AWS Messaging & Targeting Blog

How to Send MMS Using AWS End User Messaging

Note: AWS End User Messaging is the new name for Amazon Pinpoint. Learn more about MMS with AWS End User Messaging here.

In our digital age, communication has evolved far beyond simple SMS, short for Simple Message Service. The rise of multimedia messaging has transformed the way we share information, express ourselves, and stay connected. MMS, short for Multimedia Messaging Service, is a technology that has become an integral part of our daily lives, enabling us to convey messages that go beyond the confines of plain text. MMS allows senders to transmit a variety of media, including images, videos, audio recordings, and even documents, alongside traditional text. This powerful combination has revolutionized the way we communicate, making it easier to share experiences, ideas, and emotions in a more engaging and visually compelling manner. In a world where visual content is becoming increasingly dominant, MMS has become a crucial tool for companies to communicate with their customers.

What are the differences between SMS and MMS?

MMS is similar to SMS but has some very distinct differences that enable you to send and engage with your customers in different ways.

Message length

  • SMS
    • SMS can send text messages up to 160 characters as long as each character is a part of the GSM 03.38 character set. This means that if you have long links or longer form content that you need to send that these messages will be broken up into multiple message parts. This increases your cost and decreases the recipient reading experience on their device.
  • If your SMS contains any characters that are outside of the GSM 03.38 character set, your message can only contain up to 70 characters. Depending on the language you are using this can be very limiting. Messages that are broken up into multiple message parts can quickly cause you to hit your throughput limits since each part is measured as one message, even if you are only making a single call to the API. A GSM 03.38 message with 161 characters is 2 message parts which means that your throughput is effectively cut in half.
  • MMS
    • MMS can send up to 1,600 characters, regardless of the character set you use. Messages can be much larger, often up to 300 KB depending on the character set you are using. This expanded size allows you to send long form messages and not be so limited if you need to send messages in a character set outside of GSM 03.38 or just have the need to send longer messages.
    • This can reduce your cost and improve the experience for your recipients.
    • The larger message size helps you manage your throughput limitations since, a single MMS message can be sent, rather than an SMS being broken up into multiple message parts.

Message content

  • SMS
    • SMS is text based only. You cannot send media or attachments.
  • MMS
    • MMS can send multimedia content such as images, videos, PDF files, and audio files. This opens up many more options for how it can be used such as attaching a receipt, sending a new product launch gallery, or supporting troubleshooting with a how-to video.
    • A single MMS message can be up to 600KB in size for media files
    • Supported media file formats
      • Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
      • Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
      • Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
      • MPEG-4 (MP4)
      • Quicktime File Format (MOV)
      • Portable Document Format (PDF)
      • Virtual Contact File (VCF)
      • More

Message delivery time

  • SMS
    • SMS messages are delivered as a text-only message and are much smaller which may result in it being delivered more promptly.
  • MMS
    • MMS messages may take longer to deliver dependent on the type and size of the multimedia content that is included which may increase the time to be delivered. This makes time sensitive messages such as OTP delivery more costly and potentially slower so it’s not an ideal use case for MMS.

Cost

Network and device support

  • SMS
    • SMS is a widely-adopted and supported protocol across all mobile networks
    • SMS is compatible with all mobile devices, even the most basic models
  • MMS
    • MMS requires specific network infrastructure and compatibility between the sender’s and receiver’s devices and networks
    • MMS requires devices with multimedia capabilities, such as smartphones or feature phones with advanced messaging capabilities. Long text MMS messages sent to an MMS incapable recipient will be redirected to SMS by default

Regional availability and location

What are some examples of MMS messages?

Here are some examples of how MMS messages can be used:

  • Attached video
    • “Introducing our new limited-edition product line! 📽️ Check out this exclusive sneak peek video.“
  • Single attached photo
    • “Caught you in the act! 👀 Here’s a fun photo from our recent in-store event. Thanks for stopping by!”
  • Multiple attached photos
    • “Treat yourself to something special this weekend. 💄 Explore our latest makeup collection with this handy lookbook.”
  • Attached receipt
    • “Thanks for your most recent purchase! We hope you love it! Your receipt is attached”

It’s important to note that you do not need to send all of your messages using one or the other. As an example you can use SMS for One Time Password (OTP) sends since they do not require media and generally should be a single message part in any language and use MMS to enable an eye catching marketing release with pictures or video.

