What is mms?

MMS Guide
If you love texting but wish you could express yourself more, get ready for the newest development in mobile messaging - MMS. MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service and will truly revolutionise the way you use your mobile phone.

MMS is an environment very similar to the familiar SMS (Short Messaging Service) and provides automatic, immediate delivery of personal multimedia messages. It will enable you to send and receive image, graphics, voice and video clips as well as traditional text messages to make your communication more personalised, versatile and expressive than ever before.

What does MMS look like?
If you have an MMS enabled phone and are sent a multimedia message, you will receive notification in much the same way as you do with an SMS. Then, at a time you choose, the MMS presentation will start to run. Looking much like an automated PowerPoint presentation, your multimedia message could be on:

• Today's weather report with images
• Your team's winning goal viewed as a slide show
• Your stock portfolio update with diagrams
• A map to show you directions if you are lost

One thing to note is that MMS communication is not designed to be discreet like SMS. It is a rich media which takes full advantage of its sound and color capabilities.

In the near future, when 3G is deployed, MMS will be able to include more sophisticated features such as streaming video. This will allow you to view multimedia messages such as :

• Your daughter cutting her 5th birthday cake while you're away on business
• Your team scoring their winning goal in real time
• News headlines

I want to be a part of it!
Well, hang on a minute. There are a few things to consider before you start planning your MMS Christmas cards. Firstly, like a lot of new technologies, you can only get the most out of it if other people have it, and at the moment very few people have MMS phones. Secondly, for MMS to be deployed successfully, all network operators have to upgrade their infrastructure which is taking some time. Therefore, your multimedia message sending capabilities will really depend on who you and your friends are signed up with. Finally, there are some problems at the moment with what we'll be charged for sending a sophisticated multimedia message as we are no longer confined to the standard 160 characters of SMS.

But I want to MMS Now!
All is not lost if you want to start using basic MMS:

Mobile to Mobile

There is no reason if you and your friend both have MMS enabled mobiles and are hooked up to the right network that you can't start multimedia messaging now. Most MMS enabled phones have a selection of cute little MMS animated templates built in to allow you to send birthday cards, or messages saying you are late or busy. You can also use multimedia messages to send photos you have taken with your mobile's built-in or snap-on digital camera. Imagine showing your nemesis what she really looks like after a few drinks!

The other good news is that, if you don't have an MMS enabled phone you may still be able to receive multimedia messages. Depending on the manufacturer, some non-MMS phone models will receive a text message telling you that you have been sent a multi media message and a website address to retrieve it.

Web to Web

With web MMS, you can construct multimedia messages and send them to your friends' Email accounts. Stay tuned as you will soon also be able to use Virgin.net to send multimedia messages to your friends' MMS enabled mobiles!

The future is near !
Although MMS capabilities are a little frustrating at the moment - brace yourselves! Soon we'll be communicating in juicy full color and looking back on those quaint little SMS emoticons and chuckling.