SMS vs MMS: What’s the difference?

In today’s world, nearly everyone sends text messages regularly, both individuals and businesses. Businesses commonly use texting as part of their marketing, support, scheduling, and more. To see why businesses use sms marketing, consider open rates. SMS open rates can be up to 98%. Perhaps more importantly, 54% of consumers say they want to receive marketing texts. The consumer preference for texting is nothing new. In 2014, a poll found that 38% of customers preferred to check their order status by text, 32% preferred to change or schedule appointments by text, and 31% preferred to confirm reservations by text.

Despite that, around 61% of marketing teams still haven’t harnessed the advantages of texting.

Even if you are already using SMS marketing software, you want to ensure that you make the most of them. Part of maximizing your texting strategy is understanding the difference between SMS and MMS.

What is SMS?

SMS stands for “Short Message Service” and is the original method of texting. It is among the oldest texting-related technology and was invented during the 1980s. 

There are some very important features of an SMS, including that it cannot include videos, pictures, or other media. It can only include text. Additionally, it must have 160 characters or fewer.

What is MMS?

MMS stands for Multimedia Message Service. As the name implies, this type of message lets you include multimedia, such as audio, video, and photos. 

Importantly, you can have more than 160 characters in a message as well. The limit for MMS is 1,600 characters.

How business SMS works in Australia (A2P messaging)

Most of the SMS and MMS discussion so far assumes a straightforward person to person exchange, but the messages a business sends are usually something different altogether. They travel through what’s known as A2P messaging, or application to person messaging, where texts are generated and sent from software rather than a handset. This is the system behind appointment reminders, order updates, and marketing campaigns, and it runs on separate infrastructure to the SMS you send to friends and family.

Because A2P traffic runs through dedicated business SMS platforms rather than a standard phone plan, businesses get functionality a consumer SIM simply doesn’t offer: message templates, scheduled sends, two way automation, and integration with a CRM or booking system. Podium and similar platforms sit in this category, giving teams a way to send and receive both SMS and MMS from one shared number rather than juggling individual staff phones.

One part of A2P messaging that often catches businesses out is the sender ID, the name or number that appears on a customer’s phone when a message lands. In Australia, businesses can send from a standard mobile number, a shared virtual number, or in some cases an alphanumeric sender ID showing the business name instead of a number. Getting this set up correctly matters for brand recognition and for making sure recipients trust and open the message rather than mistaking it for spam.

Delivery reliability is the other piece worth understanding. Local carriers apply filtering to A2P traffic to catch spam before it reaches a handset, which means unregistered or poorly configured business numbers can see messages delayed, throttled, or blocked altogether. Working with a reputable SMS provider that manages carrier relationships on your behalf is the easiest way to keep delivery rates high without needing to understand the technical side yourself.

SMS vs MMS: How they are different

Given the above definitions, there are a few key differences between SMS vs MMS. The most obvious differences involve what you can and cannot send. 

• Message Length: SMS texts have to have 160 characters or fewer. By contrast, MMS texting lets you include up to 1,600 characters. This reduces the need to break up your message into multiple texts.
• Media Included: You cannot include any multimedia in an SMS. You cannot include photos, audio, GIFS, or video. There is nothing but text. By contrast, you can include all of those types of embedded media in an MMS.
• Cost: Because MMS requires sending more data than SMS, you can expect it to cost more. Your carrier or messaging provider will charge for the extra data sent. Some recipients may also have to pay to receive MMS messages, depending on their plan. In most plans, you can expect an MMS to cost several times as much as an SMS. Or, if a plan offers a certain number of SMS messages, each MMS will likely count as two or three.
• Who Can Send and Receive: Every phone should be able to send and receive SMS messages. By contrast, most phones but not all will be able to receive MMS messages. Specifically, MMS messages will not work for people without smartphones.

The future: RCS messaging and what it means for SMS and MMS

Rich Communication Services, or RCS, is the newer messaging standard that’s steadily replacing SMS and MMS as the default on Android devices, and increasingly on iPhone too following Apple’s rollout of RCS support. Unlike MMS, RCS supports read receipts, typing indicators, higher resolution images and video, and larger group chats, all sent over a data connection rather than the older cellular messaging protocols.

For businesses, RCS is starting to compete directly with MMS as the format of choice for richer marketing messages. It allows branded sender profiles with a business logo and verified name, suggested reply buttons, and carousels of products, features that MMS was never built to support. Where MMS often feels like a workaround for sending an image over text, RCS is designed from the ground up as a business messaging channel.

