Group Ringtone

Google Play Link

What is Group Ringtone?

Group Ringtone automatically sets the custom ringtones of your contacts based on the group membership of each contact. So now you can also use Google Contacts to manage your ringtones.

Group Ringtone also supports a default ringtone for all your contacts. By setting the default ringtone different from your phone's default ringtone, you can have different ringtones for stored contacts and "unknown" (not stored) contacts.

Why do I need Group Ringtone?

Possible scenarios, where Group Ringtone helps you, are:

• You want different ringtones for private and business contacts, but you do not want to set the ringtone manually each time you add a new contact.
• You buy a new phone. While your contacts are automatically synchronized from your Google account, your ringtones are not. Use Group Ringtone to set up all your ringtones again.

How does Group Ringtone work?

Rules & Categories

In Group Ringtone you can define a list of rules that get applied to your contacts. Each rule has a ringtone assigned that gets applied to your contact(s).

There are 3 different categories of ringtone rules:

• Default: this rule gets applied first, and therefore is valid as long it is not overruled by subsequent rules
• Contact Group: this rule is applied for all members of a specified contact group
• Contact: this rule is applied for a single specified contact

Adding rules

Add a new rule via the menu (usually by pressing the menu button on your phone):

• Add Contact Group: select a contact group (only contact groups that have contacts assigned are shown - the number of assigned contacts is shown on the right side), then select the corresponding ringtone.
• Add Contact: select a contact, then select the corresponding ringtone.

Note, that the Lite version supports only two contact group rules.

Deleting rules

Rules can be deleted via the context menu (long press the item). The default rule cannot be deleted.

Order of rules

All rules are processed from top to bottom. A ringtone set by a rule may override a ringtone set by a preceding rule. Therefore it is important to order the rules accordingly.

The order of the rules can be changed via the context menu (long press the item) of each item ("Move up" and "Move down"). The default rule is always the first rule and cannot be moved.

Changing ringtone of a rule

You can change the ringtone of a rule by simply clicking on the rule and selecting a new ringtone.

Rules with no ringtone assigned

By invoking the context menu of a rule (long press the item) it is possible to clear the ringtone of a rule (you will see "<no ringtone assigned>" for this rule). Rules with no ringtone assigned will simply be ignored during processing. The effect is the same as if you would delete the rule, but you can assign a new ringtone later.

Settings

Automatic Updates

• Contact Modifications: if turned on, automatic ringtone updates are triggered by changes in your contacts database
• Time Interval: automatic ringtone updates are triggered on a regular basis
• Show Notification: if turned on, a notification is shown after automatically triggered ringtone updates (only if there have been any updates)

Advanced Settings

• Check for Missing Ringtones: if turned on, Group Ringtone checks for missing ringtones and ignores them during processing (since this check does not work on all devices, you may need to disable this setting if Group Ringtone does not work properly)
  

 

Contact Modifications

Whenever contacts in your contact database get updated (e.g. creating/modifying a contact on the phone or creating/modifying a contact via Google Contacts on the web), Group Ringtone immediately updates the ringtones of the contacts. This is the recommended setting.

Time Interval

Since Group Ringtone theoretically may miss some contact database update notifications, using time interval based updates ensures that the ringtones always get updated. It most cases it is sufficient to set this to "Never" or "1 day".

Show Notification

Examples

Different ringtone for 1 contact group

Goal: All contacts should have the phone's default ringtone, except those in contact group "VIP".

Solution: Set the ringtone of the default rule to "Default ringtone" (which is the phone's default ringtone). Create a contact group rule for the group "VIP" and assign the desired ringtone.

Note, that it is important to define the default ringtone, because if a contact gets removed from the contact group "VIP", the ringtone of the contact should revert to the default ringtone.

Different ringtones for unknown contacts, stored contacts, 2 contact groups and 1 special contact

Goal: All stored contacts (in your contacts database) should have a default ringtone ("Old Phone"), the contact group "Business" should have ringtone "Beep", the contact group "Private" should have ringtone "Ring", and the inidividual contact "Boss" should have ringtone "Alarm Sound". All other contacts (not stored in your contacts database) should have the phone's default ringtone.

Solution: Set the ringtone of the default rule to "Old Phone". Create a contact group rule for the group "Business" and assign the desired ringtone "Beep". Create a contact group rule for the group "Private" and assign the desired ringtone "Ring". Create a contact rule for the contact "Boss" and assign the desired ringtone "Alarm Sound". Set the phone's default ringtone different from "Old Phone".

Note, that if a contact belongs to both groups ("Business" and "Private"), the ringtone "Ring" gets assigned, since the ringtone of the second contact group rule for contact group "Private" overrides the ringtone of the first contact group rule for contact group "Business". Also, the contact "Boss" gets the ringtone "Alarm Sound" assigned (although he might be in contact group "Business"), since it appears later in the list of rules.

Differences between Full and Lite version

The main advantage of the Full version is, that it is able to update the ringtones automatically - in the Lite version the update has to be triggered manually.

FAQs & Troubleshooting

Ringtones on SD card

Ringtones stored on SD card might not be accessible while the phone is connected to the computer via USB. In this case they are not shown in the ringtone selection window. In the list of rules, another ringtone might be shown instead. This is no error, and simply due to the fact, that the SD card is not accessible.

Missing ringtones

If the list of rules contains a ringtone that no longer exists (e.g. after deleting the ringtone from the SD card), the phone's default ringtone is shown (and used) instead.

Missing contacts