Why are Text Videos sent to my Moto Z so bad now?

[King Bengals]

Hi,
I used to have an iPhone for years. I switched to Moto Z Force about 1.5 yrs ago. I love it but, a nagging issue I can't seem to fix is poor videos quality I get via text. When I had an iPhone 5S or earlier models I could get video text from any phone from any carrier & it looked great. My mother & brother both have iPhone 6 on VZ. Now when they send me videos of the new babies the video quality on my Moto Z is terrible. It's like from an old 2000 phone. I've read it has to do with MMS compression. I talked to VZ & they said they don't have MMS limits between VZ customer. I'm using the built-in VZ Messenger+ App which I like & hope it's not the issue. I don't understand how on 1 day an iphone5 can get a clean clear video text from either an iPhone 6 or S5 with no problem. Then on the following day that iP5 user switches to a Droid phone & now that video quality is all messed up. Any help would be great!
Thanks!

 

[Sajo]

I'm not sure why that is, I seldom receive videos through text MMS. It could be our phones, it could be the Verizon network and how they handle MMS videos, or it could be the Message+ app. You could switch to the other stock text app, Messages, real quick and open the same video to see if it plays the same way. Then switch right back to Message+ as your default Text app. If the video plays the same in both apps, you know Message+ is not causing it and can rule that out.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[Miklb58]

Not sure if this relates, but my son in Fl can send a MMS video to me and my son in Ga.
The video looks great on the son's phone (Galaxy s8) in Ga.
Mine (Note 8) is badly pixelated.
I live on the fringe, whereas son in Ga has strong 4g.
It seems as though I remember that MMS is sent and received via cellular, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I'd venture to guess that it's got something to do with iMessage in this case. From what I understand of iPhones (not a whole lot...Haha), iMessage is more like a chat app than a texting app. So, it's my theory after reading the OP that it's got less to do with the Moto Z and/or its apps and more to do with how iMessage handles multimedia between iPhones vs. how a regular SMS/MMS app handles multimedia across the network. To add a bit to what Miklb is saying, I'm not sure exactly how a standard MMS is sent compared to how iMessage handles videos between iPhones. I would assume that both are using your data connection.

While that's my theory, I don't really have any advice for how you could fix it. Definitely go with Sajo's suggestion and see if using a different texting app on your end makes any difference. That's the easiest place to start.

I know in the past, when my wife has sent videos of the kids to her mother, she's run into issues of them being rejected because they were too big. That makes VZW's claim that they don't have any limits seem weird, unless the phone just assumed it was going to be considered too big by the network. Her workaround has always been to send them via Facebook Messenger (AHHHH!) or Hangouts or something that's a chat app instead of an SMS app.

 

[me just sayin]

verizon has a size limit for mms. could be the video is too large and it was degraded. Yes I know they said it was not them but...third party customer service has been wrong before.

 

[Miklb58]

I forgot to mention also, that we are all 3 on Vzw

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[King Bengals]

I forgot to mention in the original post, my Moto Z limits text vids to 1min runtime. I think ipones had a similar limit. I had mom send me a 20 sec vid from her iphone to my Moto z using googles messager app & them VZ Mess+ app. Got the same crappy quality. Like I mentioned above, when I had the iphone TXT/MMS videos were never an issue going back many years as long as they were not to big to send. Which it wouldn't let you send. Very irrating problem. :-(

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I forgot to mention in the original post, my Moto Z limits text vids to 1min runtime. I think ipones had a similar limit. I had mom send me a 20 sec vid from her iphone to my Moto z using googles messager app & them VZ Mess+ app. Got the same crappy quality. Like I mentioned above, when I had the iphone TXT/MMS videos were never an issue going back many years as long as they were not to big to send. Which it wouldn't let you send. Very irrating problem. :-(

Does she have Hangouts or another chat app? I'd have her try sending the same video through an app looks that. Or upload them to Google Photos or Drive or something & just send you the link. A chat app should be easier though.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk