can't send photos to androids from iPhone or Mac

First your “expert” is not an expert; photos between Apple and Android do not use SMS, they use MMS. SMS=Short Message Service; text only, limit of 160 characters, actually uses the voice channel, not data. MMS=Multimedia Message Service, uses cellular data, cannot use Wi-Fi. It is MMS that sends pictures, not SMS (although every MMS message has a companion SMS that manages the MMS component).

And no, Apple cannot possible work it out with Android, because the file size limit on MMS is imposed by the cellular network operator, the service that carries the message between the iPhone and the Android phone. This limit is set by the carrier, not by Apple and not by Google (the “owner” of Android). The default is 300 MB, which means only very small photos can be sent between iPhones and Android phones (or between two iPhones not using iMessage or between 2 Android phones only using MMS). Many carriers support larger file sizes, some up to 3.5 MB, but that is still smaller than a full-sized iPhone photo. iPhones will try to rescale the photos to fit within the bandwidth limit imposed by the carrier, but that is not always possible.

If you want to send large images you can’t use MMS. You can use WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Google Duo, Facebook Messenger, or email. Email providers also have a limit, usually between 10 and 20 MB. Apple also has a service called Mail Drop. It lets you email files and images up to 5 GB; it does this by uploading the file to Apple’s servers, then sending a link to download it in the email. It’s easy to use; just send a file that exceeds the default limit and it will automatically be converted to Mail Drop. This works with any type of destination device; iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows, even Linux.

rosalia0112 wrote:

Does the Android phone that I am trying to send pictures to need to have the IMessage application installed on their phone?

I can't send pictures to Android phones but I can send test messages.

No, and in fact it can’t; iMessage only works on Apple devices. But you must have MMS enabled on your iPhone to send pictures to non-Apple devices. Go to Settings/Messages and turn on MMS. If you don’t see the MMS switch contact your carrier to enabled MMS on your account.

You also must have a cellular data connection enabled to use MMS; it can’t use Wi-Fi.

And to send pictures from your Mac it actually uses the MMS connection in your iPhone to do the actual sending.

There are over 1 billion iPhones in use. No matter what problem you have there is certain to be someone else with a similar problem. If a problem is widespread there will be thousands of posts about it (I remember a thread for a real problem 8 years ago that had 13,000 posts, and at a time when there were only 1/10 as many iPhones in use). As there aren’t thousands of posts it’s clear that whatever problem you have it is with your phone. I send pictures to Android phones daily. So does my wife. So do hundreds of millions of other iPhone users. So to fix this you need to figure out what is wrong with your phone.

• Have you tried resetting network settings?
• Have you tried sending to many Android phones to see it the problem is consistent, or is it one phone (meaning the problem could be with that phone)
• If it is one phone, did the owner previously have an iPhone that they replaced?
• Have you checked Settings/General for an entry for Profiles, that may have a profile (such as a VPN security profile) that is blocking MMS?
• Have you checked with your carrier?
• And again, did you delete the VPN app?

This is a start, there are many other troubleshooting steps you can take. You can also click on the Get Support at the top of this page and see if an Apple technician can offer insight.

The reason I asked about VPN: MMS messages must get to the carrier’s network node over cellular data. But when you use VPN it bypasses the network node; the network node never sees the message. So having VPN enabled is a guarantee that you can’t send MMS. And BTW, VPN can also block visual voicemail, which also can only use cellular data.

I realize you don’t know me, but I have no problem sending photos to Android devices; I do it pretty much every day. I never have any glitches or issues. What you need:

• An MMS plan. If you have a switch to enable MMS in Settings/Messages you have a plan.
• MMS must be on in Settings/Messages.
• You must have a cellular network connection; MMS cannot use Wi-Fi
• You must have a cellular voice connection
• You must NOT be using VPN and not have any VPN profiles installed, even if VPN is off
• The person you are sending to must have never had an iPhone, or if they did they signed out of Settings/Messages before replacing it with an Android phone

To send photos to Android, you cannot use SMS (text only), you need MMS plans provision properly by your carrier.

Two things:

• You need to enable iMessage
• You must have an SMS/MMS plans activated by your carrier.

You should not have virus protection on an iPhone; it provides zero benefit and can cause problems. And so can VPN. So get rid of BOTH the virus protection and VPN and it will almost certainly fix the problem.

The iPhone itself has built in virus protection that is far more effective than any 3rd party virus protection product. Further, because of the sandboxed architecture of iOS antivirus products cannot get to the data streams that are needed to be effective. All iPhone antivirus products are on the verge of being hoaxes, and probably over the edge for many.

Did you delete the VPN app?

It's likely from mac you have not enable message

And you are not using VPN?

Here is what I have been told by someone who is an expert: When you try to send a large photo from an iPhone to an Android phone or visa-versa, it uses SMS protocol so it may be slower or not work at all depending on the file size and type. When iPhones send photos or files to each other, it sends it over Apple's proprietary iMessage network. Sending it through Apple is faster and you're able to send larger files because it's not limited by SMS protocol. So this is something that Apple has to work out with Android. Nothing any of us iPhone or Android users can do about it. If you want to send a picture send it via email or Facebook messenger - it goes through that way. This is a real downer that Apple should be working on with Android.

There actually are literally thousands of posts about this issue if you search the apple discussions. This issue is new and only since the new update. It’s an apple issue. We all have sms and mms on and me enabled with out provided we have not changed a thing on our phones in 10yrs yet suddenly after the update they wont send to android. Only android. It’s a typical stuff up glitch apple have made yet again. Every time there is an update some new issue arises. For the amount of money we pay for our iPhones which cost more then a computer we expect better and in personally over it.

What's your opinion/knowledge on turning off SMS? That was a fix for me for this problem. Don't know the repercussions yet, however.

Yes, I’ll accept your word that there are thousands of posts (although I’ve only seen a few in this thread and other threads in Apple’s forum), and over 1 billion iPhones. Thousands is like a drop in the ocean. And the cause is probably different for each of those thousands of phones. My family’s 2 iPhones on 15.1 both send photos to android phones on an almost daily basis with no problem. Whatever the problem is, it is a problem with the specific phones or network provisioning that are experiencing the problem, or possibly the Android phones you are sending to that have out-of-date firmware.

And no, the issue is NOT new. It may be new to you, but there have been similar scattered reports with every version of iOS and model iPhone since the beginning of iPhone time.

But you always have the option of contacting Apple support using the Get Support link at the top of this page or visiting a genius bar or Apple Authorized Service Provider to have your phone assessed. And that is what you should do, because on the off-change it is a problem with a specific version that will allow the problem to be logged and analyzed by Apple engineers. Posting rants in this user-to-user forum aren’t useful, because Apple does not read the forum for issues; the signal to noise ratio makes that a useless activity.