Written by: The Picture Message Pro
There’s nothing quite like the joy of sharing a photo with someone you love. Maybe it’s a snapshot of your grandkids at the park, a beautiful sunset over Laguna Beach, or just a funny picture of your cat doing something ridiculous. But if you’ve never figured out how to send text messages with photos, that joy can quickly turn into frustration.
You’re not alone. We hear it all the time at Teach Me Tech OC: “I can receive pictures just fine, but I have no idea how to send them!” or “Every time I try to attach a photo, something goes wrong!” The good news? Once you learn the steps, sending photos and emojis in text messages is actually pretty simple. And we’re going to walk you through it today, step by step, with no confusing tech jargon.
Don’t want to read all this? Contact Teach Me Tech OC for personal, in-home help in Orange County. We’ll sit with you, show you exactly how to send pictures through text message on YOUR phone, and make sure you’re comfortable doing it on your own. Sometimes having someone right there makes all the difference. Visit us at teachmetechoc.com or give us a call – we’d love to help!
Quick Overview: Learning to Send Pictures Through Text Message
Learning to send pictures in text messages doesn’t require a degree in computer science. Here’s what we’ll cover in this guide:
- Why sending photos via text is different from email (and why that matters)
- Step-by-step instructions for iPhone users to send photos in texts
- Step-by-step instructions for Android users to send photos in texts
- How to add emojis to your text messages (it’s easier than you think!)
- Common mistakes people make and how to avoid them
- Tips for sending multiple photos at once
- What to do when photos won’t send or look blurry
- How to know if your photo actually sent successfully
By the end of this guide, you’ll be confidently sharing photos with your family and friends, adding fun emojis to your messages, and maybe even teaching someone else how to do it!
Why Sending Pictures in Text Messages Feels Confusing
Let’s start with why this whole thing feels more complicated than it should. Here are the main reasons seniors struggle with sending photos via text:
The technical reason:
- Regular texts use SMS (Short Message Service) – simple and been around forever
- Photos use MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) – a completely different system
- Your phone switches between them automatically, but things can go wrong
- Common issues: data not turned on, poor coverage, changed settings
Think of it this way:
- Sending regular text = sending a postcard (simple)
- Sending photo = sending a small package (different rules)
Why “I can receive but can’t send”:
- Your phone accepts incoming packages (photos) just fine
- But something blocks outgoing packages
- Usually a simple settings fix we’ll cover later
Why every phone looks different:
- Your iPhone vs your daughter’s iPhone = different icon locations
- Your Android vs your friend’s Android = different button names (“Attach” vs “Gallery”)
- Same task, different organization (like kitchens organized differently)
How to Send Pictures in Text Messages on iPhone
Let’s start with iPhone users, since many of our Orange County clients use Apple devices. The process is remarkably simple once you know where to look.
Here’s how to send pictures through text message on your iPhone (just 7 simple steps):
- Open your Messages app (the green icon with a white speech bubble)
- Tap an existing conversation or start a new one by tapping the compose button (looks like a pencil and paper in the top right corner)
- Look at the bottom of your screen right next to where you type your message – you’ll see a camera icon and a Photos icon (looks like a mountain/landscape)
- Tap the Photos icon to choose from your existing photos, OR tap the camera icon to take a new photo right now
- Scroll through your pictures and tap the one you want to send (you can tap multiple photos to send several at once)
- The photo will appear as a thumbnail in your message – you can add text above or below it if you want
- Tap the blue arrow button to send your message with the photo attached
That’s it! Your photo is now on its way to whoever you’re texting. You’ll see a little progress bar appear briefly under the photo, and then it will say “Delivered” underneath once it goes through.
Common iPhone confusion points:
- Camera icon vs Photos icon: Camera = take NEW photo right now. Photos = send OLD photo from your library
- Blue bubbles vs green bubbles: Blue = iMessage to another iPhone (uses internet). Green = SMS to Android or non-iPhone (uses cell service). Photos send either way
- Photo quality: iMessage photos (blue) look better than SMS photos (green) because iMessage doesn’t compress as much
How to Send Pictures Through Text on Android Phones
Android phones come in many varieties (Samsung, Google Pixel, Motorola, etc.), but the basic process for sending pictures via text is pretty similar across all of them. We’ll walk through the most common version here.
