Sending Pictures and Video (MMS)

A strong image or a short video can carry more than any block of text — a candidate's face, an event flyer, a fifteen-second message straight to camera. Here's how media sends work at PolitiFast and how to make media that survives the trip to a small screen.

Two media send types

The first step of the Submit a Text wizard offers three message types: plain text, text plus an image, and text plus a video. Everything else about the send — audience, scheduling, team review, and release — works exactly as described in Submitting a Text: The Six-Step Wizard.

Video: 1 to 60 seconds

Videos must run between 1 and 60 seconds. When you upload one, it's automatically converted for carrier delivery: carriers put hard caps on the file size a text message can carry, so we compress and re-encode your video into a format that arrives reliably on every network.

Because of that, send your best-quality original. Don't pre-compress or export a small file to "help" — compressing video twice degrades it visibly, and our pipeline handles all the sizing anyway. Give us the cleanest source you have and let the conversion do its job.

A practical note on content: the first two seconds decide whether someone keeps watching, so open with the candidate or the point — not a logo animation.

Images that work at phone size

Your image will be seen at a few inches tall, often at a glance. What works:

• One focal point. A face, a headline, a date — pick one.
• Big text, few words. Think yard sign, not mail piece. If a sentence matters, put it in the message text instead of the image.
• Strong contrast. Light text on a busy photo disappears on a phone in sunlight.
• No fine print. Anything you have to squint at on a desktop is invisible on a phone.

Before submitting, use your free test texts to see the media on an actual phone — the test step in the wizard exists for exactly this.

Picture size: we shrink big images for you

Carriers turn away some picture messages over about 700 KB. When you attach a larger photo or graphic, we automatically save a smaller copy before it uploads (a JPEG under 700 KB, no more than 1600 pixels on its longest side), and you'll see a note saying so. You don't need to resize anything yourself. Animated images (like GIFs) are left as they are, so keep those small.

Delivery tips while you compose

While you write, a short delivery tip may appear under your message. Tips are only a heads-up: nothing is blocked, and you can always send as is. They currently flag:

• Public link shorteners such as bit.ly or tinyurl. Carriers often filter shared shorteners as spam, so your full link usually delivers better.
• Large pictures that couldn't be shrunk automatically.

You may also see a note that about 1 in 20 phones can't show picture messages. That's normal for any picture send. If reaching every last phone matters more than the image, a plain text with a link to the image reaches the most people.

The $25 designed graphic

If you don't have design help on staff, add a professionally designed graphic to any send for $25. Our designers build it for the medium: correct dimensions for phone screens, sized within carrier limits, and visually built around one clear message. Mention it to your PolitiFast team when you're planning the send and we'll take it from there.

Media sends are invoiced per send through your Billing tab like every other text — see Tracking Your Text Sends: Statuses and Results for how to follow a send after you submit it.