How to copy a picture from a message to your Samsung Galaxy S2

In this guide I will be showing you how to save those images from picture messages onto the internal memory of your phone. This is something that comes in handy for a number of reasons. The most obvious reason is that finding it through the Gallery is much each than scrolling through a long text conversation. Another issue is that there is a limit on the number of images you can store in one conversation and by default it is 20 (though can be changed to 5000) and it can slow the phone to scroll through a large number.

In the image to the right you can see an MMS with a picture of the country side. To start the saving process you need to hold your finger on it for a few seconds until a menu appears. Like the one you can see below/left to this short paragraph.

When you see this pop up menu you need to click on "Attached items" which you can see clearly on the screen shot (the 3rd option down). After doing this you will see a list of all the attached items and their names. Each item will have a small tickbox as you can in the picture to the right. After you click in the box to tick the item (or items if there is more than 1 attached item) you will be able to click save and save it to your phone.

To find the item you will need to go to "Gallery" and then "download". You can then feel free to delete the message from your phone with out risking losing the picture.

E-Mail v MMS-Which is better?

When it comes to sending images, such as photographs from you to a friend via your phone there is 2 very different methods that we've looked at. Firstly we looked at sending MMS messages and more recently we've looked at sending E-mails with attachments, but which is better and why?

MMS The Pros

1. Easy-It really is just a matter of clicking attach then adding the item you want to send.
2. Direction-It goes directly to your contacts phone meaning they will get it and will likely have their phone on them.
3. "Snap and Go"-You can literally take a picture and send it with in seconds

MMS The Cons

1. Cost-Unless you have a free MMS allowance they can cost quite a bit to send, anywhere into the 35p range which adds up.
2. Limitations of Receiver-Although most phones can now receive MMS some older phones can't and those new phone which don't have packet data on won't receive them either. 
3. Limitations of Sender-MMS messages typically have a limitation in size and will often only allow 1 or 2 pictures per message.

E-Mail The Pros

1. Simple-Although not as simple as sending via MMS it's still very easy and if you follow the guide on this blog you really will never struggle with them.
2. Open Receiver-Everyone has an E-mail address as long as you know it you can send the message and know it will get to them.
3. Price-This is completely free if you have either a wi-fi connection or a mobile internet allowance which most people do have.
4. The limits have been lifted-Rather than only being able to send 1 or 2 images per messages you can actually send quite a few by e-mail at once.

E-Mail The Cons

1. Return to Sender-You need to make sure you have the right address or the E-mail will fail.
2. Time to Receive-Not everyone has access to their E-mails on their phone and may need to wait to access a PC/Laptop to actually see the image.
3. New v Old-Whilst it's very easy to do on things like the Samsung Galaxy S2 it's not as easy to do on older phones like a Sony Ericsson C902.

So now the moment of truth, which is better?
Personally I'd tend to use the E-mail system whenever possible. The people I'd be sending images and things to are contacts I have the e-mail address for as well as phone numbers. Personally I think it's a bit pricey to be paying 30p a message (even though I do have an MMS allowance on one of my contracts) and I know at least 2 mobile contacts have packet data turned off anyway.

For some however, mainly those with perhaps older phones it'll likely be easier to pay the 30p or so to send the MMS rather than struggle through and send an attachment to an e-mail via logging in with the browsers that were used on the older phones. At heart though it's a personal choice, and one that could perhaps be avoided by sending them at home via something like an IM client. Personally I'd side with E-mail though it's not suited to everyone.

How to add attachments to e-mails with the Samsung Galaxy S2

We recently looked at how to send MMS messages with the Samsung Galaxy S2 to share your pictures with a friend, an alternative option is sending them the image by E-mail using either Mobile Internet or Wi-Fi. We're only going to be looking at doing it via the Gmail system (click on the Gmail icon on your phone to access this) which should open something similar to the image on the right side of page you can see). If you press he phones menu button you can open up the small menu at the bottom of the phone and from that you need to click compose.

The compose screen looks a little bit like this, though again you need to press the "menu" button to open up the small selection of options at the bottom. Here you need to press on the "Attach" option which will then allow you to add images or anything else you would like to send.

When attached you should add your subject, your recipient and any text you wish to add (looking something like the image to the right) before pressing on the "Send" icon at the top of the screen. The send icon is the one with an envelope (the one with a floppy Disk is the draft option). The actual writing of an e-mail is easy and your contacts are easy to sync with your e-mail account or even your facebook account.

The advantage of sending E-mails instead of MMS will be looked at shortly in our next piece.

How to send an MMS (or Picture Messages) from your Samsung Galaxy S2

With the help of the Samsung Galaxy S2's excellent camera we've all managed to take a photograph we want to share with a friend. With the help of our contract we may even have a free MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) allowance and want to use that, though how do we send MMS with the Samsung Galaxy S2? How do we use the phone to send picture messages?

Firstly open up your "messaging" option and then on the icon and then either select a conversation (with the person you want to send the text to) or select the new text option to get a screen that looks a little like the one you can see to the right. The part you need to concentrate on here is the little "paperclip" icon. This is the icon that, for anyone who uses E-mail should look familiar, it is after all the "attach" icon and will allow you to attach things like pictures, sounds or videos.

 After clicking on the attach icon you will open up a long list of possible things you might want to attach (as seen on the left here). If it's a picture you've taken you click on "Pictures", if it's one you are about to take click on "Capture picture" of course if it's not a picture then select one of the other options. When you've selected a picture you will be taken back to the text screen to add some textual content and select a contact.

When you've completed adding what ever text and media you wish to send you merely need to click on send and the contact should get the message inside a few seconds.

Alternatively if you've not got an MMS allowance or so many free picture messages a month you could instead send the image by e-mail via either mobile internet or Wi-Fi if you have the contacts E-mail address. We'll be showing how to do that soon.