How to send a large video by email, text or link

Here's how big a video each of the usual ways can handle, and what happens when yours is bigger:

A few minutes of phone video can easily be hundreds of megabytes, especially in 4K. So in practice, email only works for very short videos, and most apps either refuse the video or squeeze it down to a size they're happy with. Apple says it plainly: "Some long video files are too large to send in a standard text message."

Instead of squeezing the video into an email or a message, upload it once and send a link. It works for any length, from a phone or a computer, to anyone, and your recipient gets exactly the file you recorded. With VeilShare:

1. Open the upload box on our homepage and choose your video. On a phone, pick it straight from your gallery.
2. Pick how long the link should last, 6, 24, 48 or 72 hours, and add a password if wanted.
3. Tap the upload button, copy the link and paste it into an email, a text or any chat.

Videos up to 3 GB are free without an account, and you can send a whole folder of clips in one link. Your video is encrypted on your device before it's uploaded, so we can't watch it. Your recipient downloads the file rather than streaming it, so it plays in full quality on their own device.

Gmail

Attach the video as usual. If it's over 25 MB, Gmail uploads it to your Google Drive and puts a Drive link in the email instead. The video counts toward your Google storage until you delete it from Drive.

Outlook

Outlook.com allows 25 MB per email. For anything bigger, it offers to upload the video to OneDrive and share it as a link, for files up to 2 GB.

iPhone Mail app (Mail Drop)

1. Open the video in Photos, tap the Share button, then tap Mail.
2. Add the recipient and send. If the video is too big to attach, Mail offers to send it with Mail Drop. Accept.

Mail Drop sends videos up to 5 GB as a download link that lasts 30 days, to any email address, and it doesn't use your iCloud storage. It only works from Apple's Mail app and iCloud.com, though.

How long a video fits in an email

Attachments grow by about a third when an email is sent, so a 25 MB limit leaves room for a video of about 18 MB. A video's size is its bitrate multiplied by its length, so this is roughly how much quality fits:

Anything longer than a minute or so looks noticeably worse squeezed into an email, which is why a link is usually the better choice. Our guide to email attachment size limits has the limits for every major email service.

Whether a video survives a text message depends on which kind of message it goes out as.

• iPhone to iPhone: Messages can send videos, but Apple says some long videos are too large for a standard text message. To a nearby iPhone, AirDrop is the simplest way.
• iPhone to Android, or Android to iPhone: with RCS turned on, which needs iOS 18 and a supporting carrier, iPhones send high resolution videos to Android. Google Messages has an HD+ option that sends videos at their original resolution.
• Old-style MMS: if your message goes out as MMS, your carrier compresses the video, and it arrives blurry.

For anything longer than a short clip, text a link instead of the video itself. It arrives instantly and the video keeps its quality. If you're in the same room, newer Android phones can also receive from AirDrop. See our guide to AirDrop to Android.

• WhatsApp squeezes videos to 100 MB and 720p by default. Send the video with the Document option instead, and it goes as the original file, up to 2 GB. Our WhatsApp guide shows how on iPhone and Android.
• Telegram sends files up to 2 GB, or 4 GB with Premium. Send the video as a file to stop it being compressed. See our Telegram guide.
• Discord only takes 20 MB on a free account, so most videos need to be shrunk or shared as a link. Our Discord guide shows how long a clip fits.

If you'd rather attach the video than send a link, you'll need to shrink it first.

• Trim it. Cutting a video down to the part that matters is the easiest way to save space, and you can do it in your phone's gallery app.
• Convert it to a lower resolution. Free apps like HandBrake can re-encode a video on your computer. Going from 4K to 1080p usually cuts the size a lot while still looking sharp on a phone.
• Record smaller next time. On an iPhone, you can switch between HD and 4K at the top of the Camera app in Video mode, or change the default in Settings > Camera > Record Video.

Zipping a video doesn't help. Videos are already compressed, so a zip file comes out almost the same size, as we explain in our guide to sending zip files.

• A clip under a minute: attach it to an email or send it in a chat.
• A long video to someone nearby: AirDrop, or Quick Share on Android.
• From an iPhone by email: Mail Drop.
• Anything else, in full quality: upload it and send a link.
• A private video: an encrypted link with a password and an expiry time, so it doesn't sit in someone's inbox or cloud drive forever.