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How MMS Delivery Works

Charles Jorgensen
Updated

MMS lets you send a picture, GIF or video, or a long text message, as one message. Whether it arrives depends on the subscriber's phone as well as the carrier. This article explains how MMS delivery works and the three ways to send an MMS. For tips on how attachments look on different phones, see How MMS Attachments Look on Different Phones.

How an MMS is delivered

An MMS reaches the subscriber only if the phone downloads it in time
  1. Mobile Commons sends your MMS to an aggregator, which passes it to the subscriber's wireless carrier.
  2. The carrier holds the message and sends the phone a short notice that a message is waiting.
  3. The phone downloads the message over mobile data. The text and the attachment arrive together.
  4. If the phone can't download the message before the carrier's delivery window ends, the message expires. The delivery window depends on the carrier and how the message is routed, and can be up to 48 hours. The subscriber gets neither the text nor the attachment. Some Android phones show a "Tap to download" placeholder instead.

Why a phone misses the window:

  • Mobile data is turned off, or the signal is too weak.
  • The phone is off or out of coverage for longer than the carrier's delivery window.
  • The subscriber is traveling with data roaming turned off.
  • Automatic MMS download is turned off in the phone's messaging app.

Many of these phones can still receive SMS, because SMS doesn't need mobile data. That's why the same number can receive your SMS and miss your MMS.

What it costs: every MMS counts toward your MMS usage when it's sent, whether it's delivered or not.

Three ways to send an MMS

Two settings on each message decide how an MMS goes out: whether it has an attachment or uses Force MMS, and whether Suppress SMS Failover is selected.

Standard MMS

An MMS with an attachment, with Suppress SMS Failover selected. This is the default for regular broadcasts. New A/B test variations start with Suppress SMS Failover cleared, so select it there if you don't want failover.

What happens:

  • The message goes only to subscribers on carriers that support MMS. Other subscribers don't receive anything.
  • A failed MMS isn't sent again.

Pros:

  • Everyone who receives it sees your image.
  • No extra SMS charges.

Cons:

  • Subscribers on carriers that don't support MMS get nothing.
  • An expired MMS isn't retried, so those subscribers miss the message.

Choose it when the image is the point of the message, and it's fine if some subscribers don't receive it.

To set it up: add an attachment and leave Suppress SMS Failover selected.

MMS with SMS Failover

An MMS with an attachment, with Suppress SMS Failover cleared.

What happens:

  • Subscribers on carriers that don't support MMS get the message as SMS, with a link to the attachment.
  • If an MMS fails because of a carrier system error, or because the phone doesn't support MMS, it's sent again as SMS with a link.
  • Other failures, including expired MMS, aren't sent again.

Pros:

  • Reaches subscribers whose carriers don't support MMS.
  • Those subscribers still get your words, even without the image.

Cons:

  • Opening the link to the attachment still needs a data connection.
  • When a failed MMS is sent again as SMS, you pay for both. The failed MMS counts toward your MMS usage, and the SMS counts toward your SMS usage, one per segment. The link adds characters, which can add a segment.
  • Expired MMS aren't covered.

Choose it when most of your list should get the message, and the image is helpful but not essential.

To set it up: add an attachment, then clear Suppress SMS Failover. It's selected by default, so clear it on each message where you want failover.

Force MMS

A text-only message sent as an MMS, so a long message arrives as one message instead of several SMS segments. Force MMS is an add-on feature.

What happens:

  • You can write up to 1,600 characters, and the message is sent as one MMS.
  • Selecting Force MMS removes any attachment and selects Suppress SMS Failover.
  • Unlike an MMS with an attachment, a Force MMS goes to every subscriber, including those on carriers that don't support MMS.
  • If you clear Suppress SMS Failover, a Force MMS that's rejected because the phone doesn't support MMS, or because of a carrier system error, is sent again as SMS.

Pros:

  • A long message arrives in one piece.
  • One MMS instead of several SMS segments.

Cons:

  • It still downloads over mobile data, so it can expire like any MMS.
  • Failover is off unless you clear Suppress SMS Failover.

Choose it when a long message needs to arrive in one piece and your subscribers reliably receive MMS. Before you move a regular SMS program to Force MMS, try it on part of your list and compare delivery with your SMS sends.

To set it up: select Force MMS on the message, then decide whether to clear Suppress SMS Failover.

Best practices

  • Put the words that matter in the text of the message, so the message still works if the image doesn't load.
  • Use SMS for messages every subscriber must receive.
  • After an MMS broadcast, check its delivery results in the broadcast report. Many failed messages can mean many subscribers couldn't download it.
  • If you use list cleaning, check which failures can clean a profile in List Cleaning Error Codes.

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