How Does Ringback Work?

What are Ringback Tones?

Ringback tones are slowly replacing the typical ringtone heard when someone calls a cell phone. Ringback tones are recordings of different musical artists, or recorded phrases, that play back to a caller instead of the regular ringing sound usually heard. Cell phone owners are able to customize their general ringback tone to whatever style of music they like, or assign specific ringback tones to individual callers.

How are They Purchased?

Ringback tones can be purchased either by visiting your cell phone provider's Website and purchasing them directly, or by texting a ringback tone short code on the phone itself. Once the tone has been purchased, it is added to the ringback tones section of your cell phone. This is where you can then customize who will hear it when they call you. Ringback tones are only purchasable for phones and service providers who can support and offer the service.

How It Works

A general ringback tone is a tone that is heard by anyone that calls your phone. With a general ringback tone, when the call is transferred to your cell phone provider's cell tower, the tower can then recognize that the call is going to a phone that has a ringback assigned to it, and automatically plays the assigned ringback tone for the caller to listen to. A specified ringback tone is one that differs depending on who is calling. In this case the cell phone recognizes the number that is calling and automatically plays the appropriate song back to the caller.

Customization

The great feature with ringback tones is the level of customization available to the cell phone owner. Ringback tones allow you to download your favorite artists, songs and sounds to your phone that best fit your personality. You can then decide to offer a general ringback tone to anyone that calls your phone to listen to before you pick it up, or you can assign different specific ringback tones to each individual on your contact list.

For Business

Ringback tones are becoming increasingly popular for businesses to help promote their products and services. A business owner can easily program their phone using caller ringback tones. This allows the business owner to play a recorded advertisement message to the customers as they wait for someone to pick up the line.