iPhone Videos (Small When Send, Make Bigger, Lens Affect)


iPhones have excellent cameras that allow you to take high-quality videos to share with your family and friends. To share your videos from an iPhone, you can use any means, from sending an MMS to emailing the videos. However, you might notice that the videos you send are so small, and you might want to know the cause.

So, why are iPhone videos so small when I send them? The iPhone videos are small when you send them because they were resized to fit your cellular carrier or MMS size limitation. MMS messages are limited at the carrier level, varying between 300 KB and 1.2 MB. If you send a video through a cellular network that exceeds 1.2 MB, it will be compressed once or multiple times, making it smaller. Your videos can also be small if you trim them excessively to fit a certain size.

You can share iPhone videos through mail, messages, or any other apps you have installed on your iPhone. After sending videos on your iPhone, you might notice the sent videos are smaller than the original videos on your iPhone.

After seeing something amazing, you took your iPhone out and recorded a video of the event. To share that moment with other people, you decided to share the video. After sending the video to some of your contacts, you noticed that the video is small compared to the original video, and you might be wondering why.

The iPhone videos are so small after you send them because they are compressed to fit the size required by your cellular carrier. Suppose you send the iPhone video via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), in that case, your cellular carrier will compress the video to the correct size before allowing the video to be sent via its cellular network.

Depending on your cellular carrier or your carrier plan, the size limit ranges between 300 KB and 1.2 MB. If the original iPhone video was 5 MB, your cellular carrier will compress it several times, making it smaller before it is sent, which could affect the quality of the video.

Trimming your video so that you can send the correct part could also affect its size. If you want to send large video files from your iPhone, you should try using other methods that do not have size restrictions.

There are different ways you can share videos from your iPhone, and some of them have size restrictions. If you decide to send the iPhone videos via mail or message, you will have to trim the videos to fit the required size, or the cellular carrier will compress the video to the correct size.

If you want to send an iPhone video via email, it should not be larger than 25 MB. If you decide to send an iPhone video via messages, the video’s size is restricted by time or size. iMessage will not send the video if it is longer than three and a half minutes, and MMS will restrict the size of the video between 300 KB and 1.2 MB.

When you try to send large videos via email or iMessage, these services will not deliver the video. However, your cellular carrier will compress the video to the correct size if you use MMS. For example, suppose you have a video that is 6 MB. In that case, your cellular carrier will compress the video to the correct size before allowing the video to be sent via its cellular network.

Depending on its size, the video will be subject to a single compression or multiple compression. The recipient will receive a small video compared to the original video on your iPhone. The video becomes smaller with each compression, but its quality degrades.

One way of making videos smaller is trimming them to remove unwanted parts. When you start to record a video on your iPhone, sometimes, not everything on the video is important. To ensure the video does not take up a lot of storage space in your iPhone, you might have to trim the video.

Before you send a video, you might also trim it to ensure you do want to waste the receiver’s time. For example, if a video is 5 minutes long and the interesting part is only one minute long, there is no need to send the entire video. When you trim the video, it will be smaller than the original video.

How Do You Make Videos Bigger On iPhone?

There are different ways to watch videos on your phone, and you can use various apps to watch different types of videos on your iPhone. Sometimes you might receive or download a video that is too small to view on your iPhone’s screen clearly. Here is how you can make videos on your iPhone bigger.

To make videos bigger on iPhone, open the Photos app on your “Home” screen. The app’s Album button will appear on the bottom of your screen. Tap on the video that you want to make bigger. By tapping on the video, you will open the editing option that allows you to change certain aspects of the video. Tap on “Edit” on the upper right corner of your screen and increase the size of the video; tap on the “Crop” icon. Select how you want to increase the size of the video, either horizontally, vertically, or both. Drag the horizontal and vertical crop lines using your fingers until you get the desired size. Save the changes to make the new video size permanent.

When you are watching videos on your iPhone, you can temporarily increase the size of the videos using the app’s features. For example, if you watch a video on YouTube, tap on the full screen icon below the video.

You can also tilt your phone to landscape to activate the full screen. However, sometimes the video will not cover the entire screen with devices that have aspect ratios greater than 16:9. If the video on your screen does not cover the entire screen, using your two fingers, pinch out on the video to make the video cover the entire screen. To exit the full screen, tap your screen and at the bottom of your screen, tap on the full screen exit icon to make the video small again.

iPhone cameras can capture videos in 720p, 1080p and even 4K. However, these high-quality videos take up more space on your iPhone’s storage than low-quality videos. For example, taking a 10-minute video in 720p will occupy a smaller space than a 10-minute video in 4K. Therefore, if you want to save storage space on your iPhone, you should select lower video quality.

