My girlfriend says I should have a special ringtone just for her so I know when she’s calling and always pick up. How can I set that up on my Samsung Galaxy phone, and, if possible, a custom vibration pattern too?
It’s a smart idea to set up custom ringtones for important people in your life, something you can do with both Android and iOS. Because you’re on a Samsung phone, you even get access to some special additional Samsung ringtones, many that are composed by celebrity musicians. Samsung phones run Android as their operating system with a Samsung UI layer customizing certain elements, but the instructions are basically the same, even if the ringtones available might be slightly different.
As you indicate, it’s also the case that you can set up custom vibration sequences for different people. This is particularly helpful if you leave your phone on mute so that you don’t bother people when you get calls or notifications. It might take a little practice to recognize different vibration patterns, particularly if your phone is in your pocket at the time, but that’ll just be an achievement you’ll have to unlock. 😉
Shortcuts: Contacts App | Changing Ringtone | Changing Vibration Pattern
Anyway, let’s get to it. I’ll be using a Samsung Galaxy A15 smartphone, running Android and we’ll tap into my friend Harry Potter’s contact info to give him some customization too. Let’s get started.
CONTACT IN THE CONTACTS APP
There are a couple of ways to do this, but I like to go into the Contacts app and find the person to whom you want to assign that unique ringtone. Here’s my entry for Harry:
I’ve redacted his phone number, so you won’t be able to call him, but generally speaking, this is how your contacts should look too. You can see a history of your communication with them, but how do you set a custom ringtone? Tap on the More “•••” vertical button on the lower right. A menu of additional options appears:
It’s curious to have Block contact as an option – wouldn’t you just delete them as a contact? – but the others are helpful and if you want to share info, that “QR code” option is super helpful. And remember, you should have a Contacts card for yourself and you can easily get a QR code for that using this feature!
For our purposes, however, the choice is “Change ringtone/vibration”. Tap on it.
CHANGING SOMEONE’S RINGTONE
At this point you’ll be shown a list of available ringtones. Every time you tap one, it’ll play, so probably do this test with earbuds or in an environment where it won’t bug anyone. Certainly, doing it while in class would likely be no bueno!
Notice the top option in the screen capture too: “Over the Horizon by SUGA of BTS”. This is one of those celebrity ringtones that are exclusive to Samsung devices, and if you don’t know who SUGA is, well, it’s time to join the BTS army! 🙂
Sorry, back on topic. Once you pick a ringtone, you’re done. No need to hunt for a “Save” button. But notice the “+” at the top right. That lets you utilize custom ringtones and even use an automatically generated sample of a favorite music track on your phone:
Since I don’t actually have any music tracks on this Galaxy A15, it just offers the default song “Over the Horizon”. Easy enough to experiment with and see if it works as way to notify you whenz your girlfriend calls!
Whatever you choose, when you go back to the Contact it now shows the ringtone:
Not too complicated, is it? Now, what about that custom vibration pattern?
ASSIGN A CUSTOM VIBRATION
To change the phone’s muted vibration pattern for this specific user, go back to the “More” button and again choose “Change ringtone/vibration” and select “Call vibration”:
The “Silent” option can be quite helpful if you get robocalls or updates that you don’t want to have bother you. But the other patterns are pretty darn fun. In particular, I like Waltz, which is long-short-short just as the music for a waltz would be if playing.
That’s it, and now Harry’s contact shows both custom settings:
Now I can tell when Harry calls me, whether I have the phone set to ring or vibrate. Neat, eh?
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