# Distinctive Ringtone Overview

Distinctive ringtones let people hear who is calling before they ever look at the screen. This page explains what the feature does, the situations where it helps, and the two ways Cloud Voice delivers it.

## What a distinctive ringtone is

A distinctive ringtone plays a specific sound for certain incoming calls, so staff can tell one kind of call from another without reading the caller name or number on their desk phone or in the Cloud Voice App.

The value shows up quickly in day-to-day work. A company might route calls to separate ring groups or queues for its sales, customer service, and support teams, often driven by an IVR (Interactive Voice Response, the automated menu that greets callers) where the caller presses 1, 2, or 3 to reach the right group. In a smaller business where one person handles most of the calls, giving each line of business its own ringtone lets that person instantly recognize which service the call is for, or whether it is meant for them.

## How distinctive ringtones work

The feature makes selected incoming calls play a chosen ringtone on an IP phone or in the Cloud Voice App, so important calls stand out at a glance. Cloud Voice supports two delivery methods, depending on where the call is answered.

### On IP phones

On desk phones, distinctive ringtones rely on an "alert info text" carried in the call signaling.

:::caution
Not every SIP (Session Initiation Protocol, the standard that sets up VoIP calls) phone supports this. Before you rely on distinctive ringtones, confirm that your phones can play them from an "alert info text", and test one phone of each model before rolling the feature out widely.
:::

The exchange works like this:

1. Cloud Voice adds an "alert info text" to the Alert-Info header of the incoming call, then sends the call to the phone as an INVITE request carrying that header.
2. The phone reads the INVITE, extracts the "alert info text" from the Alert-Info header, and plays the ringtone mapped to that text.

Using this method, you can assign separate ringtones for each of these call types:

- [Set distinctive ringtones for internal calls](/pbx/administrator-guide/set-distinctive-ringtones-for-internal-calls/)
- [Set distinctive ringtones for external calls](/pbx/administrator-guide/set-distinctive-ringtones-for-external-calls/)
- [Set distinctive ringtones for queue calls](/pbx/administrator-guide/set-distinctive-ringtones-for-queue-calls/#set-distinctive-ringtones-for-external-and-internal-calls__section_u1k_kr1_1gc)
- [Set distinctive ringtones for ring group calls](/pbx/administrator-guide/set-distinctive-ringtones-for-ring-group-calls/#set-distinctive-ringtones-for-external-and-internal-calls__section_rjb_z4f_1gc)
- [Set distinctive ringtones for IVR calls](/pbx/administrator-guide/set-distinctive-ringtones-for-ivr-calls/#set-distinctive-ringtones-for-external-and-internal-calls__section_uwg_h5f_1gc)

### In the Cloud Voice App

In the Cloud Voice App, ringtones come from one of two places: the call feature that routes the call, or the app's own settings.

- When you configure a queue, ring group, or IVR, you can assign a distinctive ringtone that plays in the Cloud Voice App of the extensions attached to that feature. For details, see:
  - [Set distinctive ringtones for queue calls](/pbx/administrator-guide/set-distinctive-ringtones-for-queue-calls/#set-distinctive-ringtones-for-external-and-internal-calls__section_kvg_bs1_1gc)
  - [Set distinctive ringtones for ring group calls](/pbx/administrator-guide/set-distinctive-ringtones-for-ring-group-calls/#set-distinctive-ringtones-for-external-and-internal-calls__section_edj_bqf_1gc)
  - [Set distinctive ringtones for IVR calls](/pbx/administrator-guide/set-distinctive-ringtones-for-ivr-calls/#set-distinctive-ringtones-for-external-and-internal-calls__section_e5q_gvf_1gc)
- Extension users can also set their own ringtones directly in the Cloud Voice App, choosing separate sounds for individual contacts or phonebooks, for internal calls, and for external calls. These personal settings are available in the Web, Desktop, and Mobile versions of the app.

:::note
Ringtones a user sets inside one Cloud Voice App are not synced to their other devices. Each client keeps its own ringtone settings.
:::