The end of MMS — and the beginning of something bigger

For more than two decades, MMS has been one of the workhorses of mobile communications. However, Vodafone Germany withdrew MMS in January 2023, and Deutsche Telekom, 1&1 and Telefónica Germany followed in June and July 2026, completing the nationwide shutdown. This represents more than the putting out to pasture of an ageing messaging technology. It is a sign that operators are beginning to dismantle the infrastructure of the mobile messaging era and replace it with something fundamentally different, and we should not simply be asking what replaces MMS, but whether operators can turn the transition into a new commercial opportunity.

 

The end of an era

MMS was designed for an era when mobile data was scarce and expensive, imposing severe limitations on media quality. As consumers moved to internet-based messaging, person-to-person MMS usage declined steadily, while operators continued to carry the costs of maintaining legacy platforms, technical support and inter-carrier arrangements.

 

As revenue from the service plummeted, these continuing costs became an unjustifiable drain on operator budgets. They were effectively subsidising an obsolete network element that was no longer delivering value to the average consumer.

 

Germany is not a universal blueprint

Germany’s influence extends beyond its borders. As Europe’s largest economy and one of the continent’s most significant telecommunications markets, its decisions are closely monitored by operators, vendors, regulators and technology providers worldwide.

 

However, MMS remains highly active and commercially viable in several important telecommunications markets, particularly the United States, Canada, and Australia. In these regions, the service continues to play a vital role in enterprise messaging and marketing communications.

 

While Germany’s person-to-person MMS traffic had largely become irrelevant, these other markets continue to generate meaningful business messaging revenues. Consequently, a widespread global retirement of MMS is likely to occur gradually, market by market, rather than as a simultaneous international switch-off.

 

Lessons for the UK

ermany’s MMS shutdown should be particularly relevant for the UK telecoms sector because the market shares many of the same characteristics that led to MMS decline in Germany: widespread smartphone penetration, mature 4G and 5G networks, heavy consumer reliance on WhatsApp and iMessage, and growing operator investment in RCS-enabled services.

 

However, unlike Germany, UK mobile operators continue to support MMS, which remains available for certain consumer and enterprise use cases.

 

For UK operators, the key lesson is not simply whether MMS should eventually be switched off, but whether the industry has built a sufficiently robust RCS, CPaaS and AI-powered messaging ecosystem to replace the reach, reliability and revenue that legacy services still provide today.

 

RCS changes the proposition

The retirement of MMS naturally prompts a re-evaluation of Rich Communication Services, though the relationship between the two is more structural than a direct consumer migration. The transition away from legacy systems presents a strategic opportunity for operators to implement a standardised communication framework natively within the handset.

 

RCS offers a structured pathway for operators to rebuild their relevance in the messaging ecosystem by delivering an experience that aligns with modern expectations. Features such as high-resolution media sharing, read receipts, typing indicators, and enhanced group messaging create a significantly improved user experience compared to the technical constraints of SMS and MMS. Crucially, it achieves this without requiring users to download third-party applications or create separate accounts, anchoring the service securely to the mobile subscriber directory.

 

A defining moment for the viability of RCS as a cross-platform standard is Apple’s decision to incorporate support into iOS 18. Historically, the lack of consistent RCS support across Android and iOS had been a significant barrier to widespread adoption; Apple’s decision to incorporate support into iOS 18 removes much of that friction. This development provides operators, enterprise brands, and developers with greater predictability and confidence when considering investments in RCS initiatives, positioning it as a highly functional, operator-led standard for modern communication.

 

While the GSMA Universal Profile provides a robust foundation for standardisation, operators are continuously managing the practicalities of global deployment. By approaching RCS as a collaborative, industry-wide standard, operators are building a sustainable communication layer.

 

The role of CPaaS and business messaging

As operators look beyond the legacy era, a crucial factor in the successful implementation of modern messaging is the Communications Platform as a Service ecosystem. CPaaS providers are the bridge between operator RCS capabilities and enterprise customers, providing integration, orchestration, compliance and analytics.

 

RCS Business Messaging enables verified brands to offer rich cards, carousels, suggested actions, and transactional services directly inside the native messaging inbox. For enterprises, this creates highly engaging customer journeys. For operators, it presents substantial alternative revenue streams at a time when legacy messaging revenues are under pressure. Industry forecasts suggest global operator revenue from RCS Business Messaging will grow significantly by 2030, underscoring why the focus has shifted from replacing legacy traffic to building new commercial models.

 

The AI opportunity

Looking further ahead, while RCS provides the modernised transport layer, artificial intelligence will arguably be the most transformative element in digital interactions. AI is rapidly changing how consumers and businesses communicate, with customer service chatbots evolving into highly capable intelligent agents. These agents can manage complex workflows, resolve issues, and handle transactions autonomously.

 

Within this environment, the messaging application becomes the primary interface for AI. The rich media capabilities, suggested responses, and verified sender identities inherent in RCS create an ideal, secure framework for AI-powered customer engagement. Messaging transitions from a static exchange of text into a dynamic, contextual, and highly personalised conversational interface. The long-term value for operators will likely stem from enabling these trusted AI interactions and secure transactional ecosystems.

 

Germany’s MMS shutdown is significant not because they are saying Auf wiedersehen to a legacy technology, but because it heralds a much larger transition. The operators that successfully navigate the next stage will have done more than merely find efficient ways to retire obsolete infrastructure. They will have turned messaging into a platform for richer business communications, intelligent services and new forms of digital interaction. 

 

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Dario Betti is CEO of MEF (Mobile Ecosystem Forum), a global trade body established in 2000

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and Jacob Wackerhausen