How to Make Any Song a Ringtone on Android

Gone are the days where your “coolness” was judged by your polyphonic ringtone. No longer do we get bombarded with TV commercials featuring a dancing CGI frog, compelling you to spend just a few dollars to have your favorite song play whenever your friends and family call you. In fact, wherever you go now people are constantly frantically checking their phones since just about everyone has the same few bars as their “unique” ringtones. Well, that doesn’t have to be the case. You can still have the option of having your favorite song — or even different songs set for different contacts — as your ringtones. And you won’t have to give an animated character a cent to do so! Here’s how.

The simplest way to pick your favorite song to have as a ringtone is with the help of a USB cable. First, you’ll want to download the song (there are a number of legal music download services, including Google Play) onto your desktop or laptop computer. Next, you’ll need to locate the downloaded MP3 file of the song. Once you’ve located it, make note of where it has been downloaded. Then, attach your Android device to your computer using a standard micro USB cable.

When your phone is attached to your computer, you will most likely receive pop-up notification asking you how you would like to use or access this device. Choose to explore the device’s files and folders. If you do not get this notification, then simply open a new Explorer window, and locate the phone listed among your computer’s available storage devices. Return to the location where your song file is downloaded, and drag the MP3 anywhere into your phone’s storage folder.

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Of course, as with all things smartphone-related, an app is needed for the last few steps. Unless the first few bars or chords of the song of your choice are what you’re looking to have set as your ringtone, you’ll probably want to edit the music file so the exact part of the song you want to hear plays when your phone rings. Fortunately, free apps like Ringtone Maker and Ringdroid can help with this task. When you open the app, select to “show all audio” on your device, which will bring up the song or songs you have downloaded. Then, you can tap on whichever song you’d like to use and its waveform will open up. Use the sliders to designate which part of the song you want to use. Then, save the file and you will get the options to either set it as your main ringtone or assign to a specific contact.

Voila! You now have your own personalized ringtone for no more than the cost of the song itself. But remember: downloading music can eat up a lot of your data and cause your phone to run slower than usual. PSafe Total’s Memory Booster will optimize your storage space and speed up your device. Additionally, since you’ve downloaded a few new files onto your Android device, the PSafe Total can quickly scan all phone files as well as your SD card to find any security breaches. Have the ringtones you like, optimized data space, and protection from viruses all thanks to PSafe!