A picture and a thousand words

MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service, a technology that allows you to create, send, and receive text messages that also include an image, audio, and/or video clip. MMS messages are sent from one mobile phone to another, or to an email address.

What's in it for me?

Multimedia messaging enriches your mobile messages in much the same way as inserting photos or changing fonts and colors does in email - it's both useful and expressive.

MMS messages are sometimes considered equivalent to so-called "picture messaging," popularized by the recent imaging phones boom, but other uses of the technology do exist. Read on

How does it work?

You don't need to have an imaging phone to send and receive MMS messages, just an MMS-enabled mobile phone, an operator agreement that supports the service, and the correct settings on your handset. Of course, an imaging phone gives you the option of creating and passing on your original images.

An MMS message is a multimedia presentation in a single entry, unlike an email with attachments, making it easier to create and simpler to deliver than an email with attachments. MMS is a scalable technology, which means it's suitable for most types of mobile phones. And MMS is compatible with fixed email addresses, so it is possible to criss-cross back and forth over the mobile-PC border.

MMS-enabled Nokia products