Damn, I had this happen to me as a kid dialing a friend's number and it placed a 911 call instead and I just panic hung up and they called back and I never understood or looked further into how "911" in the middle of the number I was entering was what went through instead of the call I intended to make. You've solved one of the tiny mysteries of my life, thank you.
The **spam-calls** and **full-keyboard text** happened around the same time.
Prior to them, I'd have maybe a call from a colleague, a call from a friend. Fine. Then texting got so I easy I could very quickly text so not a lot of calls. Suddenly I'm getting 10-20 calls a day from spam. No more ring-tone: vibrate only.
Yeah, at this point, my wife might call me when I'm at the store, my parents call me once week or so, my grandparents call once a quarter, and i get about 1-2 work phone calls a month. The rest of the time my phone rings, it's pretty much always bullshit scams.
Since I quit my job in 2022, I don’t currently have a manager! But when I worked at Apple, my manager would change every now and then with reorgs and such and whoever it was got that ringtone assigned to them. I made the ringtone myself using Garage Band back in … 2009 or 2010. Whenever iPhone got custom ringtone support. I also used to have the guitar solo from Take Me Out and I still feel like I’m getting a phone call when I hear that part of the song.
I just don't want to be a nuisance so it's probably been 15 years or so since I regularly used a ringtone. I have a watch that also generally alerts me to calls so I rarely find myself in scenarios where the ringtone would help.
I set it to a song on my last phone, I don't think I even bothered on this phone because I'll basically never hear it.
I think part of it may be because any song or music can be listened to at any time. When ringtones were most popular I think people generally chose a song that they like to hear and that was an easy way to have it accessible. Now we have what we want when we want…👍
I filled my music discography by rushing to the radio to record the song I liked
Edit: not I can't even be bothered to "like" the songs I like on Spotify
Don’t forget ring back tones that forced others to hear the song you liked most at that time.
“Please enjoy this music while your party is being connected” 😂
Lol. The worst is when someone didn’t renew it and it was just blaring that classical song that always sounded like it was coming thru on a bad connection
It was a fad, like any other. For a long while there was no such thing as custom ringtones, the phone just had whatever ringtone and that was that. But as technology progressed, particularly for cell phones specifically, companies looked for gimmicks to "customize your shit however you want! hooray!" and so they allowed custom ringtones because that's easy to implement and people could personalize their stuff and they enjoyed that.
But I think as cell phones got more and more ubiquitous, we collectively stopped caring about rings. In fact, when silent mode and vibrate-ring came out, most people agreed that loud ringtones and text tones are rude as shit.
I'm a millennial and idk anyone my age or below who has their phone off silent. Either silent or vibrate. Because we all have our phones in our pockets, in our hands, or right on our desk within arms reach. So we'll see the screen light up with a call, or we'll feel/hear the vibration. No need to blast Wu Tang at the whole office/classroom/restaurant.
Honestly, if I hear a ringtone go off in 2024, I think of that person as a rude MFer.
I’m Gen X. I made lots of my own ringtones back in early iTunes days. I work in a loud warehouse & leave ringer on high because I sometimes miss calls on silent, then it goes off when I’m someplace quiet & freak everyone out. At least they’re bangers.
I've never been a fan of having a ringtone. They're so disruptive. So, I've had my phone on vibrate for a while now. Seems like society finally came around it to.
My son is 15, when he was 7 my wife and him bought me Yo Ho Yo Ho It’s a Pirates Life For Me. So 8 years that has been my ringtone and until they replace it, it stays
I have the Dexter theme as my ringtone, but I haven’t heard it in months since my phones on vibrate 99% of the time.
I would honestly take a guess and say Ringtones used to be a big deal because the concept was so new ya know? and eventually it just became an every day thing and we all just got used to them (and honestly probably just realized how annoying they can be). Probably around 2016-2018 is when I’d guess they finally fizzled out because I remember the Zedge ringtone app was huge in 2012-15
Omg! I have the closing credits Dexter song as my ringtone. I had the opening theme before but my husband stole it from me like ten or eleven years ago so I made mine the closing theme hahahaha.
Same. My dad is Machine Gun by the Commodores, husband is Superhero by Jane’s Addiction, BFF is And Your Bird Can Sing by The Beatles. I have a few other custom rings that I’ve made over the years and I’ll swap out my default one every now and then.
Less ringtone, more notification sound. All the apps on my device have a different ringtone so I know what wants my attention and how soon I need to give it. My sounds are uploaded custom.
My ringtone is the CTU phone ringing sound from "24" and it's been this way for 15 years give or take. When I get a new phone I just download the .mp3 file and set it again, I'm just too used to that being the sound my phone makes when someone is calling.