Australia has one of the higher rates of Android adoption globally, which puts local businesses in a good position to benefit early as carriers and device makers finish rolling out RCS support. That said, RCS still isn’t universal. Coverage depends on the recipient’s device, carrier, and settings, so messages sent via RCS typically fall back to SMS or MMS automatically when a recipient can’t receive them.

The practical takeaway for now is that SMS and MMS aren’t going anywhere in the short term, but businesses that want to stay ahead should keep an eye on RCS adoption and consider providers that support all three formats under one platform, so the transition happens automatically as the technology matures.

SMS vs MMS business examples

 To get a better idea of SMS vs MMS, consider the following business situations and what works best for each:

• Scheduling an appointment or reservation over text: Either SMS or MMS would work well for this. If you wanted to embed an image of the calendar, then you would need MMS.
• Answering a question about hours: This could be done over SMS or MMS.
• Answering a question about a product: If you answered over SMS, you would be limited to text. If you answered with MMS messaging, you could also send a photo of the product or similar options.
• Answering a question about the menu: If you only use SMS, you will have to type out and explain everything. If you use MMS, you could send an image of the menu or finished dish.

SMS vs MMS in real marketing campaigns

Seeing SMS and MMS applied to actual campaigns makes the choice between them much easier than reading through definitions.

• Cart abandonment: An SMS reminder that a customer left items in their cart works perfectly well on its own, since the goal is simply to prompt action with a short nudge and a link. Adding MMS only makes sense here if you’re showing the actual product image alongside the reminder, which can lift click through rates but does add cost per message.
• Appointment reminders: This is squarely SMS territory. Customers want a quick, no fuss confirmation of the time and date, and a photo or graphic adds nothing to that message. Keeping these short also keeps them cheap to send at volume, which matters for clinics, salons, and trades sending dozens of reminders a day.
• Product launches: MMS earns its higher cost here. A new product photo, a short demo clip, or a graphic showing a limited time offer gives customers a reason to stop scrolling and pay attention, something plain text struggles to achieve on its own.
• Event marketing: Both formats have a role depending on the stage of the campaign. Early save the date messages work fine as SMS, while a follow up closer to the event with a flyer, map, or promotional graphic benefits from the extra detail MMS allows.
• The pattern across all four examples is the same: SMS for simple, time sensitive, high volume messages, and MMS when the visual is doing real work to drive the response.

Should I use SMS or MMS? 

Once you understand SMS and MMS, you have to decide what type of text messages to use when contacting clients. To help you decide, consider the following pros and cons of each.

You decision guide: SMS vs MMS use cases

If you’re still weighing up which format suits your next message, this quick guide should help.

Trades and home services generally lean on SMS for job confirmations and arrival windows, since speed matters more than visuals. Retail and hospitality tend to get more value from MMS, particularly for seasonal promotions or new stock announcements where a photo does the selling. Healthcare providers mostly stick to SMS for appointment reminders given the sensitivity of the content and the need for simple, unambiguous messaging. Real estate agents often use MMS for new listings, where a photo of the property is the whole point of the message.

Ultimately, the decision comes down to a trade off between budget and engagement. SMS costs less per message and works on every phone, which makes it the safer default for high volume or routine communication. MMS costs more, but the lift in engagement and shareability it delivers can be worth the extra spend when the message itself relies on a visual. The businesses that get the most value tend to match the format to the goal of each individual message, rather than picking one and using it for everything.

Pros of SMS Messages

• You can keep the message short and sweet, so it doesn’t require much effort.
• Your customers likely won’t have to pay to receive the text since unlimited SMS messaging is a common part of any phone plan.
• Reduced costs for you.
• You can include images or videos as links.

Cons of SMS Messages

• You can easily run out of characters in your message.
• You cannot include any type of multimedia. This means no GIFs, emojis, pictures, videos, or audio files.
• The lack of multimedia makes it harder to grab attention.
• Recipients may think the messages are fake texts.

Pros of MMS Messages

•   You are unlikely to reach the 1,600-character limit.
•   You can incorporate multimedia, including GIFs, pictures, videos, audio, and emojis,
•   Multimedia makes your messages more engaging.
•   They are proven to have a higher engagement rate. Some estimates even say that MMS messaging can boost your engagement rate by 250%. There is also 10 times the chance that an MMS will be shared with others.

