The terms SMS and MMS come up all the time when talking about text messaging, but you might not know what they mean. This article provides an overview of the two technologies, what they mean, and information on how to use them on the iPhone.
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Although this article is actually designed to explain specifically how to use SMS and MMS on the iPhone, all phones use the same SMS and MMS technology. So what you learn in this article is generally applicable to other mobile phones and smartphones as well.
SMS stands for Short Message Service, the formal name for the technology used for text messaging. It’s a way to send short messages from one phone to another. These messages are usually sent over a mobile data network. (That’s not always true, though. For example, iMessages can be sent over Wi-Fi. More on that below.)
Standard SMS messages are limited to 160 characters per message, including spaces. The SMS standard was defined in the 1980s as part of the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) standards, which formed the basis for mobile phone networks for many years.