To change the video resolution settings on your iPhone,

  • open “Settings”
  • scroll down
  • tap on “Camera”

You will see several resolutions and frame rates depending on your model. The lower resolutions, such as 720p HD at 30 fps and 1080p HD at 30 fps, will save you some storage space but will have a lower quality video. 

If you have recorded a video using a high resolution and need to share it with someone in your contact, there are methods you can use to share large videos. You can use AirDrop to send large videos to someone or several people in your contact list. You can only use AirDrop if your iPhone runs iOS 7 or later.

You can also share your large iPhone videos using iCloud if your video does not exceed the 5GB limit. You can also use an email link to share the large videos. Using the Mail Drop feature, send a direct email link containing your video, and the recipient shall use the link to download the video. The recipient has 30 days to download the video; if they do not, the link expires, and you have to send another direct email link.

Do iPhone Lens Protectors Affect Quality?

A lens protector is a glass or plastic cover that you place over your iPhone’s camera lens to protect them from scratches, dirt, or cracks. iPhones are expensive, and if the camera lens gets damaged and you do not have AppleCare or AppleCare+, it could cost you a lot of money to repair the camera lens. Before you install the iPhone lens protectors on your iPhone, you might be wondering if it will affect the quality of the video.

iPhone lens protectors would not affect the quality of your iPhone’s video unless they were fitted incorrectly. The iPhone lens protectors do not improve or degrade the quality of your iPhone’s video. However, you need to install the lens protectors correctly to ensure they work properly.

You also need to buy the right iPhone lens protector that would not interfere with or block your camera lenses. When you buy an iPhone lens protector, ensure that you check its coverage, thickness, hardness, adhesion, coating, and warranty. If you believe the iPhone lens protector you have fitted on your iPhone interferes with your phone’s camera, remove it and get another one or fit it correctly.

There are many iPhone lens protectors on the market, and when you are looking to buy one for your iPhone, there are certain things you need to be on the lookout for. You need to ensure that the iPhone lens protector fits correctly on the iPhone. It should not cover any part of the camera, including the flash.

You should also ensure that the lens protector is hard. The purpose of the lens protectors is to protect the camera lens from scratches and cracks; hence it will be useless if you fit a weak iPhone lens protector. You should also buy a lens protector that has the correct thickness. If the lens is too thick, it might prevent the camera lens from getting enough light.

When fitting the iPhone lens protector on your iPhone, you need to ensure that there are no air bubbles. You should buy a lens protector that sticks perfectly to your iPhone without moving around or developing air bubbles after some time.

You should also buy a lens protector with an oleophobic coating that prevents smudges. The lens protector will not show any fingerprints when you touch your iPhone’s camera. You should also buy a lens protector with a warranty.

If the lens protector fails to do its job or gets damaged, you can have it replaced with another one. You should also buy a stylish lens protector that matches your iPhone’s color. A perfect lens protector should protect your iPhone’s camera lens and make your iPhone look good.

To install an iPhone lens protector on your iPhone, ensure you have bought the correct lens protector for your iPhone model. Open the lens protector packaging and take out the cleaning wipe. Use the cleaning wipe to clean your iPhone’s camera lens.

Dry the camera lens with a clean and dry piece of cloth. Peel away the backing from the lens protector and place it over the camera lens paying attention to the lines. Press down on the lens protector to ensure it sticks properly on your iPhone.

Check if the lens protector is blocking the camera lens by opening the camera app on your iPhone. Do not use a tight phone cover with the lens protector because it might push it out of place and block the camera.

Wrap Up

When you send your iPhone videos through MMS, your cellular carrier will restrict their size. Your cellular carrier will compress the video to the required size before sending it to the receipt. The compressing process can occur once or multiple times, reducing the size of the videos. When you check the size of the videos you sent, you will notice they are smaller than their original versions on your iPhone.

If you want to send large video files, you can use other methods. If the video’s size is below 25 MB, you can send it via email. If it is more than 25 MB, you can either trim the video until it is below 25 MB or send it via AirDrop or iCloud. If someone sends you a small video, you can use the Photos app to change the dimension of the video to ensure it fits the screen so that you can clearly see the contents of the video.

Some people might argue that having an iPhone lens protector does not do anything to protect your phone. It might look like an unnecessary expense but having a good lens protector can help prevent your camera lens from getting scratched or cracked.

Bal Kang

Bal Kang is a technology expert based in the UK, with experience across a number of technology areas from phones, tablets, computers to gaming.

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