FAQ-1250 What API support do Symbian OS phones provide for multimedia messaging (MMS)?


FAQ-1250 What API support do Symbian OS phones provide for multimedia messaging (MMS)?

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Classification:	C++	Category:	Messaging
Created:	03/21/2005	Modified:	04/01/2005
Number:	FAQ-1250
Platform:	Not Applicable

Question:
What API support do Symbian OS phones provide for multimedia messaging (MMS)? This appears to be quite variable.

Answer:
The situation has indeed varied quite considerably from OS version to OS version. This is (in part) because MMS is an "Optional Replaceable" component (see Symbian OS System Definition), which means that handset manufacturers can include, replace or omit the API and/or associated functionality (and indeed have done all three). Below is the situation for each Symbian OS version.

Symbian OS v6.0
No support for MMS

Symbian OS v6.1
No Symbian OS API yet exists, but Series 60 1st Edition provides a Nokia API allowing sending and receiving of MMS. This is published on Series 60 1st Edition SDKs and is available on all phones based thereon. No SMIL support is available.

Symbian OS v7.0
Symbian OS MMS API is published and available on UIQ SDKs, but not only supported in practice on BenQ phones (not Motorola or Sony Ericsson). SMIL support is provided through a Symbian OS MMS API. Sony Ericsson Mobility World offers support for the Nokia MMS API on their latest UIQ smartphones (from P910 onwards), based on downloadable libraries.

Symbian OS v7.0s
Series 60 2nd Edition, Series 80 and Nokia 7710 SDKs continue support of Nokia API from 1st Edition. This is available on all phones based thereon. SMIL support is continued through the Symbian OS MMS API. However this API is deprecated from the Symbian OS v7.0s enhanced release (on which were based Series 80, Series 60 2nd Edition FP1 and the Nokia 7710) in favour of a new SMIL parser and DOM capability ncapsulated in the GMXML component (albeit that documentation for the latter did not appear until the Symbian OS v8.1 Developer Library).

Symbian OS v8.0
As for Symbian OS v7.0s (in relation to Series 60 2nd Edition, FP2).

Symbian OS v8.1
As for Symbian OS v8.0, but all support for MMS (including the MMS API for SMIL) is dropped from Symbian OS, other than sending via the SendAs API. Support for SMIL is only through the (publicly documented) GMXML component.

Symbian OS v9.0 and later
As for Symbian OS v8.1. UIQ offers support for the Nokia MMS API as part of that platform, meaning that the Nokia MMSAPI is expected to be the de facto standard going forward.