Presently, non-jailbroken iPhone users cannot customize their incoming SMS alert tone. But if you have a jailbroken iPhone, you may follow these steps to customize your SMS alert tone .
Please note that you need to have OpenSSH installed on your iPhone. If you do not have it already, check out steps a-c. If you are looking for a tutorial to jailbreak your iPhone first, you may check out these tutorials for Mac and Windows users. Also, ensure to tether your iPhone to your computer before starting the process.
Some important points to note before we start:
Hacking your iPhone could void its warranty. So please proceed with caution and at your own risk.
Please take a backup of your iPhone, refer to this post for more details.
Installing OpenSSH
Step a: From your iPhone Springboard, go to Cydia -> Sections -> Networking -> OpenSSH
Step b: Once OpenSSH is selected, tap on the Install button on top of the screen and Confirm
Step c: Once OpenSSH has been installed, tap on Return to Cydia to finish
Using Custom SMS Alert Tone
Step 1: You need to have the sound clip you want to use for the SMS alert on the iTunes Music library. Open iTunes and drag this sound clip from your computer into the iTunes library.
Step 2: Press Ctrl, (On Windows) or Cmd, (On Mac) to openPreferences on your iTunes Library
Step 3: Under the General tab, Click on "Import Settings" button.
Step 4: You will now see an 'Import Using' option. Select 'AIFF coder' in the drop-down menu option and finally click OK
Step 5: Now in the Music library, right click on the sound clip you wish to use and select 'Create AIFF Version'. You will now see a duplicate version of the sound clip created.
Step 6: Drag the duplicated version back to your Desktop folder and rename it as sms-received6.caf. Actually, there are six incoming SMS tone slots and so you may use any one of sms-received1.cafthrough sms-received6.caf.
Step 7: On your iPhone Springboard, press Settings -> WiFi and tap the blue arrow against your WiFi network. Note down your iPhone's IP address
Step 8: Launch Fugu from your Applications folder and enter your SSH credentials. Your username shall be 'root'
Step 9: Enter your password in the next screen to authenticate. You may try 'alpine' if you are not sure of the password. On a side note, please remember to always change your password for security purposes. You can check our tutorial here to learn to change password.
Step 10: From the toolbar open the GoTo window and enter '/System/Library/Audio/UISounds/'. Select 'Remotely' and click Go.
Step 11: On the right pane of the window, look out for the sound clip you want to replace (sms-received6.caf). Right click or Control-click on the file and select 'Rename'. Rename the file to sms-received6.caf.bak .
Step 12: On the left pane, click on the sound clip file (sms-received6.caf) to drag and drop it in the right pane. The sound clip has been replaced. Alternatively, you could also use a tool likeDiskAid to copy the sound clip to the UISounds folder, which you might find a lot easier.
Step 13: Reboot your iPhone and go to Settings -> Sounds -> Next Text Message.
Step 14: If you had used sms-received6.caf for your sound clip, locate the sixth sound clip (After None) in the list to start using the new sound file.
As always do let us know how it works at your end.
[via iClarified]
