His bill showed that on several separate days he had sent nine MMSs, each costing 33p. Jamie Fahey, who lives in Reading, recently upgraded his old iPhone to a new iPhone 6 and could not understand why his first bill from O2 featured £13 of picture messages – or MMSs as they are called by the industry – because, as far he knew, he hadn’t sent a single one. The problem particularly affects those sending out group texts to a gang of friends, as they can be charged for every message in the group. Many people who have been hit with these extra changes will not be aware of it because they don’t check their bills closely enough. It happens because some handsets automatically convert the free text message you write into a chargeable picture message, and seems to particularly affect the latest iPhones, as well as some Samsung handsets 33p, plus VAT, seems to be the typical amount charged by many operators for sending a picture message. On some phones, even typing a simple emoticon such as -) can cost you money when the software replaces it with an image file. It’s a little known fact that, depending on your handset and network, adding an emoji – a picture icon such as a smiley or a sad face – to a text message, or sending a text to an email address, can result in you being charged as much as 40p a time. If you received a smartphone, and particularly an iPhone, for Christmas, be careful how you send any future text messages, because you may well find yourself facing an unexpected bill for picture messages – even though you haven’t sent any.
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