Guide to Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is the next step on from SMS (Short Messaging Service). MMS allows sounds, images and video to be combined as a single message to send from one mobile to another. It is also possible to send MMS messages from a mobile phone to an email address.

Whilst a standard text message is limited to 160 bytes, an MMS message has no size limit, and could be many Kbytes in size, or even larger. Unlike SMS, MMS also allows you to set up user profiles to determine when content should be delivered; for instance, receive business messages only during the day and personal messages only after office hours.

Formats

You can use the following formats within MMS:

• Images (JPEG, GIF)
• Text (formatted with fonts and colours)
• Audio (MP3, MIDI)
• Video (MPEG)

Although video messages will require you to use a third generation (3G) network, images, text and audio can be sent on 2.5G networks, using GPRS.

Images can be selected from a menu within the phone, downloaded from WAP sites, or could be photos taken using the phone's built-in camera.

Benefits of MMS

• Use images, video or text as content.
• Edit your images and clips before you send them.
• Create your own wallpaper for your phone display from MMS images.
• Subscribe to image- or video-based services that send sports highlights, weather reports, financial information and more, straight to your phone.
• Send your friends and family images or videos of the house you want to buy, your child's first steps or the weather on your holiday in Barbados.