[EvanAnderson]

I don't think the assumption that SMS is enough is valid anymore.

My wife's elderly aunt has a flip phone that can receive SMS but not MMS. We just went thru an "identity verification" procedure with a major bank last week that sends MMS, not SMS, and could not reach her flip phone.

The whole ordeal was a huge pain in the ass and if my wife and I weren't there to help her it would have been completely impenetrable to her.

[throwawaypath]

>My wife's elderly aunt has a flip phone that can receive SMS but not MMS.

Doubt it, model number?

>We just went thru an "identity verification" procedure with a major bank last week that sends MMS, not SMS, and could not reach her flip phone.

Double doubt it, verification services do not use MMS. It would be against NIST standards and not a single verification software sends MMSs. I work in this space. MMS is being deprecated across the globe, multiple telcos have already entirely disabled MMS at the network level.

You're likely confusing getting a verification number in the banking app, not SMS/MMS.

[EvanAnderson]

I don't have the make / model of her phone. I suppose it could be an issue with her phone plan, or settings on her phone. I don't have tons of experience in the wireless telco space and I'm sure I'm abusing terminology.

My Android phone says "SMS" under the "bubble", next to the time, when I send my wife's aunt a message. If I attempt to attach a photo to a message to her (which I've always thought was "MMS") she never receives the photo or any text I send with the photo. Nothing.

re: the identify verification

We had the bank send the message to my wife's phone. She received a message with a link to a website in the native text messaging app on her iPhone. My wife absolutely doesn't have the bank's "app" installed. The website linked in the message used her camera to photograph her aunt's ID and face. I don't know what color the "bubble" was on my wife's iPhone, which I know has some ability to differentiate SMS vs iMessage.

My aunt can receive text messages. She couldn't receive this message. That's what I know.

[kube-system]

> multiple telcos have already entirely disabled MMS at the network level.

Really? Are they just presuming all of their customer can use RCS now? Or am I missing something?

[throwawaypath]

>Really?

Yes, really!

>Are they just presuming all of their customer can use RCS now? Or am I missing something?

Vast majority presume customers are using WhatsApp or similar apps to share photos and such. RCS rollout has been slow, but picked up on the last few years.

Countries with operators that have discontinued MMS include: India (BSNL; from 1 November 2015),[16] Philippines (Sun Cellular, Smart Communications, TNT; from 28 September 2018),[17] Singapore (Singtel, M1, Starhub; from 16 November 2021),[18] Kazakhstan (Kcell; from 6 May 2022),[19] Switzerland (Swisscom, Salt Mobile; from 10 January 2023),[20][21] Germany (Vodafone; from 17 January 2023).[22]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_Service

[kube-system]

Ah I forgot most of the world stopped using the phone part of their phone.

[jeroenhd]

MMS is ancient. Ancient enough that my carrier disabled it entirely. Maybe the flip phone UI is shitty, or the carrier hasn't supplied the necessary APN info to the phone, or the phone hasn't been set up to use that APN because of a bug, or they're using some kind of modernized, non-standard MMS media type or something, but there's no way that phone can't receive MMS at all.

[EvanAnderson]

Like I said in my other comment - She can't receive a message with a photo from me. Just text, she can. It's an old phone, I think a Kyocera, and I believe her carrier is Cricket Wireless.