SwirlyMMS brings MMS to Jailbroken iPhone [iPhone App Review]

SwirlyMMS is a native iPhone application that brings the missing MMS feature to the jailbroken iPhone (at least until this summer as Apple has finally included the MMS feature in iPhone OS 3.0).

It's easy to use and allows you to send photos, text messages, audio and video files to your friends from your iPhone.

SwirlyMMS is developed by SwirlSpace. They claim that SwirlyMMS was downloaded more than a million times.

When you launch SwirlyMMS for the first time, the settings wizard guides you through the process of installing the demo license and configuring the MMS gateway depending on your carrier.

The user interface of the iPhone app is similar to an email client which makes it quite intuitive and easy to use.

You have folders to store incoming, outgoing, sent and trash (deleted) messages. You can view all incoming multimedia messages by tapping on the Inbox. After you open a message, SwirlyMMS will first display the text message, and you can tap the right-arrow to view the attachments in the multimedia message such as photos, audio, video etc.

SwirlyMMS allows you to save text or other media contents from the MMS messages you have received to your iPhone. You can also have the option to forward the multimedia message.

To send an MMS message, simply tap on the "write" button on the bottom right corner of the screen. You can use any of the 4 options (left to right) to send an MMS message:

• Add photos from photo album or camera roll.
• Take a new picture using iPhone's built-in camera.

• Write a text message.
• Launch a file browser and select any file from your iPhone's file system.

SwirlyMMS allows you to do some customizations such as:

• Configure the image size, which is set to medium by default.
• Select other image size which will result in the application applying different compression ratio.
• The user agent option even lets you emulate other cellphones which is quite cool (e.g. Nokia, Sony Ericsson or Motorola) to send multimedia messages.

SwirlyMMS is available for the jailbroken iPhone via Cydia. You get a 14-day free trial version after which you need to pay $8.

Apple had mentioned that the MMS feature won't be available for 1st generation iPhone users. They had explained that it was due to a hardware limitation. Many people have been speculating that it is a marketing ploy by Apple to force 1st gen iPhone users to upgrade as it was possible to send MMS messages using a 1st generation iPhone using SwirlyMMS.

SwirlyMMS uses your iPhone's data connection or Wi-Fi as a workaround to send MMS messages and doesn't seem to be use the carrier network which is used by mobile phones that support MMS.

I tried using it by turning off 3G and Edge using SBSettings and I got the following error message when I launched the app:

"Your GPRS/EDGE/3G is disabled which means SwirlMMS will not function properly!"

Another important thing to note is that if you are using AT&T then it's not straight forward, SwirlySpace advices users to checkout this and this forum threads for more details and if you are O2 user in UK and having problems receiving messages then you should checkout this forum thread.

Verdict:

So overall, SwirlyMMS is a pretty good application as it brings the missing MMS feature to the iPhone.

If you are a heavy MMS user and own the 1st generation iPhone then you should check it out as it's seems to be the only option to send MMS (even post release of iPhone OS 3.0). Please let us know how it goes in the comments.

If you are an iPhone 3G user who can manage without the MMS feature until this summer then you should wait for iPhone OS 3.0 which will have the official MMS feature.

SwirlyMMS has been around for quite sometime, so if you have used it before, please don't forget to drop us a line in the comments section below to give us your feedback.