I wouldn't dream of leaving the sounds on when at work. For one it annoys me when someone else's goes off so I wouldn't do that myself.

I'm not particularly bothered about the sounds. Got a normal ring tone for general calls and a different one for my boyfriend but as it's on vibrate most of the time it makes no difference anyway *shrugs*. For all the other wonderful functions the iPhone offers it outweighs any negatives.

I agree with this and the majority of other sentiments expressed here. Regardless of personal preference though I cannot understand why the iPhone does not have the feature. Just about every other phone I've owned in recent years lets you use - for better or worse - any audio file for an SMS tone. For a top of the range phone to omit this puzzles me.

I suspect that it was a basic feature that simply and accidentally slipped off the radar - it's not exactly unknown in big tech projects.

I'm not sure it'd be a deal-breaker though - I must confess to never changing the SMS tone on most of my phones.

On my last few phones I had the 24 dialtone as the ringtone and the 24 intercom tone as the sms alert

I haven't bothered changing it on the iPhone though.

I think the ring is almost comparable to the white ear-buds as a mark of owning a piece of the Apple

Surely if being stuck with the OS text alerts is the deal breaker, that if that's the single issue that decides whether or not you buy the phone, it's time to examine your life choices?

+1

I disagree, it's not like the iPhone is better at making calls than other handsets or something (quite the opposite actually). It's the same as choosing to buy a car with air conditioning or a sun roof over one that doesn't.

Phones are consumer devices, therefore consumer preferences and choices are important.

If, however, you're willing to lose functionality you want or need just for the sake of having an iPhone, then it's time to examine your life choices.

Since the original iPhone in 2007??

Why not?

It's not exactly going to be high on the list of priorities surely?

It's not functionality though, it's window dressing. Being sold the ability to choose the audio file of your choice is the same as being able to choose the thread count of the cotton of your bed linen. It's nice, yes, but does it prevent you from getting a good night's sleep? Do you toss and turn on 100 thread count but rest soundly once it's above 200?
It's not impeding your ability to make or receive texts, it's merely affecting your choice of whether you get to use one of those so amusing text alerts that everybody thinks is so original and amusing, but just irritates everyone else. Do I want to hear 'ALERT! It's the WIFE' or 'The Final Countdown' when you get a text? No, I don't. I want something that's unobtrusive. Sorry. Life's too short to be wound up that despite the phone arguably the best interface to the internet on a mobile device, I can't use the TARDIS sound effect as my text alert, thus the phone is rubbish.

I'm not sure anyone is saying the phone is rubbish because it doesnt have a customisable text alert (at least I dont think they were). Or that it is a priority when producing a feature list for the phone. But what is the rationale for leaving the feature off when every other phone I've owned since the iPhone was released has it? Is that not a little strange? I personally find it suprising.

So if you were able to buy either a brand new Ferrari or <enter favourite car name here> that didn't have a sunroof or a 25 year old Lada that did have a sunroof, you'd go for the Lada?

I agree that if the iPhone was unable to mke calls or recieved text but only displayed them in morse code etc... then that is something that would put me off buying it. SMS tone customisation is something that I'm not too fussed about and, like Prof said, most of the custom tones are ridiculously annoying.

I was thinking about this when writing my last post.

Could it not be that Apple don't want their brand tarnished by stupid text alerts. Whilst you may want a specific subtle sound for your text alert, if you were able to do that then the next guy might have some "HEY YOU'VE GOT A F*CKING MESSAGE" text alert also.

I was wondering if this was the reason myself



I get annoyed by most tones, whether they're ringtones or SMS tones. Even with the choice to use custom tones I tend to use the ones supplied on the phone anyway.

But... I'd like to be able to make that choice if I so wished and pretty much can with every other decent handset on the market. I dont actually care that Apple leave this feature off the iPhone (nor will it stop me getting one), I'm just suprised that they do.

Don't worry, I didn't think you did and nor did I think it would stop you getting one

I just like to play devil's advocate from time to time to keep the debate going