Viral Mobile Video Creation: MMS and File Sizes
If you want to create a video that can go viral via mobile phone, you must adhere to strict guidelines. The video must be able to be forwarded via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), which means that the video must meet MMS standards.
The general standard file size for an MMS is 300kb maximum. However, you should always create your videos with a maximum file size of 295kb, to allow room for any header information that may be added by the network/carrier.
Some phones won’t let you send an MMS that exceeds this file size, while some providers will simply charge you a high fee if you exceed the 300kb limit. For example, in America, ‘AT&T’ is known to charge massive fees to their subscribers for every large MMS over 300kb, subscribers are shocked when it comes time for the bill because they didn’t do proper research.
Each carrier is different and it is recommended that mobile users read their phone’s MMS capabilities and carrier file size. It is also important to note how much extra you will be charged if you exceed this limit. It has been reported that in Australia ‘Virgin’ only allows its users to send an MMS if it stays below the 100kb file size. The 100kb was obviously designed for images, not video, which means Virgin users won’t be your best target market if you want to get a viral video to the masses.
An MMS cannot be fragmented. This means that it cannot be split into 2 messages and collated on the recipient’s phone as one message. When you write an SMS message that exceeds 160 characters, your phone will send the message in 2 separate parts and the recipient’s phone will then join the 2 together to make it look like one message. MMS does not have this functionality! A video cannot be split and sent over a network.
Sending an MMS is based on events, not data. Therefore, MMS customers are not charged for the GPRS component used during the transport of their MMS message over the network. As a user, you are billed for the event, not the size of the video. It doesn’t matter if the video is 230kb or 295kb, the cost to the user remains the same. For this reason, mobile video producers could also get as close to 295kb as possible. The only benefit to the user is that smaller videos will arrive on your phone faster, but it’s not worth worrying about the time difference in today’s mobile world.
While 300kb is currently the pervasive standard for most countries like Australia, we are now seeing high-end phones, carriers and networks strategically coming together to double the limit from 300kb to 600kb. For example, BlackJack 2 has a limit of 600kb and a recommended video file size of 595kb. Only a small minority of people can receive an MMS of that size, so I still recommend creating all viral videos at 295kb so that your viral video reaches the most eyes.
Research and learn about the capabilities of your market:
Examples:
– In India, it is common for mobile videos to be 100kb
– In Sweden, the Telia network restricts the size of MMS to 300kB
– All 3G compatible phones can receive/send 300kb MMS
– Most older phones may only allow 100kb while even older phones may only allow 50kb
– Nokia S60 devices have a 100kb limit, while Nokia S40 devices only have a 45kb limit
australian market
– Telstra = 500kb
– Opto = 200kb
– Vodafone = 100kb
– Three = 300kb
– Blank = 100kb