How to make a funny voice ringtone on iPhone

A ringtone plays many times a day, often in public, so the joke has to survive repetition and be short. A few things help:

• Keep the line to a few words. “Pick up the phone!” or “Your pizza is calling” is funnier on the tenth ring than a long story.
• Start talking at once. Silence before the first word sounds like a late start, and the line has to repeat cleanly when the phone keeps ringing.
• Speak clearly and a little louder than normal, close to the microphone, in a quiet room. A distant, muffled voice also sounds thin on a phone speaker.
• Pick something you will still like in a month, and check that it suits where you take calls. A loud joke is less funny in a meeting.

1. 1On Home, tap Record. The first time, iOS asks to let Ringsy use the microphone; it is only on while you record.
2. 2Say your line, tap Stop, and the recording opens in the editor. Drag the yellow selection so it starts on your first word and ends right after your last.
3. 3Tap Effects. Original, Chipmunk, Deep, Fast, Slow, Echo, Hall, Robot and Reverse are listed, and tapping one plays a preview so you can compare them.
4. 4Pick one, check the length shown under the main button, then tap Save & set as ringtone.

On iOS 26 and later the share sheet opens and you tap Use as Ringtone. On iOS 17 and 18 Ringsy walks you through the GarageBand steps instead. Menu names can differ a little between iOS versions.

• Chipmunk raises the pitch and Deep lowers it, and neither changes the length. Both work best on a voice.
• Fast plays the voice 1.3 times quicker and Slow plays it at 0.8 times, with the pitch kept. Slow makes a line longer and Fast makes it shorter.
• Echo bounces the voice back and Hall puts it in a big room. Both add a tail after the last word, which suits a dramatic line.
• Robot gives a metallic voice, and Reverse plays the clip backwards. Reverse is the hardest to understand, so save it for a joke rather than a ringtone you must recognise at once.

Effects change the length, so the finished tone is cut to 29.9 seconds, just under the 30 seconds iOS allows. If you also join another sound before or after the voice, the effect is applied to your recording, not to the joined sound.

Play the tone in the editor, then use Hear it as a call to hear it looping the way a ringing phone repeats it. A joke that is funny once can be annoying on the third ring, and Hear it as a call shows you that before you set anything. It plays as media, so for how loud it will be at ringer volume, finish with a real call from another phone. The guide on hearing a ringtone before you set it covers both.

Recording, the voice effects and previewing are free. Setting the tone as a ringtone follows Ringsy's normal rule: the first two exported tones are free, after that it needs Ringsy Unlimited, a one-time purchase with no subscription. The recording is edited on your iPhone and is not uploaded.

• iPhone has no built-in voice changer for ringtones, so record and change the voice in an app.
• Ringsy's effects: Chipmunk, Deep, Fast, Slow, Echo, Hall, Robot and Reverse, each previewed before you pick.
• Keep the line short and start talking immediately, so it repeats well.
• The finished tone is always under 30 seconds.