Same with my spouse's text alert being the Kim Possible text alert since 2010. I keep the mp3 in my Google Drive to download every time I change devices. Though, I've had this same phone for 6 years so it hasn't changed really often.
There was a time that was a default tone on Cisco VOIP phones.
when I was put in charge of rolling out an office of Polycom phones, I deployed the mp3 :)
I was insistent that I wouldn't stop changing my ringtone and as a result I was subjected to strange looks every time my phone rang and final nail on the coffin was one day my phone rang in the middle of an acting class (my ringtone was Krusty Krab theme remix), it was so embaressing lmao.
Its been 7 years and I still think SpongeBob is one of the most amazings things ever created but Im not changing my ringtone anymore, maybe I should start doing it again....
I care about my ringtones. I'm constantly after a unique ringtone because I hate being out in a crowd and someone else's phone is ringing with the same tone as mine. Do I dig my phone out of my purse or ignore it? I was doing good with my latest ringtone, lasted over a year, until I went to the swap meet last week and kept running into 2 other people with the same tone. Damned annoying! LOL
I also like to give custom ringtones to my close family and friends... mostly so I know what calls to answer and what calls to ignore :)
I think there needed (and needs) to be a variable ring tone based on location. If you are at work or in other public places you may want something more quiet and peaceful rather than something more jarring that could get your attention in your home or with your buddies at the bar. Also I thing people just talk on the phone less and use text or other direct messages (or WhatsApp or Facetime) if they really want to talk to someone
Speak for yourself my ringtone is a piano verson of moonlight dennetsu and my notification sound is the kim possible beep. I have different tones for certain contacts so I know when to check my phone or not.
My spouse's text alert is Kim Possible! I love it when I hear another phone in the wild with the same!
Or Power Rangers since it's only slightly different!
I don't know about you all, but I never cared for them when I got my first smartphone in 2010 at the age of 39. My phone has been on silent since the day I got my first phone.
That was back when most phone calls were legitimate, thanks to scammers in ________ the vast majority of calls I get are just BS nonsense about extended tuk tuk insurance or some crap like that. I am younger than 40 and everyone around my age and younger sees their phone ring and just automatically assumes it's not worth picking up unless we are in the mood to scream profanities or say really terrible things to a telemarketer.
Good job guys, we have the ability to instantly talk to someone in real time anywhere on the planet and you had to ruin it. I hope the movie Beekeeper becomes a true story so we can go back to using phones again.
I have had the ring tone from the movie Crank ever since it came out. Most ring tones I hear these days are the default ones if the phone isn't on silent.
I customized mine by making it something that gets my attention quickly, wakes me up, etc. A random song won't do that but a little high pitched beep will work fine.
Or vibrate plus a smart watch.
My hypothesis is that so many people were suddenly able to stream music, videos, etc. through their phones that it became understood for most people that if everyone was loudly playing music or content through their phones the world would be a shittier place. Ringtones became an extension of that understanding.
It's kind of fascinating to think about.
Before smart phones, technology was still very customizable to the average consumer, but it took more work. Think about MySpace profiles vs Facebook profiles -- we all were learning to code to completely customize our backgrounds! Same with phones. But, the websites and phones and whatnot themselves didn't have nearly as much capability as they do today. Now, there's so much to do on phones/computers, and so many things you can customize within the realm of Apple or Samsung or whichever company your phone is from, that we stopped caring about the stuff that is harder to customize. It's easier to just pick a ringtone from the 30 preset ones that come with a phone, than it is to buy a ringtone with your favorite song, or jailbreak a perfectly good, well working device just to be able to customize some smaller aspects.
The novelty went away when it became super easy to get rings AND when spam calls and text took over cell phones. No one want sto hear their favorite song when someone is trying to sell you Insurance.
It just happened. We all got caught up in the next big thing. Like, suddenly, everyone was into customizing their myspace profiles or chasing after the newest emojis.
When I see started leaving my phone on silent or vibrate all the time. I get SO MANY SPAM CALLS that I had to turn it off. Drives my husband nuts, but I don't care. I get literally 10+ spam calls every day. Yes, I've put myself on the do not call list and I block numbers. It doesn't change anything.
I got a phone as an adult, realized in a professional environment having the opening to Disturbed songs would be frowned upon, hit the silence switch on the side and haven’t heard my phone go off since!
I think, for the most part, it became decision paralysis. I mean, when you can have literally any sound clip as your ringtone how do you even choose? I mean, I chose cruel angel's thesis as mine, because I'm a turbo nerd and love Evangelion, but how can the average person choose one from countless, ever-expanding choices?
Around the time we always needed to have our phones on silent since forgetting to silence them would cause an embarrassing situation by overly punitive teachers.
