Compress Video for a Text Message
Two completely different limits hide behind "send it as a text". iMessage between Apple devices handles around 100 MB. A real MMS to a non-Apple phone is capped by the carrier at roughly 1–3.5 MB, which is why a video that sent fine to one friend bounces to another.
The limits
| Sending by | Practical limit | Target |
|---|---|---|
| iMessage (blue bubbles) | ~100 MB | 90 MB |
| RCS (most modern Android) | ~100 MB | 90 MB |
| MMS (green bubbles, carrier) | 1–3.5 MB | 3 MB |
A green bubble on an iPhone means the message is leaving Apple's network, and the carrier's MMS limit applies. Carriers also compress whatever they do accept, hard — that heavily pixelated video everyone has received is MMS doing its job.
Getting under 3 MB
3 MB is genuinely small. For a 30-second clip that is about 800 kbps total, which is a reasonable 480p. For anything past a minute, 360p is the realistic answer, and past two minutes MMS is the wrong channel entirely.
Settings that survive it best: 480p or 360p, 24–30 fps, audio at 64 kbps, H.264. Keep audio unless the clip is silent — voices stay intelligible at 64 kbps long after the picture has softened.
Better routes than MMS
- Send a link. iCloud, Drive or Photos: full quality, no limit, works to any phone.
- Use a messaging app. WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram all accept far more than MMS, and Telegram allows up to 2 GB.
- Trim first. Most clips have a point. Sending fifteen seconds of it at decent quality beats sending ninety at MMS quality.
On iPhone specifically
Turning on Settings → Messages → Low Quality Image Mode affects photos, not video. There is no iOS setting that makes videos send smaller in Messages — the app decides, and if you want control you have to compress the file yourself before attaching it.
Compress a video for WhatsApp → Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.