Turn a status song into your ringtone, properly trimmed

Someone posts a status with a song you want as your ringtone. The steps are simple; one of them is easy to get wrong in a way you only notice later.

The steps

1. Save the status while it is still there — you have 24 hours.
2. Extract the audio. In Status Saver, open the saved video and convert it. MP3 is the safe choice unless you have a reason to prefer M4A.
3. Trim it — this is the step that matters, see below.
4. Set as ringtone from the app.

The trimming detail

A ringtone does not play from the start and run to the end. It plays for as long as it takes you to reach your phone — often eight to fifteen seconds.

So if your clip opens with two seconds of intro, a bar of quiet, and then the hook, the caller hangs up before the good part arrives. Every time. You will hear the boring opening of that song several times a day and never the bit you chose it for.

Cut straight to the hook. Start the trim at the moment you would want someone to hear first.

Fifteen to twenty seconds is usually plenty.

Formats

• MP3 — works everywhere. Default to this.
• M4A — better quality at the same size, which matters if you also want to keep the file.
• AAC — the raw codec, occasionally required by a specific app.

For a ringtone the difference is inaudible through a phone speaker. Pick MP3 and move on.

Assigning it to one contact

Setting the system ringtone happens in the app. Assigning a ringtone to a specific person is a contact setting, not an app setting: open that contact in your phone's Contacts app, edit, and choose the ringtone you just created. Android keeps that association, not the app that made the file.

Where the audio goes

Extraction, trimming and export all happen on your phone. Nothing is uploaded — which, apart from the privacy point, means it is fast and works without a connection. A large video does not need to travel anywhere before you can cut fifteen seconds out of it.