Custom Ringtones in Android on a Galaxy Phone

This isn’t really a “hack” but it’s one of the little things in life that make it so much happier. It took me forever to figure out how to do this on my Galaxy s8. It was easy and intuitive on my Droid X years ago and I didn’t even need to search for instructions.

This doesn’t involve any code but I’m sure you’ll be glad you found the post.

Get the desired song on your phone

You can just drag files from your computer into your phone.

Mac OS X

Windows 10

Use an Audio Player

You may be able to download them using an audio player like Amazon Music.

Swipe up on the Home screen and find the app.

In my case, I tap Amazon Music.

In Amazon Music, I filter by Offline Music and Artists to shorten the list.

Find the desired song, click the three dots menu thingy (for the song) to open a list of options.

 Tap Download. 

 

Open the desired contact

Find your Contacts in your phone.

Contacts in Android on my Galaxy s8

Tap Contacts to open it.

Scroll to the desired contact.

My wife hates me posting pix of her online, so I just found a pic of some random girl who looks just like her to respect her privacy.

Tap the Edit button in the bottom center (that I forgot to circle — sorry).

In Edit mode (above), scroll down until you see View More (below).

Almost at the very bottom (see below), tap Ringtone.

“Default ringtone” is the current ringtone.

This opens a list of available ringtones and indicates the current ringtone (again, “Default ringtone” in this case).

Tap the Plus sign in the upper-right that I forgot to circle. Again. I’m sorry. Again. 

Note: The instructions I found that were closest to reality still had a couple things that didn’t match my device. Those instructions said, instead of plus sign, I should tap “Allow Storage permission > ALLOW” — all that to say your experience may vary.

In my experience, this opens a list of every music file on my phone regardless of it’s origin or location.

Default seems to always be Tracks (above), so I tap Artists (below) to shorten the list. You may also try Albums if you have a lot of albums containing lots of “various artists.”

Scroll to the desired artist (or album).

Tap The Brady Bunch or whomever.

This opens a list of their albums or tracks.

Tap the song your wife is always singing. Or whatever. Maybe it’s your psychotic ex and you choose “Chop, Chop, Chop” by Alice Cooper as pictured in a previous screenshot.

If memory serves, you’ll return to your list of ringtones with your newly chosen ringtone selected.

Tap the Back button and return to the Contact‘s Details where you’ll also see your newly chosen Ringtone displayed.

Click Save in the bottom right (above), maybe scroll up if needed, and see that Contact‘s ringtone listed on their main Details page.

Tutorials of the Year

I’ve decided to separate my Books of the Year posts because I’d started to added other resources and those lists grew over time as well. So, in addition to 2019 Books of the Year for Teaching Yourself Coding, I also have this post and 2019 Courses of the Year for Teaching Yourself Coding.

These tutorials aren’t just for eager young coders, developers, and programmers but — since I am full-stack all the way from concept to completion, so I create my own graphics and videos — motion graphics artists and video editors.

• YouTube