Please explain "Picture Mail" to an idiot

NewYorkLaw · #1 (**permalink**) 08-07-2009, 11:13 PM

I must be an idiot, but I have been trying to figure this out and am just going to ask.
I have picture mail included in my (sprint) plan. But, I don't care. I notice people are always talking here about it and complaining if a particular rom doesn't support it, etc. So, who cares? What's the point? I take photos and I email them via an email account. Why does anyone need to (or want to) send a picture that has to go through a website and comes in via a link? And, then you still have to move those photos eventually, since the space is limited. Am I missing something? I've experimented with picture mail and just found it an extra annoying step to accomplish the same thing I can do without it. Someone who likes it, please explain it to me!!!
Thanks,
Pete

**MrObvious** · #2 (**permalink**) 08-07-2009, 11:41 PM

No you don't do a link or whatever with a picture mail. It should be direct to your phone.

NewYorkLaw · #3 (**permalink**) 08-07-2009, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrObvious

No you don't do a link or whatever with a picture mail. It should be direct to your phone.

When I send a picture through picture mail, doesn't it go to the recipient as a message with a clickable link? That's how a friend described it to me when she received a photo I sent that way.

TREmp77 · #4 (**permalink**) 08-07-2009, 11:54 PM

It is just like sending a text, it comes through the same way. You may have to click on the picture icon, but never a link, all the icon does is bring up the picture. It looks that way so you can read the message before viewing the picture. They are not saved on your device side so moving them around isnt needed either.
Most complaints I see are Sprint Pic Mail, it flat out stinks. It can take forever to send and receive, sometimes never even doing either. Arcsoft MMS is better.
I'd rather send an MMS than an email with a picture in it. To each their own.

**MrObvious** · #5 (**permalink**) 08-08-2009, 12:57 AM

Sprint does a link if there is a data block on the account.

NewYorkLaw · #6 (**permalink**) 08-08-2009, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrObvious

Sprint does a link if there is a data block on the account.

Thanks... then that means I unknowingly tested this with the wrong person and I should, perhaps, give it another whirl with someone else..

**MrObvious** · #7 (**permalink**) 08-08-2009, 01:23 PM

Yeah it is just like a text message.

aanast2 · #8 (**permalink**) 08-08-2009, 02:39 PM

Picture mail does send a link if you send it to someone's email account. If you send it to their cell then it is just like a text message only it takes a while to send sometimes.

NewYorkLaw · #9 (**permalink**) 08-08-2009, 08:24 PM

I've tried to send a photo to my wife and then to myself via picture mail, and neither of us received anything. hmmm...

The strange thing is that yesterday I could not have cared less, but now that it's not working, it's bothering me... Oh well.

SporkLover · #10 (**permalink**) 08-09-2009, 10:18 AM

Emailing essentially accomplishes the same thing. The convenience of picture mail is that it allows you to send pictures to another phone without a email address. It is instant, and easy.

Email is easy, but the receiver has to retrieve it themselves.