The carrier delivers your file, but the subscriber's phone decides how it looks. Results vary by phone, operating system and messaging app, so the same MMS can look different on an iPhone and an Android phone. To add an attachment to a message, see Adding an attachment file.
Tips for attachments
- File size: keep attachments at or under 500 KB. Larger files may be compressed, look blurry or not arrive. Mobile Commons shrinks images larger than about 500 KB, the smallest carrier limit it plans for, but large files take longer to send, and animated GIFs may lose frames.
- Previews and cropping: phones fit the image to the width of the message and may crop the preview. On iPhone, bars can cover the top and bottom of the image. Keep logos, text and barcodes away from the edges. See the recommended dimensions in Adding an attachment file.
- Shape: portrait or square images display best. Extra-wide or extra-tall images can look distorted.
- Transparent backgrounds: the phone fills them with a color you can't control, and some phones show them as black in GIFs. Use a solid background.
- GIFs: animated GIFs play on their own. Keep them small, with few frames.
- Video: Mobile Commons converts videos to 3GP and compresses them to fit carrier limits, so keep clips short.
- File types: Mobile Commons supports JPG, PNG, GIF, MP4 and 3GP. JPG works on the most phones. PNG images are converted to JPG or GIF before sending, so transparency isn't kept.
Before you send
- Put the words that matter in the text of the message, so the message still works if the image doesn't load.
- Send a test MMS to both an iPhone and an Android phone before you send a broadcast.