Talk:Multimedia Messaging Service

Pic Unnecessary
Correct me if I'm wrong but the pic being used in this entry seems completely pointless. As far as I can tell it adds nothing to the quality of the article. Might I suggest it be removed? TheNad 21:14, 14 September 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Danman111111 (talk • contribs)

Extension of SMS?
"MMS is an extension of the SMS standard, allowing longer.." .. i think this wording is unprecise and misleading. MMS is not an extension of SMS since it does not at all base on the SMS standard. It only features extended SMS functionality. ? EphraimSteinbach (talk) 03:00, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes calling MMS "extension of SMS" is not just misleading it is simply wrong. MMS is not a single standard, it is set of specifications. The closest resembling protocol set would probably be SMTP/POP|IMAP. As a matter of fact SMTP is used as a carrier protocol for inter MMSC communication. Another thing is that MMS is not concerned and doesn't enforce any limitations on content types being carried over it. Article gives very misleading information about that. Although the name MMS implies that service is used for multimedia content only, in reality it could be used to deliver any type of content, including applications or binary files. In fact this functionality is used by CommWarrior viruses to spread over MMS using Symbian install applications. Finally challenges section is one big nonsense. They were either solved long ago or have never been a challenge.59.154.63.92 (talk) 04:50, 13 March 2009 (UTC)AzzA


 * There was a service called EMS (Extended Messaging Service or Enhanced Messaging Service), which allowed for formatted text, sound effects, small pictures and icons, but no animations. MMS does extend the facilities of an SMS, at least from the user’s point of view, but I agree that it isn't “an extension of the SMS standard”. Perhaps improvement would be better?
 * NickPretzel (talk) 04:06, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

Commercial links
I am not sure these links brings anything to the article so I removed them
 * www.eigroup.com/ Empower Interactive
 * www.mobispine.com/ Mobispine - A low-cost alternative to MMS
 * www.shootsend.com/ Shoot&Send - A low-cost alternative to MMS
 * www.celtius.com/s.asp?id=393 MMS/SMS Gateway can be used for sending and receiving MMS/SMS messages with your application through GPRS modem or direct MMSC/SMSC connection.


 * www.mplix.com/ Mplix - Create and send free animated MMS messages
 * www.mozat.com/en/m2u-enterprise/m2u-enterprise-overview.htm MMS Gateway Product in Singapore
 * www.winwap.com/products_1_3.php MMS Stack SDK is a library for adding MMS capabilities to other software applications, for creating your own MMS solutions (testing/measuring or end-user solutions)


 * www.infosoftin.com/wap - MMSC Simulator mimics the behavior of real MMSC

Riadlem 18:12, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
 * www.businesms.com/ MercuryXMS is a suite of SDKs for creating, optimizing and delivering MMS via direct connections, GPRS/CDMA modems and binary connections, together with video/audio transcoding and handset detection.


 * Also removed TriPlay link since it's just an ad for a site and does clearly not belong here~. Tauntz (talk) 16:24, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Agree with the above removals and "unlinked" them in this discussion Calltech (talk) 15:32, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

explain MMSC as MMS Server/Relay
Hi, i woluld like to include a hint: (MMSC is a common, but standard name for the combined functionalities of a MMS Server and MMS Relay).

Since you won´t find the term MMSC in the refered OMA or 3GPP specs. Nonetheless you can buy a "MMSC".

what do you think?

-- Good idea; however an expansion of what MMSC is and a definintion would be helpful - the entry for MMSC points to this article.

Trancoded to what?
I don't completely understand how it works, but it seems that more often than not, pictures, video and audio sent via MMS are transcoded to a given set of standards, specified by the OMA. So, which are those standards? I mean, which codecs/formats are used to store and transfer MMS media? --Pfc432 03:55, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I may be wrong, but I believe that audio is sent as AAC, video as 3GP and pictures as plain jpg. Although I also believe that audio may be sent as midi (since that was the only kind of audio my old SE T68i supported). Mp3 can't be sent as audio, that much I do know. 90.224.152.178 18:13, 21 August 2007 (UTC)/Håkan 2007-08-21


 * It's down to the transcoder used by the MMSC e.g. the Philips transcoder.. etc. it uses the ua profile for the retrieving handset and transcodes according to it's configuration.

Specs...
This article has too little (no) technical information or specs about standards and limitations.. let's get some! 84.234.176.26 22:53, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes I think this article can be better than this, please insert some technical information, thanks --Snake co1 (talk) 10:57, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

MMS call flow
could anybody please add MMS call flow from sombody who sent the MMS until MMS received by the receiver.

best regards. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.81.68.100 (talk) 02:34, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

this requires major cleanup
the article probably contains no more than three encyclopedic facts, is long winded, and appears to be entirely lifted off of the back of the packaging this MMS thing came in. does really nobody who cared enough to write/copy and paste this know enough about it to write an even halfway encyclopedic entry about it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.120.85.210 (talk) 00:18, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree, the "Facts" section read like a "Did you know?" website from the 20th century, and the rest was low quality as well. 90.230.54.138 (talk) 17:51, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Multimedia does not work after having an IPhone with the same phone number. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.110.69.169 (talk) 21:53, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

احـــــــــــــمد الجرار الـــــــقواد —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.148.96.176 (talk) 20:42, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

iPhone reference
I removed the material regarding the iPhone; it was tacked on to the end of a section and lacked relevance. It was also the only handset whose MMS capabilities were mentioned, and was overly POV ("For two years Apple refused..."). It was also simply incorrect and US-centric, since the lack of MMS was limited to AT&T, and in any case will be moot as of later this month. --MCB (talk) 03:42, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

it was fully AT&T working against it, there was no technical limitation anywhere. AT&T were just too cheap to upgrade their network in the early 1990's, us networks are seriously out-of-date vs the rest of the world. Markthemac (talk) 23:12, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Is MMS "dying"?
'''On my old phone MMS worked very nicely. I could view received messages perfectly and compose them easily.''' Now, on my admittedly older Android (version 1.6 I believe), it's a complete mess. Composing them to be displayed like I want can not be done – not in the default messaging app and not in the very popular app Go SMS Pro. My mobile phone operator company does however offer a website that I can log in to and compose an MMS like I want it to display and then send it from the website, which is of course rather inconvenient compared to sending an sms from your phone.