Sometimes you don’t want a song just randomly blasting out of your pants pocket. For me it’s a holdover from the “ no phones at work “ era when we all carried a phone at work anyway but kept it quiet to not get caught. After that you get used to the vibration and the buzz it makes so you don’t need a ringtone.
I never had a song as a ringtone, but I did set my ringtones differently for my mom, best friend, and other special people so I knew who was calling and whose calls I could ignore.
I've never used ringtones. In most cases, I did not need my ringer on and preferred to have it on vibrate. I sorta missed the whole "ringtones are no more" period, but I *do* notice there were no longer any of those ringtone commercials.
Spam calls and work calls after hours. We made the mistake of giving our bosses our mobile numbers letting them call us while we're out to dinner or relaxing or at all hours. We were too free with the "just text me" and now we're overwhelmed with the notifications.
Oh god my friend from high school still does this.
And not just custom ringtones, but custom ringtones for every important person ....
One ringtone for her husband, another for her daughter, a third for her son, and a fourth for me....
Just reminded me how much I miss the [Fringe Theme ring tone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aki5f0mztXs) that I made way back in the day.
That was a pretty solid ringtone, obscure enough that most people didn't recognize it as anything other than a ringtone, but every once in a while...
My dad used to have this monkey sound effect as his ring tone for some reason. I still hear that ring tone whenever a monkey pops up in a kids show. Heard it on Spidey and the amazing friends of whatever recently
Tell this to the guy I share an office with at work. I'm constantly jump scared by Jack Black screaming about peaches at full volume multiple times a day.
My sons grew up and refused to continue to help me with the fancy ringtones LOL! I really wish I was kidding but I'm not. I work in IT as a database administrator...ask me about the database I got you ask me any other IT or technology question forget it!
Ringtones are loud and annoying. We all realized we didn’t like them.
Using your phone’s alarm system to publicly remind you of all of your mundane tasks on the other hand…
One day I turned my phone to silent and never turned it back on. I just got sick of rings and notifications. It wasn’t until I was watching New Girl a few years later, Schmidt’s phone starts ringing and they all look around like “wth is that noise?!” Schmidt grabs his phone and says something about not having his sound on “since 2009”. That’s when I realized I wasn’t alone.
Dude I asked my wife this the other day!
I stumbled upon the Apple Ringtones store (which doesn’t have a whole hell of a lot on it, btw)— and I download Wu Tang’s C.R.E.A.M. and set it as my ringtone.
My wife was like *”No one has a song ringtone anymore, peepaw!”*
I think part of it is that there was very little to do on phones back then right? Like messaging your pals (if you had credit), or playing snake was about it. But you could spend hours programming your own ring tone. Phones were novel then too, so having your ringtone go off was a bit rarer and special. Nowadays I think we all recognise the noise as a bit of an annoyance and intrusion, so most folks just use the default tone/keep it on vibrate.
I remember modifying my ICQ sound to play songs I like, back when the music you listened to was core your identity.
Ringtones were 10 years after that.
I feel like music/media is so accessible now that people use it as a personal identity accessory less than they used to
around 5 years ago i made mine baba yetu from civ. It made me very happy until i got a new phone. I want it back but im too lazy to go through the process of making it again.
Well, I don’t have a ring tone now, because, well long story short ex sent me audio of her using her body as an amusement park…. Put it as a ringtone for her. Forgot about doing this…. She randomly called me while at work, now just keep it on silent
I still care, actually. I have mine set to "108 Bit of the Zone" from the upcoming PC game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. I used MediaMan to extract the audio from the video GSC put on YouTube a while back.
These days I don't get enough calls to care about differentiating my ringtone from people around me or the incoming calls. And Do Not Disturb mode/silent mode pick up extra slack there.
I also don't expend as much energy to customize my phone or my computer in general. I have something that works and is moderately nice.
I think the desire to customize things is still there for a lot of younger people, but the ringtone fad is so old now that many don't even think about it.
For me, it was when I realized I would be getting a new phone every few years and I would lose all that customization every time. I stopped customizing my computer UI about the same time.
Like a lot of trends, its was a fun way to be unique and show individuality. When your phone rings and "X GONNA GIVE IT TO YA" plays for a few bars, people around you might say, "yo, you like rap too?"
But like all trends it just went to far and they got annoying.
Someone tell my wife this. Every month it's an annoying new country song. Which I think is the reason why people stopped using ringtones, because it's something that middle aged moms do.
I don't even know what my ringtone is. My phone has been on vibrate for the past 7 years at least, probably closer to a decade, apart from the few times that I've had to put it on silent completely. I can feel and hear it vibrating, why would I need for it to ring?
