Custom Android Ringtones and Notification Sounds Guide

One of my favorite things about the Android operating system is the number of customization options available. One of the things I love to change is the sounds my phone makes, and this guide goes how you can make your own custom notification sounds and ringtones. Depending on what sounds you want, there may be multiple steps, but everything is pretty straightforward and not too hard to do. Let's get started by first picking what sound you want.

Use a small part of a song for ringtones. Do not use a sound file longer than about 20 seconds because you will not hear the whole file. If you use really short noises as your ringer, the audio will be repeated many times.

As for notification sounds, I would keep those really short and about two or three seconds long. Remember that depending on what notification settings you have, you will hear this sound a lot so I wouldn't pick something thing that will get annoying after a while. I am currently using the Xbox 360 achievement unlock noise as my notification sound. It is a very short sound, but it is very memorable to me, and I love it. You can find it in this blog post if you are curious.

You can use audio from any file, but I mostly search YouTube for specific sounds. Chances are if you want part of a song, TV show, or video game you will find a video with these sounds on there. I will show you later how to crop audio files you don't worry about how long the video is. Find a video that has the sound you want that is clear to hear and sounds good. Here is a link to a useful website that converts YouTube videos into audio files you can download. You don't have to use YouTube though. I am just suggesting this as a free option that most people will be able to access.

The Android operating system supports most modern audio file formats, and you can use MP3, WAV, and OGG files. The default audio file format used for Android is OGG, so I convert files to this format, but the other two will work. There are many ways to convert audio files to other extensions, and I use Audacity myself.

Audacity is a free open source audio editor, and I use it to shorten and save files. Saving files as a different file extension is easy as clicking export and choosing the option you want. You probably will want to crop the file first though. To do this you use the mouse to select the part of the audio track you want to crop, and then cut it. You can then paste it into a new audio track and get rid of the original track. You most likely will need to listen to the audio file to find the part you want to get it isolated

Once you have your saved and formatted how you want all you need to do now is transfer the file to your phone. Connect your Android phone to computer. Assuming you have a recent operating system your computer should automatically install the driver files needed to do this and connect it. Your phone should show up on your computer. However, depending on your phone, it may be only connected as charge only. My phone does then when I first plug in it. I have to swipe down on the notification menu and select the transfer files option. Then the file system shows up on my computer. Once you find the right folder, you need to move the audio files to it so your phone can use them.

The last step is to go into the Android options and select the notification and ringer sound select options. This may in a different place or look different depending on your phone manufacturer and Android version. I wrote this guide using Android 7.0 Nougat and an LG V20 phone. On my phone, these settings are under audio. At that point, I can see the options to change both.

Some applications let you change the notification sounds as well. For example, my default texting application Signal lets me do this. In most cases, you use the default file explorer or something else that you installed to select a file.