5 ms·

I have been searching for MMS API provider, but couldn't find any. I was hoping this news is about Twilio supporting MMS but it is not. What is difficult about

by tzz 14y ago

I have been searching for MMS API provider, but couldn't find any. I was hoping this news is about Twilio supporting MMS but it is not. What is difficult about supporting MMS? No one seems to offer it.

chime 14y ago
Would it be possible for users to send an MMS to an email address instead of a phone number? I don't mean using an email client. I mean type in a@example.com in the field where one would normally type phone numbers. I don't have email on my iPhone and I often use iMessage to email pics to myself. You might not get 2-way communication easily but it could be a good option regardless.
- chris_vannoy 14y ago
  Send from MMS to email, certainly. It's all just email under the hood. I use this as an input method on http://montabe.com http://montabe.com, for instance. But going the other way - sending an image via SMS/MMS to a user (which is what that post is about) - is a totally different animal. One in which you'd likely need to format specifically for different carriers and the like (and that's best case).
- theyCallMeSwift 14y ago
  Yeah, this would be super simple to build using SendGrid (which you could say is the Twilio equivalent for email). For example: http://sendgrid.com/docs/Code_Examples/ruby.html http://sendgrid.com/docs/Code_Examples/ruby.html
- theyCallMeSwift 14y ago
  In fact, here's a pull request for the necessary changes. https://github.com/jpf/filepicker-twilio-example/pull/1/files https://github.com/jpf/filepicker-twilio-example/pull/1/file...
  - jf 14y ago
    Merged. The Filepicker.io demo in the blog post now supports sending email via SendGrid.
lucian1900 14y ago
MMS is largely just an SMS with a link to a file. It's pretty easy to send a link to a file hosted somewhere.
- tzz 14y ago
  Is it possible to use Twilio SMS API to receive MMS message? Am I be able to receive SMS in backend and decode the data to get the link to the image?
  - anthor 14y ago
    I can't speak to the Twilio API, but you certainly can with the Mogreet SMS/MMS api. When an MO (Mobile originated) message is received from your user, we decode and store any media included (like images!) and then we make a web services callback to your app with the message content, the info about the user that sent it in, and a url to the media payload of that MO message. Anthor
- anthor 14y ago
  Anthony here, Mogreet CTO. MMS is not at all like SMS under the hood. While links are theoretically supported, in practical real life the content (images, video, audio, etc) is encoded into the MM7 body, and delivered all together to the handset. Check out our docs online for much more about what you can do: https://developer.mogreet.com/docs https://developer.mogreet.com/docs anthor
  - lucian1900 14y ago
    Ah, I'd assumed putting in the body wasn't practical and that everything would be using links.
josh2600 14y ago
This might be more than you asked for but here goes: Cellular networks still have to interop with SS7. On most major large Cellular networks this is accomplished with a protocol called IMS. Integrated Multimedia Subsystem provides wrappers for non-IP transactions to allow IP controls over analog equipment. Put simply: stuff that isn't IP gets broken up and wrapped in IP before it can go on the network. Because of this, and other factors, making a picture messaging system that operates over this structure is difficult. So difficult that virtually all of the MMSC (MMS Gateways) are proprietary and prohibitively expensive. Why doesn't anyone support MMS? Because it costs too much.
mediawoman 14y ago
Actually Mogreet offers it - for only $0.01 per send. https://developer.mogreet.com https://developer.mogreet.com - they do MMS campaigns for the studios, media outlets, retailers etc and just opened their API last year. This is NOT SMS with a link but rather full blown MMS - audio, pictures, slideshows, video etc.

by tzz 14y ago

chime 14y ago

Would it be possible for users to send an MMS to an email address instead of a phone number? I don't mean using an email client. I mean type in a@example.com in the field where one would normally type phone numbers. I don't have email on my iPhone and I often use iMessage to email pics to myself. You might not get 2-way communication easily but it could be a good option regardless.

chris_vannoy 14y ago
Send from MMS to email, certainly. It's all just email under the hood. I use this as an input method on http://montabe.com http://montabe.com, for instance. But going the other way - sending an image via SMS/MMS to a user (which is what that post is about) - is a totally different animal. One in which you'd likely need to format specifically for different carriers and the like (and that's best case).
theyCallMeSwift 14y ago
Yeah, this would be super simple to build using SendGrid (which you could say is the Twilio equivalent for email). For example: http://sendgrid.com/docs/Code_Examples/ruby.html http://sendgrid.com/docs/Code_Examples/ruby.html
theyCallMeSwift 14y ago
In fact, here's a pull request for the necessary changes. https://github.com/jpf/filepicker-twilio-example/pull/1/files https://github.com/jpf/filepicker-twilio-example/pull/1/file...
- jf 14y ago
  Merged. The Filepicker.io demo in the blog post now supports sending email via SendGrid.

lucian1900 14y ago

MMS is largely just an SMS with a link to a file. It's pretty easy to send a link to a file hosted somewhere.

tzz 14y ago
Is it possible to use Twilio SMS API to receive MMS message? Am I be able to receive SMS in backend and decode the data to get the link to the image?
- anthor 14y ago
  I can't speak to the Twilio API, but you certainly can with the Mogreet SMS/MMS api. When an MO (Mobile originated) message is received from your user, we decode and store any media included (like images!) and then we make a web services callback to your app with the message content, the info about the user that sent it in, and a url to the media payload of that MO message. Anthor
anthor 14y ago
Anthony here, Mogreet CTO. MMS is not at all like SMS under the hood. While links are theoretically supported, in practical real life the content (images, video, audio, etc) is encoded into the MM7 body, and delivered all together to the handset. Check out our docs online for much more about what you can do: https://developer.mogreet.com/docs https://developer.mogreet.com/docs anthor
- lucian1900 14y ago
  Ah, I'd assumed putting in the body wasn't practical and that everything would be using links.

josh2600 14y ago

This might be more than you asked for but here goes: Cellular networks still have to interop with SS7. On most major large Cellular networks this is accomplished with a protocol called IMS. Integrated Multimedia Subsystem provides wrappers for non-IP transactions to allow IP controls over analog equipment. Put simply: stuff that isn't IP gets broken up and wrapped in IP before it can go on the network. Because of this, and other factors, making a picture messaging system that operates over this structure is difficult. So difficult that virtually all of the MMSC (MMS Gateways) are proprietary and prohibitively expensive. Why doesn't anyone support MMS? Because it costs too much.

mediawoman 14y ago

Actually Mogreet offers it - for only $0.01 per send. https://developer.mogreet.com https://developer.mogreet.com - they do MMS campaigns for the studios, media outlets, retailers etc and just opened their API last year. This is NOT SMS with a link but rather full blown MMS - audio, pictures, slideshows, video etc.