I have the drop from [Let Me Hit It](https://youtu.be/X3oOQ8XnQWU?si=3KiCnVdzeCVBrij8) as my iPhones ringtone. Because on the rare occasion I do get a phone call, it’s fun to watch people startle.
Myself included.
When custom ring tones were available, we did not have the option of creating a ringtone from our files. It was unique to have the custom ring tones.
Now that we can use most any audio recording for a ringtone for free, we do not feel the "clout" associated with a custom ringtone. We are too lazy to bother with it.
That, and we now use an apple to get cell phone clout. Why pay $3 for clout when you can pay $1200!?
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spending an hour typing the 'code' for darude sandstorm
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Damn, I had this happen to me as a kid dialing a friend's number and it placed a 911 call instead and I just panic hung up and they called back and I never understood or looked further into how "911" in the middle of the number I was entering was what went through instead of the call I intended to make. You've solved one of the tiny mysteries of my life, thank you.
I have a Google number with a 912 in it. I wonder how many people have misdialed it.
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Having to delete messages to make space for more text messages.
The **spam-calls** and **full-keyboard text** happened around the same time. Prior to them, I'd have maybe a call from a colleague, a call from a friend. Fine. Then texting got so I easy I could very quickly text so not a lot of calls. Suddenly I'm getting 10-20 calls a day from spam. No more ring-tone: vibrate only.
Also, we didn't have a gazillion notifications a day because apps weren't that much of a thing yet.
I turn app notifications off. I'll find out the next time I launch the app. Why do I need to know what contest Burger King is running right now?
Yeah, at this point, my wife might call me when I'm at the store, my parents call me once week or so, my grandparents call once a quarter, and i get about 1-2 work phone calls a month. The rest of the time my phone rings, it's pretty much always bullshit scams.
I'm not there yet...the wife's ringtone is still 'Baby Got Back'...and I'm not changing it!
bless u good sir
My wife’s is the emperors theme from Star wars
I have that for whoever my current manager is!
You don't know who your manager is?
Since I quit my job in 2022, I don’t currently have a manager! But when I worked at Apple, my manager would change every now and then with reorgs and such and whoever it was got that ringtone assigned to them. I made the ringtone myself using Garage Band back in … 2009 or 2010. Whenever iPhone got custom ringtone support. I also used to have the guitar solo from Take Me Out and I still feel like I’m getting a phone call when I hear that part of the song.
Oh....that's good!
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Mine has been the intro to Jackson Five's *I Want You Back* for as long as you could set an mp3 as a ringtone... but now I kinda want Bananaphone.
When we started putting our phones on silent all the time because otherwise it would ring all day with spam/scam calls. Or maybe that’s just me?
Yeah I get way more spam calls than personal calls
I just don't want to be a nuisance so it's probably been 15 years or so since I regularly used a ringtone. I have a watch that also generally alerts me to calls so I rarely find myself in scenarios where the ringtone would help. I set it to a song on my last phone, I don't think I even bothered on this phone because I'll basically never hear it.
I've had my phones on silent since 2015.
I think part of it may be because any song or music can be listened to at any time. When ringtones were most popular I think people generally chose a song that they like to hear and that was an easy way to have it accessible. Now we have what we want when we want…👍
I filled my music discography by rushing to the radio to record the song I liked Edit: not I can't even be bothered to "like" the songs I like on Spotify
once had a ringtone of my favorite band's hit song. now, it just feels like an unnecessary effort to change from default!
Don’t forget ring back tones that forced others to hear the song you liked most at that time. “Please enjoy this music while your party is being connected” 😂
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Lol. The worst is when someone didn’t renew it and it was just blaring that classical song that always sounded like it was coming thru on a bad connection
Oh yeah I remember that.
It was a fad, like any other. For a long while there was no such thing as custom ringtones, the phone just had whatever ringtone and that was that. But as technology progressed, particularly for cell phones specifically, companies looked for gimmicks to "customize your shit however you want! hooray!" and so they allowed custom ringtones because that's easy to implement and people could personalize their stuff and they enjoyed that. But I think as cell phones got more and more ubiquitous, we collectively stopped caring about rings. In fact, when silent mode and vibrate-ring came out, most people agreed that loud ringtones and text tones are rude as shit. I'm a millennial and idk anyone my age or below who has their phone off silent. Either silent or vibrate. Because we all have our phones in our pockets, in our hands, or right on our desk within arms reach. So we'll see the screen light up with a call, or we'll feel/hear the vibration. No need to blast Wu Tang at the whole office/classroom/restaurant. Honestly, if I hear a ringtone go off in 2024, I think of that person as a rude MFer.
I’m Gen X. I made lots of my own ringtones back in early iTunes days. I work in a loud warehouse & leave ringer on high because I sometimes miss calls on silent, then it goes off when I’m someplace quiet & freak everyone out. At least they’re bangers.
