Multimedia messaging, or MMS, refers to any text messages that also include video, photos or other rich elements. Users have been clamoring for MMS support since the iPhone’s introduction, only to be disappointed.
But a startup tech company has brought a miniature version of the service to the iPhone. The company is called 12Seconds.tv, and it specializes in 12-second video messages that users can post to social-networking websites.
The company has adapted their site's functionality to a new iPhone app called 12Mail. It works like this:
Users record messages 12 seconds or less in length and post them to their friends Facebook or Twitter profiles. If their friends also have the iPhone app, they can receive the messages. If they don't, they'll only see a text link to a 12Seconds.tv message. The app doesn't work with the iPhone 3G or with first-generation devices.
So far, the app has been receiving good reviews, including a rave from reviewer Lonnie Lazar from the website CultofMac.com.
"Compiling videos stored on a user’s phone or recording new video is dead easy, and most brilliant of all, the app only uses the first 12 seconds of any video users choose, keeping messages small enough to send and receive painlessly even over a slow Edge connection," he said. "The app uses push notification and features the ability to annotate with text titles and geotags."
Tech analyst MG Siegler pointed out that Apple clearly saw the potential for naughtiness with the new app. The App Store labels 12Mail with the warnings that it may include “frequent or intense sexual content or nudity” and “frequent or intense realistic violence.”
"Apple clearly loves the possibilities of video messaging," Siegler wrote.