Here’s how to send pictures in text messages on your Android phone (just 7 simple steps):
- Open your Messages app (usually looks like a speech bubble, might be blue or green depending on your phone)
- Tap an existing conversation or tap the “+” or compose button to start a new message
- Look at the bottom of your screen for a paperclip icon, a “+” icon, or a picture/gallery icon
- Tap that icon to open your attachment options
- Choose “Gallery,” “Photos,” or “Images” (the exact name varies by phone)
- Browse through your photos and tap the one you want to send (you can often tap multiple photos to send more than one)
- Type any message you want to go along with the photo, then tap the Send button (usually looks like a paper airplane or arrow)
Your photo is now winging its way through the cellular network to your recipient! Android phones will usually show you a little circular progress indicator while the photo is sending, and then it will disappear once the send is complete.
Common Android confusion points:
- Multiple photo access options: Gallery, Google Photos, Files all show pictures. For sending photos, use Gallery or Google Photos
- Camera option: This takes a NEW photo right now, not for sending OLD photos
- Google Messages features: Some Android phones have a magic wand icon for stickers and GIFs (optional fun stuff)
Adding Emojis to Your Text Messages
Now that you know how to send text messages with photos, let’s talk about emojis. These little yellow faces (and hearts, and thumbs up, and hundreds of other tiny pictures) add personality to your texts. And honestly, they’re way easier to use than most people think.
How to add emojis on iPhone (just 4 simple steps):
- While typing a text message, look at your keyboard in the bottom left corner for a smiley face icon or a globe icon
- Tap that icon and your keyboard will transform into rows and rows of emojis
- Scroll through emojis by swiping left and right, or tap the icons at the bottom to jump to different categories (faces, animals, food, etc.)
- Tap any emoji to add it to your message, then tap the “ABC” button in the bottom left to get back to your regular keyboard
How to add emojis on Android (just 4 simple steps):
- While typing a text message, look at your keyboard for a smiley face icon or a “?123” button
- Tap the smiley face (if you don’t see one, tap “?123” first, and then you should see the emoji icon)
- Your keyboard will change to show emojis – browse through categories by tapping the icons at the bottom
- Tap any emoji to insert it into your message, then tap “ABC” or the keyboard icon to get back to regular typing
Emojis are fantastic for adding tone to your messages. A simple “Thanks” can feel curt, but “Thanks! ” feels warm and friendly. They’re especially helpful when you’re worried a text might sound too serious or when you want to show you’re joking around.
One word of caution: don’t go too emoji-crazy when you’re first learning. Some seniors we work with in Mission Viejo discover emojis and suddenly every message has 47 little pictures in it, which can be a bit overwhelming for the recipient. A few emojis here and there? Perfect. An entire paragraph made of nothing but emojis? Maybe save that for when you’re more comfortable!
Common Mistakes When Sending Photos (And How to Fix Them)
Over the years helping seniors in Orange County learn to send text messages with photos, we’ve seen the same mistakes pop up again and again. Let’s talk about the most common ones so you can avoid them.
Mistake 1: Trying to send photos when data is turned off. Remember how we said photos use MMS instead of SMS? Well, MMS often needs your mobile data or WiFi to work. If you’ve turned off your cellular data to save on your phone bill, photos won’t send even though regular texts work fine. The fix: go to your Settings, find Cellular or Mobile Data, and make sure it’s turned on. Or connect to WiFi before sending.
Mistake 2: Sending enormous photos that take forever. When you take a photo with your phone camera, it’s often a huge, high-quality image – great for printing, terrible for texting. Your phone usually compresses these automatically when you send them via text, but sometimes they’re still too big. If a photo seems stuck and won’t send, try this: save the photo in a smaller size first (you can do this in your Photos app under “Duplicate” and choose “Save as smaller size”), then send that version instead.
Mistake 3: Accidentally taking a new photo instead of sending an old one. This happens all the time! You meant to send that cute picture from last week, but you tapped the camera icon instead of the gallery icon, and now you’re staring at your ceiling or your face in extreme close-up. Just back out (tap the X or back button) and try again with the correct icon.
Mistake 4: Not checking if the photo actually sent. Sometimes your message will sit there with a little red exclamation point or a “Not Delivered” notice, but if you don’t scroll down to check, you’ll never know your photo didn’t go through. After sending a photo, always look for “Delivered” (on iPhone) or wait for the sending progress to complete (on Android). If you see an error, tap it for more information.
Mistake 5: Sending photos to a landline number. This one’s tricky – you can’t send text messages with photos (or any text messages at all) to a regular landline phone. If someone gave you their home phone number instead of their cell phone, your messages will fail. Make sure you’re texting a mobile number.
We had a client in Dana Point who was convinced her phone was broken because photos wouldn’t send to her sister. Turned out she’d been texting her sister’s home phone number for three weeks! Once we switched to the cell number, everything worked perfectly.
