iPhone MMS

[ascender]

To play Devil's advocate, surely the reason people use MMS is that up until pretty recently it's been impossible to send emails with photos attached from a 'phone? Isn't it a bit of a historical thing that will disappear as more 'phones and networks become better at doing email and data in general? After all, why MMS or SMS when you can email or IM for free?

Yes, I think that's the natural end point for this and agree that email is progress over MMS. But at the moment, we're going to very much be in the minority amongst the people I know. A lot of the older generation use MMS because its simple to use and you don't need to faff about with anything. if you know someone's mobile number, you can send them a picture. Add in an email address though and its just going to complicate things for them.

 

[Piarco]

picture messages are overrated. who wants to view pictures of a freakin' tiny ass screen when you can just e-mail it to someone / yourself and be able to view it anywhere in the world...

Over the last couple of years I haven't had a phone with a screen of less than 2", sometimes up to a good 3.5". Viewing a picture on them isn't a problem, unless you don't see the point in LCD screens on the back of cameras or photo/video viewing on an iPod either. I like MMS's as do the majority of my friends.

It's a huge feature to lack in the UK market, I send and receive several MMS each month. Are Apple likely to add support for this to UK handsets via a software update in the future?

A massive feature to leave out over here. From my time Stateside, I'd say MMS is significantly more embedded over here in the UK. I'd love MMS to be included for the UK launch, but doubt it. Software update in the future?

To play Devil's advocate, surely the reason people use MMS is that up until pretty recently it's been impossible to send emails with photos attached from a 'phone? Isn't it a bit of a historical thing that will disappear as more 'phones and networks become better at doing email and data in general? After all, why MMS or SMS when you can email or IM for free?

Email will still cost (or require an unlimited data plan a la iPhone) as data is still sent. And sending an MMS is approx. 4 button clicks on my SE K810i - one to take the photo, one to click the MMS send option, one to select the recipient and one to send. Simple. MMS and SMS are just really basic and easy forms of email/IM which pretty much anyone with a mobile can do.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still getting an iPhone as the pro's outweigh the con's, but I'll still miss having MMS, and receiving one does sound like a pain...

 

[kamiboy]

No need to excuse Apples lack of functionality. How come you can walk into 7-11 and buy a $49 phone and have MMS, but if you paid $599, you dont?

I like to think those 599 pay for an amazing piece of electronic and software that is iPhone, instead of 49 for a plastic turd that can do mms.

 

[Devil's Refugee]

If we agree that Emailing a pic is the natural evolution of MMS on the iPhone, then really how does the experience of emailing a pic compare with MMS ?
Is it as fast, can you immediately launch Mail with the picture attached from an option after the photo has just been taken ?

These are the kind of user experiences which would negate a lot of debate over losing widely accepted functionality from lesser phones.

 

[Nugget]

...how does the experience of emailing a pic compare with MMS? Is it as fast, can you immediately launch Mail with the picture attached from an option after the photo has just been taken ?

Yes, that's pretty much exactly how it works. When viewing a photo on the iPhone there's a "send" icon on the bottom that allows you to email the photo right from the viewer (or set it as the phone's wallpaper, or send it to a web gallery).

 

[Devil's Refugee]

Then I guess the only remaining question is can you store a person's mobile phone email "address" under their contact info to send it to their phone rather than email if you want them to see it straight away (ie 23453645645@vodafone.net or whatever the real version is...)

 

[koobcamuk]

Then I guess the only remaining question is can you store a person's mobile phone email "address" under their contact info to send it to their phone rather than email if you want them to see it straight away (ie 23453645645@vodafone.net or whatever the real version is...)

I don't think it quite works like that. When I try doing that with old phones - you can only reply once to an original MMS to the 'email' address you gave above as an example. All other MMS have to be sent from a phone, to another phone number.

Just like Japan, we should embrace email on phones. Picture sending via email is much nicer than MMS and leaves you with a full sized image, rather than any truncation through the cell network/file size limit.

Not only that, but with the O2 contract set in stone; there's no MMS. Email your photos using your 'unlimited' internet

Or do what I do and unlock an iPhone, use it on a better tariff for cheaper.

 

[thefunkymunky]

I am in the UK and I agree that leaving MMS out especially for the UK market is a huge downside. I'm sure that a simple software update can add this feature in the future though. Can't the SMS app on the iPhone be enhanced to accept attachments like you can do ala iChat?

I would consider using email instead but I have just checked my contacts on my phone and the only person with an email address is me so what am I meant to do? Sending pictures via email on a mobile phone is something we just don't do a lot of in the UK.

The lack of MMS and 3G are the main things stopping for from getting an iPhone. Guess I'll have to wait for the 2nd Gen model. In the meantime I may upgrade my K800i to a K850i - and I'm with O2 as well.

 

[mackk]

And I actually tried emailing a photo to my verizon friends and it didn't work!
It's phonenumber@vzwpix.com right?? I even tried @vtext.com, and that didn't work either!

I tried that too with no luck.