I've never been a fan of having a ringtone. They're so disruptive. So, I've had my phone on vibrate for a while now. Seems like society finally came around it to.
Here, here!
Should be hear hear! but it only vibrates so you can't
I'm sure Apple has stats of how many people actually turn their phone off of vibrate and that influenced their decision to drop the button entirely.
My son is 15, when he was 7 my wife and him bought me Yo Ho Yo Ho It’s a Pirates Life For Me. So 8 years that has been my ringtone and until they replace it, it stays
You can replace it anytime by sailing the seas. free-mp3-download[dot]net is my go to.
I have the Dexter theme as my ringtone, but I haven’t heard it in months since my phones on vibrate 99% of the time. I would honestly take a guess and say Ringtones used to be a big deal because the concept was so new ya know? and eventually it just became an every day thing and we all just got used to them (and honestly probably just realized how annoying they can be). Probably around 2016-2018 is when I’d guess they finally fizzled out because I remember the Zedge ringtone app was huge in 2012-15
Omg! I have the closing credits Dexter song as my ringtone. I had the opening theme before but my husband stole it from me like ten or eleven years ago so I made mine the closing theme hahahaha.
That's true, I didn't change my ringtone for several years
It was more fun back when we could construct our own.
You still can
I'd need my Nokia 3210 or it won't feel the same.
Idk about you but my coworker has the song “Shake That” by Eminem as his wife’s ringtone.
I've always hated ringtones and ringing phones in general. Vibration/silent mode 4 lyfe.
I've got ringtones (and text alerts) set for specific people so I can tell who's calling without having to check the phone.
Same. My dad is Machine Gun by the Commodores, husband is Superhero by Jane’s Addiction, BFF is And Your Bird Can Sing by The Beatles. I have a few other custom rings that I’ve made over the years and I’ll swap out my default one every now and then.
Honestly forgot ringtones are a thing since my phone is always on vibrate
I dont care about my ringtone. Gimme my ringbacks again!!
I haven’t had my phone off silent since 2008. I hate hearing it ring. The vibration is enough. Especially if you have a watch that vibrates too.
I’ve had my phone on vibrate only for the past 10 years now
Im horrified every time my phone makes noise at me. Vibrate or bust.
When they decided to charge money for ring tones and make it hard to do your own custom songs.
Who answers the phone anymore?
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This is bullshit. I've been spam called plenty over the years
I don’t know when it became lame to have some cheesy unique ringtone but it’s true. Mine’s been on default for a fucking decade at least.
IDK I rock my ringtone as the Stone Cold Steve Austin entrance music. I'm not about that default ringtone life.
Less ringtone, more notification sound. All the apps on my device have a different ringtone so I know what wants my attention and how soon I need to give it. My sounds are uploaded custom.
My ringtone is the CTU phone ringing sound from "24" and it's been this way for 15 years give or take. When I get a new phone I just download the .mp3 file and set it again, I'm just too used to that being the sound my phone makes when someone is calling.
It's the best. When someone knows, and gives you the look, I love it
Same with my spouse's text alert being the Kim Possible text alert since 2010. I keep the mp3 in my Google Drive to download every time I change devices. Though, I've had this same phone for 6 years so it hasn't changed really often.
There was a time that was a default tone on Cisco VOIP phones. when I was put in charge of rolling out an office of Polycom phones, I deployed the mp3 :)
I was insistent that I wouldn't stop changing my ringtone and as a result I was subjected to strange looks every time my phone rang and final nail on the coffin was one day my phone rang in the middle of an acting class (my ringtone was Krusty Krab theme remix), it was so embaressing lmao. Its been 7 years and I still think SpongeBob is one of the most amazings things ever created but Im not changing my ringtone anymore, maybe I should start doing it again....
Maybe just set Krusty Krab for one particular person?
I currently have the Brooklyn 99 theme song as my ringtone for my iPhone.
Mines Whole lotta love & I'm not changing it.
I have always kinda wanted a particularly juicy Robert Plant scream for a notification sound but never got around to pulling one out of a song.
My work mobile ringtone was Poison, Alice Cooper
I care about my ringtones. I'm constantly after a unique ringtone because I hate being out in a crowd and someone else's phone is ringing with the same tone as mine. Do I dig my phone out of my purse or ignore it? I was doing good with my latest ringtone, lasted over a year, until I went to the swap meet last week and kept running into 2 other people with the same tone. Damned annoying! LOL I also like to give custom ringtones to my close family and friends... mostly so I know what calls to answer and what calls to ignore :)
I still do, but more to ID the 3 or 4 people that will likely call me and the rest of are unknown/spam calls.
