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We already know that you can assign custom alerts to specific BlackBery contacts. We also know that the process can get cumbersome if you want to assign specific alerts to a large number of contacts. For the ringtone, it’s pretty simple: just create a new exception and change the ringtone. But for other alerts, like text messages and emails, it’s not that easy. You have to follow the process in the above-linked post, meaning you have to create new profiles for each unique alert, and then assign those profiles to contacts with exceptions. This can be a pain if you have a large address book. There’s a new BlackBerry app that can help you take care of that task simply and easily. It’s called MailTones, the latest in the line of Electric Pocket BlackBerry apps.

Instead of creating dozens of profiles and probably hundreds of exceptions, MailTones allows you an intuitive way to assign custom email alerts to specific contacts. It covers individual contacts, groups, and can even work for subject searches. So if you have regular emails with certain subjects, you can have them ring in a different way.

Of course, there aren’t so many ringtones on your BlackBerry by default. You can add custom ringtones if you want, or you can use the selection that comes with MailTones. Electric Pocket also offers a link to download more ringtones, though that will clearly cost more money.

The app hooks up with your default messaging application, so you can assign MailTones right from the message menu. That makes life a bit easier.

The only problem I see with this application is that I don’t know many people who use email ringtones. Most people I know who have a BlackBerry get a large volume of email, and to have a tone go off each time a new one arrived would be a nuisance. So it would seem this would work better for light email users, in which case it’s more feasible to use profiles and exceptions to create custom alerts.

If you want to customize email ringtones for all of your contacts, you can get MailTones for just $2.99. t works on all BlackBerry operating systems, 4.2 through 4.7. Sorry, 5.0 users. I’m sure there will be an update coming.

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