Sure, sending to an email address is easy enough. Only I don't like having to wait and hope that the recipient checks their e-mail soon. It was quicker the old way. And now I can't use the pics they send me on my phone as a contact pic, etc. I used MMS a lot, and miss this feature.

 

[ne0star]

I think its a tad hypocritical of people to say we should use email rather than MMS as its the natural progression when the exact same thing could be said for SMS.

Also do you think networks are going to be in any rush to get rid of either of these formats given the fact they can make way more money on them than emails?

I have zero problems with the fact email is a perfectly valid alternative, the problem I have is 99% of the people I have in my contacts wouldn't recieve that message on their phone.

The fact the O2 tarrif is set in tone is irrelevant as an MMS message is simply charged as multiple SMS's so there is nothing stopping them adding the functionality later.

The thing is I really don't think apple haven't added it for any other reason that the iphone OS isn't finished and there have been more important things to sort out. You can't even send an SMS to multiple recipients yet.

Its clear MMS isn't a big thing in the US and thats the only place you can currently get the iphone so why would they bother?

 

[erandall38]

To play Devil's advocate, surely the reason people use MMS is that up until pretty recently it's been impossible to send emails with photos attached from a 'phone? Isn't it a bit of a historical thing that will disappear as more 'phones and networks become better at doing email and data in general? After all, why MMS or SMS when you can email or IM for free?

Definitely agree to a certain extent.
I have trouble seeing the younger population go to email permanently.... they are always texting in class when they are bored and want immediate answers.

I can see them sending pic messages through email though since those cost more... but still having replies in text.

For older generations, college and over, I see your theory going more into effect.

But to be honest it is really hard to predict something like that so your theory may be more inevitable then we can see at this time.

 

[sneeks]

Right now email is a poor substitute for me as the majority of people who I send to or receive texts from are not able to accept emails. Apple really do need to incorporate mms on the iPhone.

 

[Devil's Refugee]

Since the problem is software based....then there is a glimmer of hope that once the SDK is launched someone might develop an MMS app

 

[koobcamuk]

Definitely agree to a certain extent.
I have trouble seeing the younger population go to email permanently.... they are always texting in class when they are bored and want immediate answers.

I can see them sending pic messages through email though since those cost more... but still having replies in text.

For older generations, college and over, I see your theory going more into effect.

But to be honest it is really hard to predict something like that so your theory may be more inevitable then we can see at this time.

In Japan they often don't SMS. All the email is push and works as our SMS does - with the added bonus of 'texting' the world for flat rate (inclusive too) and also people can send messages for free from a home computer. I much prefer Japan's way of doing this and the iPhone, when released there, will have different functionalities.

 

[Avatar74]

The problem isn't that iPhone doesn't have MMS. The problem is every phone that doesn't have POP mail.

 

[tjcampbell]

Unlimited data means I'll be sending many emails with photos attached. Sweet! Screw MMS.

 

[gceo]

Yeah, you get an URL, but funny, it requires FLASH to display the message, so you cant view it on the iPhone.

I view mine on the iPhone.

This is what I DON'T understand... maybe someone can explain it.

I do view my mms messages on viewmymessage.com on my iPhone. I have since the first one that I got. But I do know (by using Safari) that the website is in Flash... but it DOES work on the iPhone.... what's up with that?

 

[pacohaas]

I've had a few people ask (via text message) what I thought about the picture they just sent me. I never receive the text with a link to viewmymessage.com or anything, it's as if the MMS just disappears. My parents tried to send me a picture of their new car, taken with their RAZR, but I never got it. I tried to explain how they could "text it" to my email address and I would see it on my iPhone, but they gave up and said, I guess you'll see it the next time you come visit. Something must be messed up with my AT&T account for me not to get these MMS notifications at all.

 

[mavis]

In Japan they often don't SMS. All the email is push and works as our SMS does - with the added bonus of 'texting' the world for flat rate (inclusive too) and also people can send messages for free from a home computer. I much prefer Japan's way of doing this and the iPhone, when released there, will have different functionalities.

I'm not sure which Japan you're referring to, but the Japan I've lived in for the past six years doesn't work like that at all. True email (POP3/IMAP) isn't available on 99% of the phones over here, they use SMS/MMS instead. There are file size limits with any of the major carriers and some (like DoCoMo) automatically downsize images with no user-customizable setting to disable this "feature" ... I'm told that Japanese phones supported POP3/IMAP years ago, but since most Japanese people didn't have internet access at home, nobody really used it. Although home internet connections are dirt cheap these days, most people are now accustomed to SMS/MMS and therefore don't bother with email, opting to use their phones instead.

If the iPhone is to have any chance of succeeding over here, Apple will have to offer SMS/MMS, because that's the only thing people use. In other words, don't worry - MMS will be coming to the iPhone.

 

[chr1s60]

You get a text telling you that someone has sent you a multimedia message and to view that message you have to visit a web site and type in the provided random username and password to view the photo. It's pretty much a pain.

This is one of the reasons that we need copy/paste. If we aren't going to get MMS, let us copy and paste the URL, username, and password into Safari. It would make things so much easier.