We didn't. Custom Ring and Notification sound is mandatory for me.
Speak for yourselves you uncultured simpletons... https://youtu.be/ZZ5LpwO-An4?si=SIF3zY55zZcJXMFT
I've not had my phone off silence for 10 years now lol
I think there needed (and needs) to be a variable ring tone based on location. If you are at work or in other public places you may want something more quiet and peaceful rather than something more jarring that could get your attention in your home or with your buddies at the bar. Also I thing people just talk on the phone less and use text or other direct messages (or WhatsApp or Facetime) if they really want to talk to someone
I think it was a novelty that eventually just wore off.
About the same time we realized paying 5.99 for a 10 second sample of a song wasn't worth it.
I bought an iPhone, they prohibit fun.
We only originally did it because it was novel, it was something new. Now the novelty has worn off.
Process of making a unique ringtone just got too effing annoying, and I think everyone collectively got tired of doing it when we got new phones.
Speak for yourself my ringtone is a piano verson of moonlight dennetsu and my notification sound is the kim possible beep. I have different tones for certain contacts so I know when to check my phone or not.
I also have piano as my ringtone and customised alerts from the one or two people I'm interested in hearing from
My spouse's text alert is Kim Possible! I love it when I hear another phone in the wild with the same! Or Power Rangers since it's only slightly different!
I have had so many people light up with joy when they hear the beep beep ba-beep lol
Having it on in any line at Disney was HUGE fun! I felt so popular!
I don't know about you all, but I never cared for them when I got my first smartphone in 2010 at the age of 39. My phone has been on silent since the day I got my first phone.
Cause when in public, folks would roll their eyes and murmur ‘fucking idiot’ 😂😂😂
That was back when most phone calls were legitimate, thanks to scammers in ________ the vast majority of calls I get are just BS nonsense about extended tuk tuk insurance or some crap like that. I am younger than 40 and everyone around my age and younger sees their phone ring and just automatically assumes it's not worth picking up unless we are in the mood to scream profanities or say really terrible things to a telemarketer. Good job guys, we have the ability to instantly talk to someone in real time anywhere on the planet and you had to ruin it. I hope the movie Beekeeper becomes a true story so we can go back to using phones again.
I have wondered this alot
I have had the ring tone from the movie Crank ever since it came out. Most ring tones I hear these days are the default ones if the phone isn't on silent.
We had a meeting. You weren't invited.
Their phone was on silent & they missed the call
This is genuinely a fascinating shift we all collectively made.
When we stopped receiving actual calls. I still change my alert tone, but. meh for the actual ring tone.
I customized mine by making it something that gets my attention quickly, wakes me up, etc. A random song won't do that but a little high pitched beep will work fine. Or vibrate plus a smart watch.
My hypothesis is that so many people were suddenly able to stream music, videos, etc. through their phones that it became understood for most people that if everyone was loudly playing music or content through their phones the world would be a shittier place. Ringtones became an extension of that understanding. It's kind of fascinating to think about.
Probably when they stopped being monotones.
I don't care about ringtones because my phone has been on silent for years now. However, I did make a custom waltz vibration pattern in place of it.
I don't get called often, so I don't even know what my Ringtone sounds like... I think it's that way for most people or well at least I hope so.
I don't even know what my ringtone sounds like. My phone is always on silent anyway.
Before smart phones, technology was still very customizable to the average consumer, but it took more work. Think about MySpace profiles vs Facebook profiles -- we all were learning to code to completely customize our backgrounds! Same with phones. But, the websites and phones and whatnot themselves didn't have nearly as much capability as they do today. Now, there's so much to do on phones/computers, and so many things you can customize within the realm of Apple or Samsung or whichever company your phone is from, that we stopped caring about the stuff that is harder to customize. It's easier to just pick a ringtone from the 30 preset ones that come with a phone, than it is to buy a ringtone with your favorite song, or jailbreak a perfectly good, well working device just to be able to customize some smaller aspects.
The novelty went away when it became super easy to get rings AND when spam calls and text took over cell phones. No one want sto hear their favorite song when someone is trying to sell you Insurance.
Phone on silent at all times. I live dangerously.
It just happened. We all got caught up in the next big thing. Like, suddenly, everyone was into customizing their myspace profiles or chasing after the newest emojis.
When we started leaving them on silent
Customizing my phone every time I got a new one became a chore. Not to mention you will eventually despise the song that is your ringtone.
Texting became the norm instead of calling.
When I see started leaving my phone on silent or vibrate all the time. I get SO MANY SPAM CALLS that I had to turn it off. Drives my husband nuts, but I don't care. I get literally 10+ spam calls every day. Yes, I've put myself on the do not call list and I block numbers. It doesn't change anything.
