SMS vs MMS
SMS and MMS are the best ways to communicate. We have found the best response rates come from these methods. In this article, we explain the difference between SMS and MMS, and the pros and cons of each.
What Is SMS?
Short Message Service, or SMS, is a communication protocol that allows you to send text messages from one phone to another. SMS was first developed in the early 1990s and has now quickly become the most popular method of communications. Text messages have an average open rate of 98%.
What Is MMS?
Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is a communication protocol that allows you to send multimedia messages from one phone to another. MMS was first developed in the early 2000s. MMS can include text, photos, videos, and other types of content. Unlike SMS, MMS can also handle multimedia files up to 100 MB (MegaBytes). This is one of the most significant differences between SMS and MMS.
6 billion text messages
SMS is the most widely used text messaging method and virtually all mobile phone service providers in the country provide limitless texting as part of their packages. The last decade experienced rapid growth of the SMS messaging space, with six billion text messages sent daily in the U.S.
MMS messaging wasn’t far behind. Available statistics show that MMS traffic across the country rose to 96 billion in just three years between 2010 and 2013.
SMS vs. MMS: What are the Differences and Similarities?
Both short message service (SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS) allow simple communication with friends, family, and coworkers. They’re both associated with text messages, but MMS can also include images, audio recordings, videos, weblinks, contact information like address and phone number, etc. The main advantage of these messaging services over other forms like iMessage or WhatsApp is that nearly every cell phone has an SMS plan, and you don’t need internet access to send and receive messages.
There are also some similarities between SMS and MMS. Both allow you to send text messages to multiple people at once.
How Do SMS and MMS Compare to OTT Applications?
OTT, or over-the-top, applications are messaging services that use the internet to send messages. The most popular OTT applications are WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and iMessage. These applications offer many features such as sending photos, videos, and other types of files.
The main advantage of OTT applications over SMS and MMS is that they offer more features. OTT applications can send multimedia files up to 4 GB in size, much larger than the 100 MB limit for MMS.
The main disadvantage of OTT applications is that they require internet/cellular data access. If you’re not connected to the internet, you can’t send or receive messages using an OTT application. This can be a problem if you’re traveling or in an area with limited internet access.
Signalmash SMS/MMS Solutions
Customers are demanding instant contact and communications with an organization. In a Global Mobile Messaging Consumer Report, nine out of ten people want to use messaging to interact with businesses. Yet only 48% of businesses are equipped to connect with costumes through SMS/MMS.
Our Signalmash platform helps organizations deliver their messages quickly and maintain better engagement with contacts. Our messaging solutions leverage state-of-the-art SMS and MMS technologies to rapidly and reliably deliver enterprise messages to their intended recipients.
We provide a developer-friendly platform to let you quickly integrate communications features like SMS and MMS into your existing app via an API. We are a CPaaS platform and deliver millions of text messages each week for businesses in SaaS, education, property management, healthcare, staffing & human resources, utility and various other industries. We navigate the complexity of the worldwide network to provide industry-leading message delivery, allowing you to get the most out of your leads.
Our solution includes several options for automated response handling and new channels, such as two-factor authentication, push notifications and schedule reminders and the like so your service and/or product can adapt to and change with the demands of your audience.
Reach out to us today and find out how our SMS/MMS capabilities can make a difference for your enterprise.
Ask us how you can cut your Twilio or CPaaS bill up to 50%!!