Texting images, gifs, and memes to your contacts
MMS, or multimedia messaging service, is a text messaging type that includes some amount of text with the potential to include many file types and even multiple files at a time. The overwhelming majority of uses for text messaging with MMS focus on one combination: A single image or gif presented that often includes some amount of text. While SMS messages are text-only and divided by segments, ThruText sends MMS messages as a single segment with a media file. Since MMS messages aren't divided into segments if you plan to send a long initial message (up to 1600 characters), consider making it an MMS!
In ThruText, MMS messages can be PNG or JPG image file types or GIFs up to 500KB that can be added to campaigns. MMS throughput depends upon your group's carrier makeup and your organization's 10DLC details (brand registration and use case type.) The lowest possible sending rate is 3k messages per hour, but in most cases, the throughput is higher, especially for Charity and Political use cases. For campaigns with long initial messages, sending MMS messages may be more 10DLC compliant. Please reach out to support@getthru.io to get more details about your specific use case.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What is the cost of MMS in ThruText?
- How do I get started?
- How fast can I send MMS messages?
- How do I know how many MMS messages I sent?
What is the cost of MMS in ThruText?
For current clients, please refer to your contract. Pricing can also be found on our pricing page.
How do I get started?
Get started sending ThruText MMS in 3 easy steps:
Add an image to your Media Library
- First, you will need to add an image to your Media Library.
10DLC and Use Cases
- An admin or account owner must add a sample image to a use case. This is mandatory before MMS messages can be sent. If your use case has already passed manual vetting, MMS approval is almost instant!
Create your campaign and add your GIF, PNG, or JPEG file
- The last step is adding MMS to your initial message!
How fast can I send MMS messages?
Due to carrier limitations, MMS messages have a separate and lower throughput than SMS messages. AT&T necessitates that MMS messages be sent more slowly through their network. Due to its market share, AT&T's limitation can affect the overall sending time of a campaign. You can read more about SMS and MMS throughput.
We recommend keeping MMS campaigns at 25,000 contacts due to AT&T throughput requirements and the required deliverability sending time.
Since MMS messages have a lower throughput, admins may observe that their messages have not finished sending before the campaign closes for the evening as ThruText prevents messages from going out too late. If MMS messages are not sent out before the campaign closes, (and the campaign will open again the next day) then they will be scheduled to be sent as soon as the campaign opens the next day.
How do I know how many MMS messages I sent?
When your texters send your MMS campaigns, the initial message is counted as an MMS message. As replies do not contain media, they are counted as SMS messages. Admins and account owners can refer to their Usage Analytics page, campaign exports, or account-level exports for MMS and SMS totals.
For billing purposes, please refer to your contract for your MMS and SMS rates.
Other tips
MMS texts can only include a single image or GIF.
MMS texts must include a media file, and cannot be text-only.
Images and GIFs can only be added to initial messages and are not available for recommended replies at this time. Initial messages that contain media are considered MMS, but since outgoing replies cannot have media, they are considered SMS.
Before launching, switching between "MMS Approved" use cases and unapproved use cases will remove the image from the initial message.
If your launched SMS campaign has an "MMS Approved" use case, you can pause the campaign and add an image or GIF to make it an MMS campaign.
MMS is only available in the US at this time.