Cons of MMS Messages

• Not all of your customers will be able to receive MMS messages. Those without smartphones will not be able to.
• Some clients won’t have MMS messaging in their phone plans, so they may have to pay to receive your text. This would reflect poorly on you.
• You will have to pay more to send MMS messages.
• The higher character limit makes it easier to ramble or create a message that is hard to read.
• If you want to include graphics or videos, you will need to either create them yourself or hire someone to do so.  

A Closer look at how to choose between SMS and MMS

In our experience at Podium, customers tend to appreciate the ability to sound more personable in MMS messages. This makes them particularly appealing when asking a customer to complete a review or send a promotion.

By contrast, SMS messages tend to be better for quick reminders or follow-ups.

Most companies will want to consider sending SMS messages for: 

•   Short calls to action
•   Customer support
•   Collecting feedback
•   Sending reminders
•   Confirming orders
•   Tracking deliveries
•   Two-factor authentication
•   Resetting passwords
•   Time-sensitive messages
•   Text-to-join campaigns

By contrast, you will want to send MMS messages for: 

•   Messages that have more information or details
•   Sharing instructional videos or audio clips
•   Grabbing attention
•   Highlighting products or services with multimedia
•   Offering coupons
•   Running competitions
•   Inviting customers to events
•   Sharing holiday greetings with images
•   Including a QR code in the message
•   Times you want to customize the appearance of the message itself

Of course, there are exceptions, and you should pay attention to your customer base and figure out which type of message they prefer in each situation. 

You will have to take the time to decide what types of messages your target audience wants. For example, if you are targeting people in nursing homes, you may want to stick to SMS, with the occasional MMS, as they may not all have smartphones. But, if you are targeting millennials, you would want to use a combination of SMS and MMS messaging depending on the situation that leans more heavily towards MMS.

How do I switch from SMS to MMS?

Based on the differences between SMS vs MMS, there will be some situations where you want to use SMS and somewhere you want to use MMS. But what do you do if you start with an SMS but realize you need the extra characters or multimedia capabilities of an MMS? 

The exact process will depend on the phone or program you are using. With an Android smartphone, for example, you would do the following. Keep in mind that it only works for undelivered messages.

1. Open the app for Messages.
2. Tap on the conversation in question.
3. Tap on the message’s timestamp.
4. You will see the option to “Switch to text (SMS/MMS).” Click on it.

For most businesses, however, the best choice is to choose a messaging service that offers both SMS and MMS as well as the ability to seamlessly transition between the two. Podium, for example, offers the flexibility of both options. Even better, Podium is free, making it the best free option. You can use Podium to send out multimedia, including audio, pictures, coupons, and more.

Why you should care about SMS vs MMS

Understanding the difference between SMS and MMS can seem simple initially but deciding when to use each is more complex. By understanding SMS vs MMS, you will find it easier to make an informed decision about which works best in a given scenario. This way, you can balance out your budget with the information you want to include and your customer’s preference.

Podium’s Free Trial offers a convenient way to take advantage of both SMS and MMS. As a bonus, you also get other helpful features for your business, such as the ability to collect reviews and Webchat.

Understanding compliance and legal requirements in Australia

Before sending a single marketing text, it’s worth understanding the legal framework that governs SMS and MMS in Australia. The Spam Act 2003 is the primary piece of legislation, and it applies to commercial electronic messages including SMS, MMS, and email. The Act is enforced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which has the power to issue substantial fines for non compliant messaging.

Consent sits at the centre of the Act. You need either express consent, where a customer has clearly opted in, or inferred consent, where there’s an existing business relationship that makes it reasonable to assume they’d expect to hear from you. Buying a list or scraping numbers from a directory doesn’t meet either standard, no matter how tempting it is for a quick campaign boost.

Every marketing message also needs a clear way to opt out, and that opt out has to actually work. Customers texting back “STOP” should be unsubscribed promptly, not just from that particular campaign but from future marketing messages of the same kind. Ignoring or delaying opt out requests is one of the more common ways Australian businesses fall foul of the Spam Act.

For compliance-safe messaging, the practical checklist looks like this: keep records of how and when consent was given, include your business name so recipients know who’s messaging them, make opt out simple and immediate, and send only the type of message the customer agreed to receive. A platform like Podium that builds consent tracking and opt out handling into the send process removes a lot of this manual burden.

FAQs

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