Replacement of MMS with SMS when transferring contact to Xiaomi

Xiaomi smartphone owners often face a situation where trying to send a business card to an interlocutor leads to an unexpected result: the system automatically switches to the format of a multimedia message. This is because a standard business card contains data that the system interprets as an attachment requiring the MMS protocol. However, not all users have an Internet packet or a tariffed multimedia transmission, which makes sending impossible or too expensive.

The solution lies in deep configurations of the message application or in the use of alternative methods of encoding data. On devices with the shell of MIUI and the new HyperOS, the compression algorithms work differently, forcing the user to look for workarounds. In this article, we will discuss in detail how to force the phone to send data in text form, avoiding unnecessary conversion.

There are several proven ways to bypass automatic switching, and we’ll look at both the standard system tools and third-party utilities that allow you to control the size and format of the data packet you send, and understanding these mechanisms will help you save money and time when sharing contact information.

Why Xiaomi Automatically Selects MMS

The main reason is that text message size limits: GSM allows you to only transfer a certain amount of characters in a single frame. When you create a business card, the system encodes the name, number, email and other fields in a special format vCard. If the final size of the encoded string exceeds the limit, the built-in Android algorithm decides to send the data as an attachment.

The operating system version and the default messaging program also have an impact. The latest updates to Google Messages and Xiaomi’s proprietary app have introduced features. RCS-Chats that try to improve the quality of transmission, but sometimes conflict with the old standards of cellular operators, which leads to even a short contact goes away as a "heavy" message.

It's important to understand that the business card file itself is technically an attachment, even if it's textual. So the phone pre-reserves the media-specific data channel. Without the right configuration, the sender won't be able to shift the priority back to the standard one. SMS-protocol.

⚠️ Note: Sending a contact as an MMS may cost significantly more than a normal message or require a mobile Internet connection if an unlimited packet is not activated.

Configure the standard application Messages

The first step should always be to check the internal settings of your messenger. In Xiaomi smartphones, this is the responsibility of the Messages app, which has hidden settings menus, and to access them, you need to open the application and go to the user profile or settings menu, usually located in the upper right corner of the screen.

Inside the menu, find the section responsible for MMS-This is often a "Saving Mode" or "Space Mode" option, and disabling automatic download media can indirectly affect the behavior of the system when it is sent, forcing it to double-check whether it needs to use data. It is also worth checking whether the chat function is activated or not. RCS, Because they are often the cause of the problem.

If you have a Send as SMS switch in your interface, make sure it's active. In some versions of MIUI, this option is hidden in the "Advanced" sub-menus, changing these settings requires you to restart the application to take effect.

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If the standard application does not give the necessary options, try temporarily installing a third-party. SMS-Play Market manager, such as Textra, which allows you to tightly control the type of data sent.

Use of alternative business card formats

One of the most effective ways to avoid conversion to MMS is to change the way the business card is formed. The standard vCard format of version 3.0 or 4.0 can contain redundant metadata that inflate the size of the message. Using a simplified text format allows you to meet the limits. GSM-network.

You can manually copy the phone number and name by inserting it into the body of a normal message, which ensures that the phone sends the text, but to maintain the contact, the recipient will have to manually enter the data, which is not always convenient. QR-codes that can be sent as a picture, but it will be MMS again, so this method does not fit our task.

There's a special technique that's encoded, and if you change the encoding of SMS to GSM 7-bit in your phone settings (Developers or keyboard settings), you can put more characters in a single message, and this often allows you to push through the business card in text format without switching to multimedia.

• 📱 Use shortened contact names without unnecessary symbols and emojis.
• 📝 Remove the Address, Organization and Notes fields before sending.
• 🔢 Send only the main mobile number, removing the additional lines.

Application of third-party applications for conversion

If Xiaomi's regular tools don't get the results you want, specialized tools come to the rescue. There are many apps in the Google Play store that take over the function of forming and sending contacts. They work as a layer between your phone book and the communication module.

Programs such as Contact to Text or Send Anywhere (in text mode) allow you to break a long business card into a series of short ones. SMS-For the recipient, this can look like multiple incoming messages that need to be combined, or they will automatically come together in one contact if an aggregator application is used.

The advantage of these solutions is the flexibility of the settings, you decide which fields to include in the sending, for example, you can exclude the photo of the contact, which most often triggers the switch to MMS, which gives you complete control over the weight of the data transmitted.

Comparison of data transmission methods

The choice of method depends on your priorities: speed, cost or compatibility. Below is a table that will help you determine the best way to transfer contact information on Xiaomi devices.

As you can see from the table, the classic business card most often goes as MMS. If your goal is to replace it with SMS, then using a text format or specialized applications is the most reliable option.

And if you and your partner have the Internet, it's free and instant, but if you have only a cellular signal without the Internet, you don't have to go back to SMS.

Solving problems with coding and length

A common cause of failure to send or automatically convert is Cyrillic: Russian letters take up more bits of information in the SMS standard than the Latin alphabet. This drastically reduces the maximum possible length of a single message. If a business card contains a Russian-language name, it may not fit into the limit.

Try transliterating the contact name before sending it. Write "Alexander" as "Aleksandr." This action will reduce the size of the data packet and increase the chances of successful sending through the text channel. You can also use abbreviations that the recipient understands.

In some cases, resetting the network settings helps. Go to Settings → SIM-maps and mobile networks → Preferred network type and switch from 5G/4G on 3G/2G Older networks are better optimized for clean SMS-traffic and are less likely to automatically convert to MMS.

⚠️ Attention: When switching to 2G/3G Mobile internet speed will drop, so after sending the contact, return the settings back for comfortable use.

Frequently asked questions

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The most reliable way to avoid MMS is not to send a business card file, but to copy the name and number to the body of the message manually or use transliteration to reduce the weight of the data.