How to send MMS with Amazon Pinpoint

You can use the AWS CLI or Amazon Pinpoint SMS and voice v2 API to send MMS messages to your customers. Use the send-media-message AWS CLI command to send an MMS message. There are two ways to send MMS depending on whether you are including media with your message.

How to send MMS with media

The first step to sending MMS is to make sure that you have an Origination Identity (OID) that is enabled for MMS. AWS End User Messaging supports sending MMS to the US and Canada. Eligible MMS numbers in the US include 10DLC, toll-free, and short codes. Canadian eligible MMS numbers include long codes and short codes.

NOTE: If you procured originators for the US and Canada prior to May 2024, in some cases, existing Pinpoint SMS US and Canadian phone will be automatically updated to begin supporting MMS. To determine if your existing AWS End User Messaging number(s) are eligible, navigate to the AWS End User Messaging console Phone Numbers page. If MMS is listed under the “capabilities” column, you can begin using that number for MMS immediately if your number is in an active state. For these existing eligible numbers, there is no additional registration requirement as long as your use case doesn’t change. If the capability listed only shows SMS, you will need to procure a new US or Canadian phone number which will automatically include MMS.

For all newly purchased(Post May 2024) AWS End User Messaging US and Canadian phone numbers, both SMS and MMS services will automatically be added at time of purchase, simplifying the registration process and providing the flexibility to use either messaging formats upon approval.

You can get started by navigating to the End User Messaging SMS console phone number page and selecting Request Originator. From there, simply follow the self-guided steps for purchasing and registering the phone number If you need help determining what type of OID you need consult this tutorial. Information on registering for MMS enabled OIDs can be found here:

Sending MMS with media included requires you to create a bucket in Simple Storage Service (S3) that your media can be accessed from. Information on creating a bucket and uploading media objects to it can be found here:

You will include the link to this bucket in your “sendMediaMessage” call using the “MediaUrls” attribute seen below. The IAM role that you use to call SendMediaMessage also has permissions to read from S3. The supported media files formats can be found here.

The only required attributes are:

The CLI command below will send an MMS with the text of “Check out this Photo!” and will have a JPEG image included.

aws pinpoint-sms-voice-v2 --region 'xx-xxxx-xx' send-media-message --destination-phone-number +xxxxxxxxxxx --origination-identity +xxxxxxxxxxx --message-body 'Check out this Photo!' --media-urls 's3://s3-bucket/media_file.jpg'

If Amazon Pinpoint SMS accepts the command you will receive the MessageID. This only means the command was successfully received and not that the destination device has received the message yet.

How to send an MMS with no media

Sending an MMS with no media attached is nearly the same, you just don’t include a link to an S3 bucket in the “MediaUrls” attribute, it’s as easy as that. You might do this to reduce costs if you are sending a message with characters that are outside of the GSM 03.38 character or on a long message with more than 160 GSM 03.38 characters like the below.

The CLI command below will send the following message:

“This message will be broken up into more than 3 message parts if sent via SMS so we are going to use MMS instead to save costs. This is a great way to reduce your costs even if you are not sending any media such as a photo or video attached. Though a single MMS message costs more than a single SMS message there are times where you may want to use MMS simply because it is a cheaper way of communicating with your recipients. Since you can use SMS and MMS for different scenarios you may choose to send an OTP message with SMS and something like this message using MMS.”

aws end user messaging-sms-voice-v2 --region 'xx-xxxx-xx' send-media-message --destination-phone-number +xxxxxxxxxxx --origination-identity +xxxxxxxxxxx --message-body 'This message will be broken up into more than 3 message parts if sent via SMS so we are going to use MMS instead to save costs. This is a great way to reduce your costs even if you are not sending any media such as a photo or video attached. Though a single MMS message costs more than a single SMS message there are times where you may want to use MMS simply because it is a cheaper way of communicating with your recipients. Since you can use SMS and MMS for different scenarios you may choose to send an OTP message with SMS and something like this message using MMS.'

Conclusion

In this post you learned about the differences between SMS and MMS and how each can be used to send different types of messages. MMS is an excellent channel to communicate with your recipients to send highly engaging content that in some scenarios can reduce your cost while improving your customers’ experience. If you are sending content outside of the GSM 03.38 character set, want to send images, videos, or attachments such as receipts then MMS is definitely something you should look into.

A few resources to help you plan for your SMS program:

Tyler Holmes

Tyler Holmes