In a telephony terminal apparatus for exchanging a message with the other party through a telephone line, a memory section memorizes sound data representing a sound message composed of either of a voice sound and a music sound. A selector section selects mode information effective to specify a mode of exchanging a message. A transmitter section transmits the memorized sound data to the other party together with the selected mode information, thereby enabling the other party to receive the transmitted sound data and to reproduce therefrom the sound message according to the specified mode. The selector section may select a realtime mode effective to enable the other party to receive the sound data and to process the received sound data in realtime to automatically reproduce the sound message as a ringing sound to notify a call termination.