Receiving an MMS is equally messy. They kind of just throw the parts – text, picture and sound – at me to be viewed in "some way" I have to basically figure out myself and do manually. Not at all elegant like on my old phone (old school non-smart phone). So is this generally how it is on smart phones, that MMS is a mess? Does that, if so, mean that phone makers are not aiming at maintaining this form of communication? Maybe the article could present something about the future (or lack thereof) of MMS. --95.34.4.130 (talk) 18:39, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

I think there should be at least a note about MMS dying given that Whatsapp and Telegram exist, TIM has been discontinuing the service for a while, also Kena mobile 194.79.221.139 (talk) 09:09, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

PXT redirects here - why ?
PXT redirects here. What is PXT ? I don't know,  thats why I was looking for it in Wikipedia. Is PXT an alternative name for MMS ? Is PXT some sort of variant of MMS ? Is PXT a forgotten, failed, alternative to MMS ? I have no idea.

But it redirects here, there must be some reason,  someone must know,   then it perhaps should be mentioned in the text of this article, somewhere.Eregli bob (talk) 23:07, 9 March 2014 (UTC)


 * See http://help.vodafone.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/2654/~/what-is-pxt%3F (if it still exists). It sounds like PXT and MMS are synonymous.—140.153.24.155 (talk) 12:47, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

What is captive technology?
I do not know what the phrase "captive technology" means. A Google search does not return any relevant results (on the first page) The citation for the sentence mentioning "captive technology" never uses the phrase. My assumption is that an editor inferred this phrase (not realizing its ambiguity.)

Amid the other problems this article has, I propose the removal of this phrase, as it does not help convey an understanding of the topic.

Anyone disagreeing, please explain why this phrase is helpful. I will gladly do what I can to make the article more clear if I am enlightened as to the meaning of the phrase

Chasevasic (talk) 23:23, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Why is the character limit for SMS told on the page for MMS, yet the character limit for MMS is not?
I did a count on my phone. I created a message and wrote 01234567890 over and over again to count how many characters an MMS can hold, and it's 1000 (one thousand). Some sources online say so too, but other sources give a range of about one thousand characters plus or minus hundreds of characters, so those sources don't seem too sure. That's why I counted them for myself. Maybe it's so hard to find the right answer Online because different carriers have different MMS character limits? Count them for yourself. It takes 10 minutes, or use a source online that says 1000 characters are the limit for MMS messages. I've found it useful to know the character limit of MMS messages, and having it shown on Wikipedia will help other people find the answer if they wonder the same thing I did. Please Wikipedia Editors put the MMS 1000 character limit in top section next to or instead of the 160 character limit for SMS. I did some searching and the only a reliable source I could find after a while of searching was Verizon.

Verizon. "What is the character limit of a text message?" Verizon Wireless SUPPORT: Text Messaging FAQs. Basking Ridge: Verizon Wireless, no date. Web. .

Thank you, 50.159.88.249 (talk) 06:22, 27 June 2015 (UTC)


 * Reply
 * All SMSs have the same length, no matter which phone or network you are using, whereas MMSs don't. MMS messages aren't measured in characters, but in (mega)bytes, and different network providers have different limits. This means that the number of characters you can send depends on how many photos, videos and or sound recordings you send and their sizes. Furthermore, different devices will have different limits. Older devices can't handle files above 300kB, although when doing a quick search, I noticed that verizon has a 1.2MB limit . In both cases this is the total message size . However, the OMA's conformance document states that the maximum size should be at least 300kB/600kB [sic]. From what I can tell by skimming this document, the maximum size for a text element is &le; 30kB, although I don’t see why you shouldn’t be able to use the entire 300kB/600kB, especially as some networks/devices format long SMS messages as MMS and charge extra for them. You can obtain the PDF for the OMA's MMS Conformance document here OMA's MMS Conformance Document pdf download
 * NickPretzel (talk) 12:05, 29 October 2015 (UTC)



HTTP or WSP
Is it really HTTP or is it WSP the protocol which is used to retrieve the message? See here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mitar (talk • contribs) 18:49, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Please, Be Bold
I notice that many of the changes I made in are concerns that were raised months or even years ago on this talkpage. This is your friendly reminder that if you see obvious issues, or paragraphs that are confusing or unclear, please do not be afraid to be bold and make the changes yourself. &#32;&#8239; Adrian [232] 04:01, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

"data" mode
The article currently states: This unsupported claim is both confusing and dubious.
 * MMS does not utilize operator-maintained "data" plans to distribute multimedia content, which is only used if the operator clicks links inside the message.

This article should say more about SMS/MMS mode/coding issues. It seems common that use of non-text features such as Emojis automatically converts a text msg into MMS -- which can be hard for some phones to receive. A particular issue is when fancy text messages cross over the line into requiring "data" mode to send or receive.-73.61.15.80 (talk) 17:13, 13 December 2017 (UTC)


 * If the user clicks a link, not the operator. The rest of the claim is correct. The MMS uses a dedicated APN. That's why the multimedia traffic can be handled and charged (if applicable) differently than the normal Internet traffic. However, some operators actually use the same APN for MMS and Internet. Dr.KBAHT (talk) 01:49, 13 May 2021 (UTC)