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If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many SMS is an MMS worth?

If you want to send images to your customers, or other kinds of media beyond a simple text, how should you do it?

For a long time the answer was MMS. Now there are many options to choose from.

In this Telerivet article, we’ll look at:

• What is MMS messaging?
• How is MMS different to SMS?
• What are the downsides and limitations to MMS?
• MMS vs RCS vs iMessage
• When would you use multimedia messaging in business?
• MMS alternatives for business: WhatsApp

What Campaigns Are in Telerivet

A campaign is a coordinated set of messages sent to a specific audience with a clear purpose. It can be a single broadcast or a sequence that runs on its own.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is a phone system technology that uses automated voice menus to interact with callers, letting them route themselves to the right department, provide information, or complete transactions without speaking to a live agent. It works via keypad input ("press 1 for billing") or voice recognition, and operates 24/7 regardless of call volume. Unlike SMS or WhatsApp, IVR requires no smartphone, no internet, and no app, making it a critical channel for reaching populations where data access is limited or unreliable. Effective IVR is a pathway to maximum engagement at scale. Poorly implemented IVR, however, can damage your brand and customer trust. 

It’s a superpower - but with great power comes great responsibility. 

Where to start with cloud communication?

Cloud communication can mean a vast range of things.

To help clear things up for you, we’re going to break cloud communication up into a series of use cases and provide a recommended tool for each.

In this Telerivet article, we’ll cover:

• What do you need from cloud communication software?
• Cloud communication command center: Telerivet
• Done-for-you cloud communication: Teams
• Customer service cloud communications: Zendesk
• Identity verification API: Telesign
• Cloud communications tools for sales: Gong
• Telerivet: Messaging when it matters

SMS is a universal text messaging standard supported on every mobile device, on any network, with or without internet access. RCS (Rich Communication Services) is its successor - it supports images, read receipts, branded sender profiles, and interactive buttons, but requires Android, internet connectivity, and carrier-level RCS enablement. 

Should you use RCS or SMS when leveraging connectivity solutions to communicate with your customers? For most businesses operating globally, the answer is not either/or: SMS provides the reliable baseline, and RCS adds richness where it is supported. In markets across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, SMS remains the more consistent reach channel. Read on to understand why. 

Connectivity completeness is the principle that a communication platform should be able to reach any recipient, on any channel, through any network without requiring the sender to manage that complexity. Routing decisions, fallback logic, and multi-network coverage are handled at the platform level. The operator decides who needs to receive a message and what it should say. The platform determines how to get it there.

Telerivet offers a complete connectivity solution for organizations to communicate in real time with customers, stakeholders, or staff anywhere in the world with an unmatched choice of providers. 

Most messages fail because they feel like they were written for everyone. People tune out anything that looks generic, automated, or disconnected from their real needs. The fix is simple. A few small personalization tactics can make your messages feel human, intentional, and worth reading.

Companies and organizations are recognizing that SMS is transforming sales, marketing, and operations everywhere.

Two-way instant messaging with virtually every adult on the planet, in apps that everyone has in their phone, push notifications already enabled. If it was invented today, the hype would be sky high. 

The challenge is how to use this channel well. The first step to leveraging SMS is to use the right tools for the job. A programmable SMS API provides a powerful and flexible way of incorporating SMS into your workflows and systems.