MMS message types

MMS supports many different message types to enable you to send multimedia content. The multimedia attachments sent using MMS typically are images but you can also send other types of content, like audio and video files.

The media content may be displayed in different ways on some mobile devices. It is also possible that old devices may not be supported (for example, devices earlier than smartphones).

MMS file size limits

Unlike SMS, MMS does not have strict character limits for text. Standard text lengths for MMS can be up to 1600 characters, and some operators allow more (under the condition the message does not exceed the allowed MMS size).

Maximum MMS sizes vary depending on the network operator, but all operators will reliably handle messages of up to 300 KB of data.

Most of the US and Canadian carriers can handle up to 1 MB (results may vary).

MMS file formats

This section lists the file formats recommended when using MMS to send media content. Note that the list does not include all potentially supported file types.

As extra assurance for some media types, it's recommended that you test sending MMS messages to a device that is commonly used in your region.

Multimedia content	MMS file format
Images	JPEG, JPG GIF PNG
Audio	MP3, MP4 MID, MIDI WAV
Video	MPEG, MPG, MP4 – Support may vary by handset 3GP
Text	TXT, TeXT, US-ASCII – UTF-8, US-ASCII (not UTF-16) vCard – Limited support; some handsets do not accept vCards
Application	PDF – Support may vary by handset; installed PDF reader required SMIL – Support may vary by handset Passbook – iOS only
vCards	A vCard is a file format that delivers the contact details for a person (or business) and can be sent via MMS. The file format is called Virtual Contact File (.vcf). Support for vCards via MMS has some limitations: - For iPhones, you can send vCard files as long as the content ID ends with .vcf - Some feature phones will accept vCards - Use the Content-Type: text/vcard and specify the character encoding A vCard can contain special characters, as well as different types of content, and will be successfully processed by the major carriers (Tmobile, Verizon, ATT, Rogers, Telus). The most common special characters and content types are: @ <, > / A URL An encoded image within the vCard (the vCard as text and the image encoded in base64) The use of accents within the vCard (Hola, cómo estas?) ¿, ? For most carriers, the recommended character encoding format for vCards in MMS is UTF-8. To help you to increase the success rate for your campaigns, consider the following guidelines in the request body: Accents should NOT be used as part of the name of the content in the header: `Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=UTF-8; name="ÓNE/SIZE.vcf"` Accents within the header result in message processing failure and the following error message is displayed: `Invalid String format in VCard contentType/contentId`

Supported Mobile Operators and Limitations

The MMS APIs support both Mobile Originated (MO) and Mobile Terminated (MT) messages on the mobile network operators listed in the table below. For sending messages in other regions, please contact your account manager.

MMS message size

The size of an MMS message is the number of bytes of the entire message, including all headers and the multimedia content.

Recommended file size

Mobile operator	ID	Maximum file size	Supports delivery receipts?
United States
AT&T	383	1 MB	Yes
MetroPCS (GSM)	788	1 MB	Yes
Sprint	34	2 MB	Yes
T-Mobile USA	79	1 MB	Yes
US Cellular	56	500 KB	Yes
Verizon Wireless	77	1.2 MB	Yes
Canada
Rogers Wireless	1696	750 KB	Yes
Rogers Wireless - Fido	2334	750 KB	Yes
Telus Mobility	2337	750 KB	Ye

Important

If your campaigns are time sensitive, limit the file size to 150 KB.

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