Send long videos by text

Why texted videos come out small and blurry

A text message was never built to carry a long video. When your phone sends one as a picture message (MMS), the carrier decides how big it can be:

• Apple says that for SMS and MMS, your carrier may set size limits for attachments, and iPhone can compress photos and videos when necessary.
• Google says carriers compress MMS messages, which can affect quality.

Whether your video goes as MMS depends on the kind of text you're sending. On an iPhone, blue bubbles mean iMessage, which only reaches other Apple devices. Texts to an Android phone go by RCS or SMS/MMS, in green bubbles. On Android, Google Messages uses RCS chat when both people have it, and MMS when they don't.

Text the link, step by step

From an iPhone:

1. Add the video to a cloud storage app such as Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive, and keep the app on screen until the upload completes.
2. In that app, copy a share link that anyone can open.
3. Open Messages, pick the person or the group chat, paste the link, add a line if you like, and send.

From an Android phone: if everyone in the chat has RCS, Google Messages can send the video itself at original quality with HD+. If anyone doesn't, share a link from Google Drive or another storage app in the same three steps.

To WhatsApp instead: send the video as a document, not as a video, and it goes up to 2 GB. You both need WhatsApp.

A SendTheStuff upload tool made for this is launching soon: one video in, one link to text out.

How each kind of text handles a big video

Sending a video to a group text

Group texts are where videos suffer most. A group with even one Android phone in it can't use iMessage, so the whole conversation goes as RCS or MMS. A video sent to it has to fit the tightest limit in the chain.

A link sidesteps that. Everyone in the group gets the same short text, and each person downloads the full video when it suits them. You upload once, however many people are in the chat. Share it as "anyone with the link", since group members you've never emailed won't be on any sharing list.

What the person sees on their phone

A text with your link, often with a small preview. Tapping it opens the storage service's page, and on a phone it may offer to open that service's app. The browser works too, so nobody has to install anything to get the video.

To keep it, they download the video and save it from there. Watching straight from the link can play a lower-resolution preview, so the download is the full-quality copy.

Two iPhone settings worth checking

• Low Quality Image Mode. If your pictures look worse than they should even in iMessage, look at Settings > Apps > Messages > Low Quality Image Mode. When it's on, Messages sends lower-quality images to save data.
• RCS Messaging. Texts to Android phones go by RCS instead of MMS only when Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging is on. It needs iOS 18 and a carrier that supports it. RCS helps with photos, but a link is still the surest way to send a long video.

When it doesn't work

• Your friend says the video is blurry. They probably got the video itself, sent by text, or watched the link's preview. Send the link and ask them to download it.
• HD+ isn't offered in Google Messages. Someone in the chat isn't on RCS, so it's an MMS chat. Send a link instead.
• Someone in the group gets a sign-in screen. The video is shared with specific people only. Change it to anyone with the link.
• The upload in your storage app stalled. Phones pause apps that aren't on screen. Open the app again and leave it in front until the video finishes.