MMS Messages

Last updated: September 17, 2025

Media may appear differently based on recipient device, phone carrier, or email service provider. Carriers and devices may compress or stretch media to accommodate screen sizes. We recommend testing your messages on a variety of devices to better understand how your recipients will see your message.

Upload Media

  1. You can upload media while drafting broadcasts/blasts, or directly through the media library.

    1. To upload your media while drafting broadcasts/blasts click Upload Media under the Add Media section

  2. We support uploading .jpeg, .png, .gif, contact cards (vcf files) and .mp4. To upload your file, click Choose File.

  3. After you choose your file, click upload.

Using Media File in a Broadcast

  1. To use media you’ve previously uploaded, click Media Library.

    1. This will open up a window of all of your previously used saved media. Here, select one of the images/videos/gifs and then Select.

  2. After you select your media, you will see it appear in your example message preview.

  3. If you decide you do not want to use that file, you can click the red x next to the name of your media under Add Media (Optional).

Media files typically appear before the text. At times, we've observed some devices showing the media file after the copy. We are working on a feature to allow you to choose the order of the media file and text copy.

Images

Recommended Sizing and Format for Images in Text Messages:

For best results, we recommend using a 375 x 375 (square) aspect ratio.

  • If you want a landscape or portrait format, we recommend the following aspect ratios:

    • 375 x 500 (portrait) or 500 x 375 (landscape)

    • Note - it’s possible the image will get cropped once sent, so you should include margin or spacing along the border. Also, most devices default to portrait orientation, so landscape images may look distorted

Videos and GIFs

Recommended Sizing and Format for Videos in Text Messages:

For best results, we recommend a video with a 480 x 480 (square) aspect ratio

  • All content will be included in the image; however, for best results, avoid putting any critical content within 40px of the edge of the frame.

  • If you want a landscape or portrait format, we recommend the following aspect ratios:

    • 480 x 640 or 480 x 720

    • Note - it’s possible this format of video gets cropped once sent

Media Size Limitations for Switchboard and Carriers

Switchboard supports uploads up to 20 MB for video and 5 MB for other media files.

Carrier

10DLC

Toll-Free

Short Code

AT&T

750 KB

500 KB

750 KB

Verizon

1.2 MB

500 KB

750 KB

T-Mobile

2.5 MB

500 KB

750 KB

General Tips for Sending Videos:

While Switchboard allows you to upload files up to 20MB, carriers have their own file size limits based on sending number type. Switchboard will compress your file as needed to send the message successfully. However, because of handset, file types, and transcoding variability, we recommend files under 500 KB.

  • Best to keep aspect ratios consistent for all of your videos to save you time formatting videos for all of your future sends

  • We recommend 30 FPS (frames per second) for videos, but anything divisible by 15 is the bare minimum requirement for best results

  • Videos under 10 seconds will perform best because longer videos will likely require extra compression which may reduce their quality (i.e. blurry)

  • All videos have something called “Content of Interest” — this is content within your media (like a face or name) that should be as centered as possible - just in case any part of your video gets cropped by carriers

  • For GIFs, we recommend converting to a video format, removing every other frame, and setting the frame delay to 0.8 seconds.