MMS Messages

Updated by Cassidy Chassagne

Media may appear differently for each person receiving a message, depending on their device. Carriers and devices may shrink or enlarge media to accommodate screen sizes. We recommend testing your video messages on a variety of test numbers to better understand how your texts will send!
Upload Media to Broadcast
  1. Once you navigate to Broadcasts from your Messaging home screen, and are in your broadcast (new or draft), find the Compose Message section. The first sub-section under Compose Message is MMS Media (Optional). This is where you will upload your media!
  2. To upload new media, click Upload Media. This will open a new window. We support uploading .jpeg, .png, .gif, and .mp4. To upload your file, click Choose File.
  3. After you choose your file, click upload.
  4. To use media you’ve previously uploaded, click Saved Media.
    1. This will open up a window of all of your previously used saved media. Here, select one of the images/videos/gifs and then Select.
  5. After you select your media, from either option, you will see it appear in your example message preview.
  6. If you decide you do not want to use that image, you can click the red x next to the name of your media under MMS Media (Optional).
Video Best Practices

What format/size should my video be?

Making sure your video is properly sized is important to the deliverability and success of your MMS messages.

Best Sizing and Format for Videos:

For best results, we recommend a video with a 480x480 (square) aspect ratio

  • All content will be included in the image; however, for best results, avoid putting any critical content within 40 px of the edge of the frame.
  • If you want a landscape or portrait format, we recommend the following aspect ratios:
    • 480 x 640 or 480 x 720
    • Note - it’s possible this format of video gets cropped once sent

General Formatting + Sizing Tips:

  • Best to keep aspect ratios consistent for all of your videos to save you time formatting videos for all of your future sends
  • We recommend 30 FPS (frames per second) for videos, but anything divisible by 15 is the bare minimum requirement for best results
  • Switchboard caps all MP4 uploads to 20MB
  • All videos have something called “Content of Interest” — this is content within your media (like a face or name) that should be as centered as possible - just in case any part of your video gets cropped by carriers

How long should my video be?

We recommend the following duration depending on the content of the video/the type of number you are using:

  • Local 10 Digit:
    • 20 seconds or less for videos with music and fast motion
    • 30 seconds or less for videos with more static images and limited sound
  • Toll-Free:
    • Messages must be 10 seconds or less to ensure successful delivery


How did we do?