Twilio MMS Messages within the UK

Question

I have an app that integrates with Twilio for SMS and MMS. In the US, when a MMS message is received, the app accesses the attached picture via one or more MediaURL tags in the incoming message.

Now the app may be used in the UK. In the Twilio docs it says that Twilio does not support MMS between US and UK numbers, but what about receiving MMS sent from a UK number to a Twilio UK number? Is that supported? If so, will the app still access the attached picture via MediaURL tags?

Thanks

Answer 1

I solved this problem, by renting an MMS enabled US number and sending the MMS to my other Twilio number from there.

Answer 2

I know this question is a year old, but I too have this problem and have just had a definitive answer from Twilio on this very topic.

Marcos Placona is correct that there is a setting called MMS Converter that will append a short URL linking to the media content to the end of an SMS messages where the carrier can't handle an MMS message.

However - this is again only available to US and Canadian users. I know this because I enabled it on my account today and sent some test messages from my UK mobile to my Twilio number. Any message that contained a photo didn't arrive. Nor did it appear in any inbound logs in my Twilio account anywhere.

I had this confirmed by Twilio support on Live Chat today. He also said there was no roadmap to add in either MMS support or MMS Converter support for the UK. This contradicts Twilio's own website content that talks about guidlines for UK SMS messaging using Twilio:

See for yourself here: https://www.twilio.com/sms/guidelines/gb

It's pretty frustrating for guys like us who use Twilio services in the UK! I think Twilio is great, but I will need to find a suitable alternative provider that does support MMS messaging or at least conversion to SMS with an embedded URL.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Answer 3

Twilio developer evangelist here.

Currently MMS is only supported in the US and Canada. However, we do realise it's a pain to have to change your system based on which country the message was sent from.

So if you go into the settings page for programmable SMS here, you can configure MMS Converter. That way, messages sent with a MediaUrl to a recipient whose carrier does not support MMS can be sent as an SMS with a shortened URL linking to your media.

Hope this helps you!