How to Buy a Ringtone for an iPhone Contact

Buy and assign a ringtone for the contact of your choice!
2 minutes

While there are tons of great ringtones that are free in the contacts app on your iPhone, there is something lovely about having your favorite songs for your favorite people on your iPhone. It makes knowing who is calling a breeze. Without even needing to pick up your iPhone, the song you've customized to that particular contact should tip you off about who's calling you.

There are also unlimited ringtone and text tone options when it comes to customization. Ringtones are fairly affordable, usually costing only a little over a dollar. Plus, something is exciting about knowing those you love most are calling just by the sound of their favorite song blaring through your iPhone speakers.

In this guide, I show you how to purchase and apply a ringtone to the contact of your choice. These steps can apply to any contact and any ringtone. Let's get to it!

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Open the Phone App

First, Open the Phone app. You can also go right to the Contacts app if it is readily available to you.

Click "Contacts"

Click "contacts" at the bottom of the screen.

Choose the Contact

Select the contact that you want to buy that new ringtone for.

Click "Edit"

Click "edit" in the upper right-hand corner.

Click "Ringtone Default"

Click "ringtone default." Yours may not say default, but may be the name of whatever ringtone you have assigned to that contact if it is not the default.

Click "Tone Store"

Click "tone store" so we can check out the ringtones.

Click "Tones"

Click "tones" again.

Find Your Ringtone

Find the ringtone of your dreams! You can search, browse, or stumble into any ringtone you can imagine. So, take your time looking through the options. They really are limitless.

Click "Assign to Contact"

While you can totally choose to make this tone your default ringtone (for all contacts) or text tone, for the purposes of this guide, you will choose "assign to contact."

This is because we are trying to customize a particular contact with a special ringtone versus change the default ringtone.

Set As Ringtone

You can make this tone the text tone or ringtone for the contact in question, but for the purposes of this guide, we are going to make it the ringtone.

Confirm the Purchase

Once you have selected the ringtone option, you will confirm the purchase.

This confirmation can happen one of three ways:

  1. Via your Apple ID password
  2. Via Touch ID
  3. Via Face ID

Confirm the purchase and move to the next step.

Let it Download

Let the ringtone download to your iPhone. This usually takes no more than a minute or two but can vary depending on your internet speeds.

Check the Ringtone

Once done, you should be able to see the fancy, new ringtone listed on the contact page.

That's it! Your contact has a new ringtone and you can go one purchasing all the ringtones you could ever want.

Customize your favorite contact's ringtones!
1 minute

Sometimes, when you are busy or out and about and your iPhone starts ringing, you don't want to pick it up, but you know it might be so-and-so with that important call you've been waiting on.