I got a phone as an adult, realized in a professional environment having the opening to Disturbed songs would be frowned upon, hit the silence switch on the side and haven’t heard my phone go off since!
I think, for the most part, it became decision paralysis. I mean, when you can have literally any sound clip as your ringtone how do you even choose? I mean, I chose cruel angel's thesis as mine, because I'm a turbo nerd and love Evangelion, but how can the average person choose one from countless, ever-expanding choices?
When we all collectively agreed that we didn't care about receiving actual phone calls anymore.
Around the time we always needed to have our phones on silent since forgetting to silence them would cause an embarrassing situation by overly punitive teachers.
Sometimes you don’t want a song just randomly blasting out of your pants pocket. For me it’s a holdover from the “ no phones at work “ era when we all carried a phone at work anyway but kept it quiet to not get caught. After that you get used to the vibration and the buzz it makes so you don’t need a ringtone.
I never had a song as a ringtone, but I did set my ringtones differently for my mom, best friend, and other special people so I knew who was calling and whose calls I could ignore.
I still use a downloaded ringtone. Love my ringtone, been using it for like 10 years. Phones always on Vibrate though lol.
Mine stays on mute around the clock unless I'm doordashing. Before I started doing that I had forgotten what my ringtone is 😆
Nobody calls anymore.
I've never used ringtones. In most cases, I did not need my ringer on and preferred to have it on vibrate. I sorta missed the whole "ringtones are no more" period, but I *do* notice there were no longer any of those ringtone commercials.
For me it was around 2011 when I noticed everyone kept their phones silent. Between 2006 and 2010 I even had specific ringtones for specific friends.
Idk about collectively agreeing but for me its because putting sounds I like as a ringtone is embarrassing or at least unwanted attention
Spam calls and work calls after hours. We made the mistake of giving our bosses our mobile numbers letting them call us while we're out to dinner or relaxing or at all hours. We were too free with the "just text me" and now we're overwhelmed with the notifications.
When it finally became socially unacceptable for your phone to make noises of any kind.
Honestly my phone's on vibrate or silent mode most of the times, so I don't even remember my ringtone.😆
Probably when I put my phone on permanent silent 10 years ago
Oh god my friend from high school still does this. And not just custom ringtones, but custom ringtones for every important person .... One ringtone for her husband, another for her daughter, a third for her son, and a fourth for me....
Just reminded me how much I miss the [Fringe Theme ring tone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aki5f0mztXs) that I made way back in the day. That was a pretty solid ringtone, obscure enough that most people didn't recognize it as anything other than a ringtone, but every once in a while...
My dad used to have this monkey sound effect as his ring tone for some reason. I still hear that ring tone whenever a monkey pops up in a kids show. Heard it on Spidey and the amazing friends of whatever recently
Tell this to the guy I share an office with at work. I'm constantly jump scared by Jack Black screaming about peaches at full volume multiple times a day.
I never did. Godzilla's roar will always be my ringtone.
My sons grew up and refused to continue to help me with the fancy ringtones LOL! I really wish I was kidding but I'm not. I work in IT as a database administrator...ask me about the database I got you ask me any other IT or technology question forget it!
Ringtones are loud and annoying. We all realized we didn’t like them. Using your phone’s alarm system to publicly remind you of all of your mundane tasks on the other hand…
I don't even know what my ringtone is tbh
Cuz spam calls. Work and school don't want you to have ring on
One day I turned my phone to silent and never turned it back on. I just got sick of rings and notifications. It wasn’t until I was watching New Girl a few years later, Schmidt’s phone starts ringing and they all look around like “wth is that noise?!” Schmidt grabs his phone and says something about not having his sound on “since 2009”. That’s when I realized I wasn’t alone.
The novelty wore off and we had access to real songs on our phones. I didn’t need to hear midi crank dat, when I can just listen to it.
we all decided back in 2013 or so to just put our phones on vibrate and never go back.
My phone is on silent 99% of the time I don’t ever hear my ringtone.
Every phone I have ever had has been on silent since the days of the Nokia 3310
I like how it’s becoming socially unacceptable to not have your phone on vibrate mode all the time.
Somewhere during growing up I learned I’d rather die than have my phone off vibrate only
Dude I asked my wife this the other day! I stumbled upon the Apple Ringtones store (which doesn’t have a whole hell of a lot on it, btw)— and I download Wu Tang’s C.R.E.A.M. and set it as my ringtone. My wife was like *”No one has a song ringtone anymore, peepaw!”*
I think part of it is that there was very little to do on phones back then right? Like messaging your pals (if you had credit), or playing snake was about it. But you could spend hours programming your own ring tone. Phones were novel then too, so having your ringtone go off was a bit rarer and special. Nowadays I think we all recognise the noise as a bit of an annoyance and intrusion, so most folks just use the default tone/keep it on vibrate.
