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Special Ringtones Coming to Your Google Nest Doorbell for Halloween, Diwali, Oktoberfest

You can download the new Oktoberfest ringtone starting Sept. 5.

Mary King Associate Editor
Mary is an associate editor covering technology, culture and everything in between. She recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she served as an editor at The Daily Tar Heel and reported for newspapers across the state. You can usually find her decked out in UNC merch and streaming lo-fi hip-hop while she writes.
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Nest doorbell mounted on a doorjamb
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If you have a battery-powered Google Nest doorbell, you'll soon be able to outfit it with seasonal ringtones for fall. Google said Wednesday that it will make available special themed ringtones for Halloween, Diwali and Oktoberfest. 

You can download the ringtones from the Google Home app during the following timeframes:

  • Oktoberfest: Sept. 5 - Oct. 5
  • Halloween: Oct. 1 - Nov. 1 
  • Diwali: Oct. 7 - Oct. 28

Benjamin Decker, an audio UX designer for Nest, outlined the ringtone design process in a Google blog post. Decker said ringtones must be shorter than 10 seconds, universally understandable with no speech or lyrics, and either original compositions or within the public domain. 

To make the new Oktoberfest ringtone, Decker started out by analyzing traditional polka music. Decker then composed a simple melody, a harmony and a bass line on the piano, later replacing the piano sound with a digital sample of a traditional German accordion.

For some ringtones, though, Decker has to take a different approach. 

"Take the Thanksgiving ringtone. Because many recordings of turkey gobbles aren't very clear (real turkey sounds are pretty muddy and outdoor sounds mixed in can make them even harder to hear), I recorded them using my own voice," Decker said. "I now know way too much about the intricacies of a turkey gobble."

Seasonal ringtones are on the way for additional holidays as well, Decker said, including Lunar New Year. 

Watch this: Nest Doorbell with battery is an impressive wireless effort from Google