I used to customize all the sounds on my Windows Mobile phone (I feel dirty just saying I had one of those) back around ~2006, and I’ve always wished the iPhone would let me do it. It took a few years, but it finally happened. I’m surprised I haven’t seen this new feature mentioned anywhere.

There has always been an option to customize sounds, but it’s always sucked… until now. iOS 4 and below only let you turn a lot of the alert sounds on and off, but iOS 5 lets you customize each sound:

iOS 4 Sounds Settings
iOS 4: Lame
iOS 5 Sounds Settings
iOS 5: Yaaaaaay!

And on top of that, you’re not limited to the built-in alert sounds! You can finally use any ringtone for any alert sound, whether you purchased it from iTunes or made it yourself for free. For example, I’m using a Saw ringtone to celebrate Halloween.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to download some free video game ringtones.

(Edit: I almost forgot to mention you can edit any contact and set their individual text sound as well.)