MMS messages – Cordial Knowledge Base

Overview: SMS & MMS

Cordial's MMS (multi-media message service) channel supports text messages with media, such as images, animated GIFs, audio, and video. If you have SMS enabled in your account and have also purchased MMS from Cordial, you can send MMS messages. The same short code will be used for both SMS and MMS.

To enable the SMS or MMS channel in your account, please contact your Cordial Client Success Manager.

Create a new MMS message

  1. To get started, log in to Cordial and navigate to Messages > Create New Message and select SMS from the Channels dropdown.

  2. Fill in the required fields and select Continue.

  3. Select Edit in the Message Content pane.

  4. Select the MMS radio button.

  5. Add text to the Message text field and an image from the image library. You can also add your hosted image to the image input field.

Carriers mandate that image media size in a MMS message should not exceed 1MB for static images and animated GIFs.

Android and iOS render MMS messages differently: Android devices display the text first, followed by the image. iOS devices display the image first, followed by the text.

Use Smarty for images, video, and audio

Media can also be added to the Message text field using the smarty utility, setMmsMedia. This utility can be used for images, video, and audio.

When the utility is added to the body text, it will override images that were added to the image input field.

{$utils->setMmsMedia("https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61IkrxQ9p8L._AC_SL1500_.jpg", "image")}

{$utils->setMmsMedia("https://cordialdev-testclient.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/johanna/SampleVideo_1280x720_1mb.mp4", "video")}

{$utils->setMmsMedia("https://cordialdev-testclient.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/johanna/HappyFace.mp3", "audio")}

MMS experiments

Experiments provide a simple yet powerful way to create and test multiple SMS or MMS messages against one another—with the ability to select the best-performing message for a specific KPI.

Generative content

You can utilize generative AI content in your SMS and MMS messages to enhance and streamline the message creation process. Generative AI content is available in batch messages, automated messages, and message experiments.

Contact cards

A contact card (also known as a vCard) is a great way for your contacts to instantly recognize your logo and brand name when you send messages. Your contact can easily add your brand’s information to their mobile address book.

Contact cards are only available if MMS is enabled in your account.

Because iOS 16 makes it very easy to report SMS and MMS messages as junk, we strongly encourage the use of contact cards to help people recognize your communications and ensure they receive future messages.

How contact cards work

When the contact receives and clicks on the contact card, an option to Create New Contact displays on the mobile device. Once saved as a contact in the mobile address book, all subsequent messages will display as the brand name.

The contact’s mobile device controls the operation of adding contact cards to the address book. Tracking contacts that have added contact cards is not available.

Use the Smarty utility to create a contact card

A Smarty utility is required to construct the parameters of the contact card. The addVcard utility inserts the parameters and media into an MMS contact card, such as your company name, logo, phone number, address, email address, and note. All parameters are optional but at least one is required to send the contact card.

The photo for your brand icon should be 90x90. Place the dimensions inside the photo URL.

Parameter Description Required Expected
photo Thumbnail image (90x90) optional URL
first First name optional String
last Last name optional String
title Title optional String
company Company name optional Object
phone Phone number optional String
url website URL or support URL optional String
street Street address optional String
city City optional String
state State optional String
postal postal code optional String
country Country optional String
note Additional text optional String 
{$utils->addVcard([
    'photo' => 'https://images.cordial.com/1003/96x96/CordialThreads_favicon_96x.png',
    'first' => 'Cordial',
    'last' => 'Threads',
    'phone' => '+18885551212',
    'title' => 'Best ESP',
    'url' => 'https://www.cordial.com/',
    'company' => 'Cordial Inc',
    'street' => '123 Main Street',
    'city' => 'San Diego',
    'state' => 'CA',
    'postal' => '92109',
    'country' => 'USA'
])}

Devices will render contact cards differently depending on the device type and operating system version.

Set up the contact card

A contact card can be sent with an MMS message or on its own. We recommend adding your contact card with a welcome series.

  1. Create a new SMS message (navigation: Messages > Create New Message > SMS) and click the Edit button in the Message Content pane.

  2. Select the MMS radio button.

  3. Add your message content into the Message text field and add your image, either in the Media input field or using Smarty.

  4. Within the body of the message, add the addVcard utility with any of the parameters you want shown in the contact card. Here's an example:

How the contact card will appear on a mobile device

Devices will render contact cards differently depending on the device type and operating system version.
Welcome message with contact card Contact card on a mobile device

Best practices for MMS messages

Here are some tips to help you create impactful MMS messages.

Static images

Animated GIFs

Video

Audio