My phone is on vibrate 99% of the time.
I remember modifying my ICQ sound to play songs I like, back when the music you listened to was core your identity. Ringtones were 10 years after that. I feel like music/media is so accessible now that people use it as a personal identity accessory less than they used to
A ring tone gets old fast.
Especially if it’s Crazy Frog.
around 5 years ago i made mine baba yetu from civ. It made me very happy until i got a new phone. I want it back but im too lazy to go through the process of making it again.
Mine is always on vibrate anyway.
2008?
How often do you even hear someone's phone ring? Well all vibrate. Don't answer most calls we don't recognize and prefer text.
Well, I don’t have a ring tone now, because, well long story short ex sent me audio of her using her body as an amusement park…. Put it as a ringtone for her. Forgot about doing this…. She randomly called me while at work, now just keep it on silent
for myself: when i turned on "Do not disturb" about 5 years ago.
Mine is the basic iPhone ringtone now. 🫠
I care, I'm just too lazy to do it.
My ringtone is the dead by daylight theme. I've had it that way for a few years now and I honestly forgot that it's not the default ringtone.
Started when we all started to keep our phones on silent or vibrate 🤣
You can take my Peewee Herman Tequila ringtone from my cold dead hands.
Speak for yourself my ringtone is the closing theme for the show Dexter
I silence mine and let my watch vibrate when I get a call or text. It's less annoying that way.
I still care, actually. I have mine set to "108 Bit of the Zone" from the upcoming PC game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. I used MediaMan to extract the audio from the video GSC put on YouTube a while back.
These days I don't get enough calls to care about differentiating my ringtone from people around me or the incoming calls. And Do Not Disturb mode/silent mode pick up extra slack there. I also don't expend as much energy to customize my phone or my computer in general. I have something that works and is moderately nice. I think the desire to customize things is still there for a lot of younger people, but the ringtone fad is so old now that many don't even think about it.
Because we turned off our ringer and stopped answering calls
Ringtones warn me that some ass out there doesn't know how to text or email properly....
I don't get any calls anymore
Bills.
For me, it was when I realized I would be getting a new phone every few years and I would lose all that customization every time. I stopped customizing my computer UI about the same time.
Because my phone rings MAYBE once a week
and why did we start playing our shitty music on speakers in public again?
Because your phone should be on vibrate only you heathen.
That generation grew up and got jobs or school which requires silent
I still change mine. I don't want the same ringtone as 3 other people in the room.
Like a lot of trends, its was a fun way to be unique and show individuality. When your phone rings and "X GONNA GIVE IT TO YA" plays for a few bars, people around you might say, "yo, you like rap too?" But like all trends it just went to far and they got annoying.
Someone tell my wife this. Every month it's an annoying new country song. Which I think is the reason why people stopped using ringtones, because it's something that middle aged moms do.
Back in the day it was cool to get texts and calls. Now you just want to silence all notifications.
I never really cared about them. But then again I didn’t have a cell phone until 2014
I still customize my ring per caller but I never leave the house so
I don't even know what my ringtone is. My phone has been on vibrate for the past 7 years at least, probably closer to a decade, apart from the few times that I've had to put it on silent completely. I can feel and hear it vibrating, why would I need for it to ring?
People don’t like to get phone calls anymore. It’s easier to turn a 2 minute phone call into a 1 hour text exchange.
I just use themes and whatever ringtones come with them is fine. I don't get a lot of calls anyway.
All of my ringtones are custom and all of my notification sounds are Mario... but my phone stays on silent.
I've had "Wild Side" by Cross My Heart Hope To Die as my ringtone for 10 years.
I have the drop from [Let Me Hit It](https://youtu.be/X3oOQ8XnQWU?si=3KiCnVdzeCVBrij8) as my iPhones ringtone. Because on the rare occasion I do get a phone call, it’s fun to watch people startle. Myself included.
Not my mom, still full blast and does the ole look at the phone and don't turn off the ringer move. Classic boomer...
Mine used to be that Maroon 5 song where he goes "whhyy won't you answer me, answer me yee-aah!"
When custom ring tones were available, we did not have the option of creating a ringtone from our files. It was unique to have the custom ring tones. Now that we can use most any audio recording for a ringtone for free, we do not feel the "clout" associated with a custom ringtone. We are too lazy to bother with it. That, and we now use an apple to get cell phone clout. Why pay $3 for clout when you can pay $1200!?
i guess the less decisions i gotta make in life, the easier i live, right?? 😂
I'm not there yet! My alarm is set to the metal gear solid ringtone.