Sending Multiple Photos at Once
What if you want to send several photos from the same event? Good news: you don’t have to send them one at a time!
On both iPhone and Android, when you tap to select a photo to send, you can usually tap additional photos before you hit send. Each one you tap will get a little checkmark or blue outline. On iPhone, you can select up to 10 photos at once. On Android, the limit varies by phone, but it’s usually around 10 as well.
Here’s the thing though: more photos means a bigger file size, which means it takes longer to send and uses more data. If you’re on a limited data plan, or if you’re somewhere with spotty cell service (looking at you, certain parts of Irvine Spectrum), you might want to send just a few at a time rather than the whole vacation album.
Also, think about your recipient. If you send someone 10 photos all at once, they might feel a bit overwhelmed, especially if they’re not super comfortable with technology themselves. Sometimes it’s nicer to send 2-3 photos, then a few minutes later send 2-3 more. It makes it easier for them to look at each one and respond.
When Photos Won’t Send – Troubleshooting Tips
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, photos just won’t go through. Here’s what to check:
Is your data turned on? This is the number one culprit. Go to Settings, look for Cellular or Mobile Data, and make sure it’s enabled. Also check that you haven’t accidentally turned on Airplane Mode (you’ll see a little airplane icon at the top of your screen if you have).
Are you connected to WiFi or do you have cell signal? Look at the top of your screen. You should see either WiFi bars or cellular signal bars. If you’re in a dead zone with no connection, photos won’t send until you move to a spot with better coverage.
Is MMS messaging enabled? On iPhone, go to Settings, then Messages, and make sure both iMessage and MMS Messaging are turned on. On Android, open your Messages app, go to Settings (usually three dots in the corner), tap Advanced, and make sure “Group messaging” is set to MMS.
Is the photo too large? Try sending a different photo – maybe a screenshot or a smaller image. If that works but your original photo doesn’t, size is probably the issue.
Have you restarted your phone lately? This fixes more problems than you’d think. Hold down the power button, turn your phone completely off, wait 30 seconds, and turn it back on. Then try sending the photo again.
If none of these work, it might be time to call Teach Me Tech OC. Sometimes there’s a setting buried deep in your phone that got switched off, or your carrier needs to reset something on their end. We can figure it out for you without the frustration!
Making Sure Your Photos Look Good
There’s nothing worse than finally sending text messages with photos to your kids or grandkids, only to have them text back “Why is this so blurry?” Let’s make sure your photos look their best.
Take photos in good lighting. This is the biggest factor in photo quality. Photos taken in bright, natural light (like outside or near a window) always look better than photos taken in dim rooms. If you’re indoors and it’s dark, turn on more lights before taking the picture.
Hold your phone steady. Blurry photos usually happen because the phone moved while taking the picture. Take a breath, hold your phone with both hands, and hold still for a second after you tap the button. If you have shaky hands (no judgment – we all do as we get older!), lean against a wall or rest your elbows on a table for stability.
Don’t use zoom if you can help it. That little zoom slider on your camera makes photos look grainy and pixelated. Instead of zooming in, just walk closer to whatever you’re photographing. If you can’t get closer, take the photo without zoom and crop it later in your Photos app.
Clean your camera lens. This sounds silly, but your phone lives in your pocket or purse, and the camera lens gets dusty and smudgy. Give it a quick wipe with a soft cloth (or even your shirt in a pinch) before taking photos. You’ll be amazed at the difference!
When you send photos via text, your phone automatically compresses them to make the file smaller. This means they won’t look quite as good as the original, but they’ll still be perfectly fine for sharing on phones. If you need to send someone a really high-quality photo (like for printing), consider using email or Google Photos sharing instead of text message.
What the Different Symbols Mean After You Send
After you send text messages with photos, you’ll see various symbols and words appear under your message. Here’s what they mean:
“Sending…” or a spinning circle: Your phone is working on sending the photo right now. This is normal and might take anywhere from a few seconds to a minute depending on your connection.
“Delivered” (iPhone): Success! The photo made it to the recipient’s phone. They might not have looked at it yet, but it’s definitely there.
“Read” (iPhone, if enabled): They’ve actually opened and looked at your message with the photo. Not everyone has Read Receipts turned on, so you won’t always see this.
Checkmark or checkmarks (Android): One checkmark usually means sent, two checkmarks mean delivered. The exact meaning varies by which messaging app you’re using.
Red exclamation point or “Not Delivered”: Something went wrong. Tap it for more info, then try the troubleshooting steps we mentioned earlier.
“Sent as SMS”: Your phone tried to send as iMessage (blue bubble) but couldn’t, so it sent as a regular text (green bubble) instead. The photo still went through fine, it just used your cellular service instead of internet.
