Some people think it’s cool to have the latest popular tune announcing every cell phone call. Others prefer a cell phone that sounds more like a… well, more like a phone.
Call me a square, but I’m in that second group. I prefer old phone ringtones that recall the clunky phones from my childhood. Or better yet, the brrring, brrring, brrring you hear in the movies from vintage phones from the 1920s and 1930s.
If you share my nostalgia for classic phones, and your carrier allows you to download or install new ringtones, check out the antique phone sounds below.
To be truly different in a world that’s desperately trying to be hip and up-to-date, you have to be square and hopelessly out-of-date. The best way to be cool is to be so uncool you come out the other side.
MIDI-Compatible Old Phone Ringtones
These are polyphonic MIDI ringtones, so your cell phone would need to support that format (many do, including the BlackBerry).
They sound as good as MP3 files on most of the recent models, and are worth trying if you want your mobile phone to sound like an old-style, traditional phone.
American Phone
Arubian Phone
Belarussian Phone
British Phone
Chinese Phone
Egyptian Phone
French Phone
German Phone
Icelandic Phone
Italian Phone
Japanese Phone
Malaysian Phone
Russian Phone
Swedish Phone
Swiss Phone
Venezuelan Phone
MP3-Compatible Old Phone Ringtones
If your mobile phone supports MP3 files, you could try these MP3 ringtones. They recreate the ringing sounds of various vintage phones.
Note: Click on the gray “play” icon to preview a ringtone.
Ringtone #1
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Ringtone #61
iPhone-Compatible Old Phone Ringtones
These are the same as the MP3 ringtones above, except they’re in an iPhone compatible format. Your iPhone can now sound like an antique or vintage phone.
Ringtone #1
Ringtone #2
Ringtone #3
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Ringtone #61
Extra: Bells, Chimes, and Horns
These are traditional bells, chimes, and car horn sounds. You could use them as ringtones or as alerts for text messages, e-mails, or calendar events.
MP3
Bicycle Bell
Mechanical Chime
Door Bell
Sleighbells
Chromatic Bells
Deep Chime
Church Bell
Automobile Horn
Taxi Horn 1
Taxi Horn 2
Taxi Horn 3
Taxi Horn 4
Taxi Horn 5
Taxi Horn 6
iPhone
Bicycle Bell
Mechanical Chime
Door Bell
Sleighbells
Chromatic Bells
Deep Chime
Church Bell
Automobile Horn
Taxi Horn 1
Taxi Horn 2
Taxi Horn 3
Taxi Horn 4
Taxi Horn 5
Taxi Horn 6
Extra: Airline Ding Tones
If you would like to duplicate the airline ding tones, here are those familiar sounds for your MP3-compatible phone or iPhone.
How do I download to my iPhone, hmm. Thanks for any help. These are great ringtones.
First download the ringtone to your computer via your computer’s browser. With Firefox on a PC, you would right-click the ringtone link and choose “Save Link As” from the menu selections.
Then using iTunes, select “File” from the top menus and choose “Add File to Library” from the menu selections. Search for the folder where you saved the ringtone and load it into iTunes. It should then show up in your iTunes’ Ringtones Library. From there, you can select the ringtones you want transferred to your iPhone.
After syncing your iPhone with iTunes, you can use the Settings app to apply the ringtone. Choose the Sounds panel within the Settings app, and partway down the screen, you’ll see a Ringtone panel for changing your phone’s ringtone.
There may be a simpler way to do this, but this method works for me. I haven’t yet found a way to install the ringtones directly into an iPhone using the Safari browser.