MMS Sending and Receiving

In this article we will explain how to send and receive MMS messages using Telnyx API.

David avatar
Written by David
Updated over a week ago

You can use Telnyx to send and receive MMS messages using our API V1 or our API V2.

Our quick start guides, from our developer documentation, can help you with your setup:

Sending MMS with the Telnyx API

Sample API V1 curl request:

curl --request POST 'https://sms.telnyx.com/messages' \
--header 'Accept: application/json' \
--header 'x-profile-secret: v1 messaging profile secret' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
"from": "+your purchased number",
"to": "+the number you want to message",
"body": {
"delivery_status_webhook_url": "your webhook url",
"text": "Did you get this image?",
"subject": "Bear Picture",
"media_urls" : [
{"img": "https://placebear.com/802/503.jpg"}
]
}
}'


Sample API V2 curl request:

curl --request POST 'https://api.telnyx.com/v2/messages' \
--header 'Accept: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer API V2 KEY' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
"from": "+your purchased number",
"to": "+the number you want to message",
"webhook_url": "your webhook url",
"text": "Did you get this image?",
"subject": "Bear Picture",
"media_urls" : ["https://placebear.com/802/503.jpg"]
}'

MMS File Types and Sizes

Telnyx accepts a variety of file types, including:

  • image files: jpeg, png, gif

  • audio files: MP3, OGG, AMR

  • text files: PDF, vcard, txt 

  • video files: mp4, 3gpp

The destination carrier determines the maximum allowable size an MMS attachment can be:  

  • Tier 1 Carriers -- Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, Spring -- all MMS content up to about 1 MB.  

  • Tier 2 Carriers allow MMS content of 600 KB.  

  • Tier 3 Carriers allow MMS content of 300 KB. 

Note: Currently, by default, accounts are limited to 1 MMS message per second. Should you wish to have this increased, please contact our sales team via sales@telnyx.com.

To discover the carrier a phone number belongs to, you may utilize the Extended LRN Look-up's spid_carrier_name.  

Receiving MMS with the Telnyx API

Your DID's settings will determine if the number is SMS or MMS capable with a checkmark.

SMS Messaging dashboard.

Please note that currently it is up to the user to distinguish MMS and SMS messages arriving at the webhook. One way to distinguish them is to check the Content-Type header (it will be multipart/form-data for MMS).

Did this answer your question?