Don’t panic if you see “Sending…” for a while. Photos take longer to send than regular texts, especially if you’re in an area with a weaker signal. We’ve had clients in Laguna Hills think their phone was broken because a photo took two minutes to send, but that’s actually pretty normal sometimes!
Privacy Tip: Be Careful What You Send
This might seem obvious, but it’s worth saying: once you send a photo in a text message, you can’t really take it back. The recipient has that photo now, and they could save it, share it, or screenshot it even if you delete it from your phone.
Before you send text messages with photos, take a second to think: Is this photo okay for this person to have permanently? Is there anything in the background I wouldn’t want shared? (We’ve heard horror stories of people accidentally sending photos with sensitive information visible in the background – credit cards on the table, house addresses on mail, that kind of thing.)
Also, be very careful about sending photos that include other people. If you took a cute picture of your grandkids, make sure their parents are okay with you texting it around before you send it to the whole family. Privacy concerns are bigger than ever these days, and it’s respectful to ask first.
If you do accidentally send a photo you didn’t mean to send, don’t panic. You can’t unsend it, but you can text the person immediately and ask them to delete it. Most people are understanding about honest mistakes.
Advanced Trick: Using Your Photos as Wallpaper
This is a fun bonus that has nothing to do with texting, but since we’re talking about photos, let’s mention it. Once you know how to work with photos on your phone, you can set your favorite one as your wallpaper (the background image you see on your lock screen or home screen).
On iPhone, open the photo you want, tap the share button (looks like a box with an arrow), scroll down, and choose “Use as Wallpaper.” On Android, open the photo, tap the three dots, and choose “Set as wallpaper.”
It’s a nice way to keep a favorite memory – maybe that sunset at Crystal Cove, or your grandkids’ smiling faces – right where you’ll see it every time you use your phone.
When to Call for Help
Look, we’ll level with you: sometimes technology is just frustrating. You follow all the steps, you do everything right, and things still don’t work. That’s not your fault, and it doesn’t mean you’re “bad with technology.”
If you’ve tried everything in this guide and you still can’t send pictures in text messages, or if you’re just feeling overwhelmed by the whole thing, that’s exactly what Teach Me Tech OC is here for. We’ll come to your home in Orange County, sit down with you and your actual phone, and walk through it together until it works and you feel confident.
Sometimes the issue is something simple that takes two seconds to fix once someone looks at your specific phone. Sometimes it’s more complicated. Either way, we’ve seen it all, and we can help. No judgment, no rushing, no making you feel silly for asking questions. Just patient, friendly help from people who genuinely enjoy teaching this stuff.
We’ve helped countless seniors in Orange County go from “I have no idea how to do this” to “I send pictures to my grandkids every week!” It’s honestly one of our favorite things about this job.
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Keyword Density: 1.3% (optimal range: 1-2%)
Keyword in Title: Yes – “Send Text Messages with Photos”
Keyword in H2 Headings: 5 of 12 headings contain keyword or variation
Readability: High (bullet-point steps, short sections, clear instructions)
Search Intent Match:
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Target Audience Searches: - “how do I send pictures in a text message”
- “can’t send photos in texts”
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You’ve Got This!
Learning to send text messages with photos and emojis might feel like a big accomplishment – and it is! You’re opening up a whole new way to connect with the people you love. Instead of just telling your daughter about the hummingbird that visited your feeder, you can show her. Instead of describing your new garden flowers to your friend, you can send a picture. And those silly emojis? They add so much personality to your messages.
Take it slow, be patient with yourself, and remember that everyone who’s comfortable texting photos today was once right where you are now, figuring it out for the first time. You’re not behind, you’re not too old to learn this, and you’re definitely not alone in finding it confusing at first.
Start small. Send one photo to one person. Then try adding an emoji. Then maybe send two photos. Before you know it, you’ll be doing it without even thinking about it.
And hey, if you’re in Orange County and you’d like someone to sit with you and make sure you’ve really got it down, you know where to find us. We’re always here to help, whether you need a quick question answered or a full tutorial on your phone.
Now go find a great photo and send it to someone who’d love to hear from you. They’ll be thrilled to get it, and you’ll feel pretty darn proud of yourself for figuring it out!
Need help right now? Teach Me Tech OC serves all of Orange County with friendly, patient, in-home tech help for seniors. We’ll come to you in Irvine, Mission Viejo, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, or anywhere in OC – or we can help you over the phone if that’s easier. No question is too small, and we never make you feel silly for asking. Visit teachmetechoc.com or give us a call today!