factor.
I've spent some time with the iPhone Duo, and I've used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for almost three months now. In my opinion, Samsung deserves more credit. When the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrived earlier this year, it was celebrated in some circles and ridiculed in others for supposedly copying what Apple would eventually deliver with the iPhone Duo. The dialogue was pretty odd, for multiple reasons. Samsung has been making foldable phones for years, so claiming that it copied a product Apple hadn't even launched was simply absurd.
For years, Samsung’s Galaxy A phones have been some of the easiest recommendations for anyone who wants to go the Android route without paying flagship prices. But that part of the lineup could soon become harder to find at a good price.
According to South Korea’s Electronic Times, Samsung is cutting Galaxy A production by about 20% in the fourth quarter compared to its original plans. Component orders have reportedly dropped by a similar amount, which could mean roughly 10 million fewer phones over the year. Samsung is also said to be considering another production cut of more than 10% next year.