MMS Aspect Ratio
Common aspect ratios for MMS messaging are:
- Square image: 1:1 (example would be 600x600px, 320x320px, etc.)
- Portrait image: 9:16 (vertical image size; common size is 640×1138 px)
- Landscape image: 16:9 (horizontal image size; common size is 1280x720px)
For optimizing deliverability on a mobile phone, we recommend sending your MMS image in either a square format or portrait format. Keep in mind that when sending videos, the 16:9 ratio works best.
And always remember—if you decide to scale down on your image size (with smaller pixels), you should still try to keep the same aspect ratio as the ones listed above to avoid distorting your image.
MMS Image Size Guidelines
Two of the most crucial things to get right in your MMS messaging are the image file size and image dimensions, which can affect your deliverability rate if done incorrectly.
- File Size: The smaller your file size, the faster your deliverability rate will be. Our recommendation is that your file size should not exceed 500KB, but this can depend on specific carriers. You can always use free tools like TinyPNG to decompress a larger file size!
- Image Dimensions: Typically, MMS image dimensions are measured by pixels, which are the small dots or squares that make up the image you see on a screen and can influence image resolution.
There are various pixel dimensions that you can send to get your message across, you should know that sometimes an image with more pixels will send exactly the same as a smaller image. This means you’re better off sending the smaller one to maximize deliverability.
MMS Image Formats
Aside from image dimensions, you also have a few options for your image formatting. The most common image file types to send are:
- .JPG/.JPEG
- .PNG
- .GIF (animated image)
Industry standard practices recommend sending a .JPG, but .PNG images are sendable as well. You can see below that the quality of the image stayed the same throughout both of the formats.