Media guidelines

• Media URLs must use HTTPS and be accessible by your audience.
• Uploaded (Airship-hosted) media must be 2 MB or smaller. Maximum file size on this page refers to URL-linked media only.
• Airship recommends a maximum file size of 1 MB for all media. Additional recommendations and exceptions are noted.

See also:

• Media library
• Personalize Media URLs

Push notifications

You can add media to your Push NotificationA message that can appear on any screen on a mobile device. Push notifications appear as banners. message content and TemplatesReusable message content. Templates support personalization using merge fields and other logic..

File type and size:

<sup>1. Android and Fire OS support additional file types. Only JPEG and PNG are supported for Airship push notifications.
2. Refers to URL-linked media only. Uploaded (Airship-hosted) media must be 2 MB or smaller.</sup>

Image width and height:

^{1. For non-iOS devices, the 2:1 aspect ratio prevents cropping. Images in iOS scale vertically. If you use a 2:1 aspect ratio on iOS, or 1:2 on Android, the image will zoom and crop accordingly. We recommend testing to ensure your messages appear as intended.}

Web notifications

You can add an image to your Web Push NotificationA message that appears in the top or bottom right corner of a web browser or in a notification center.On mobile devices, web push notifications appear similar to push notifications. content and TemplatesReusable message content. Templates support personalization using merge fields and other logic.. The image appears in web push notifications in Chrome and Opera browsers on Windows and Android platforms.

^{1. If you use a 1:2 aspect ratio, the image will zoom and crop accordingly. We recommend testing to ensure your messages appear as intended.}

Web icon

The web icon is an image that appears in a Web Push NotificationA message that appears in the top or bottom right corner of a web browser or in a notification center.On mobile devices, web push notifications appear similar to push notifications.. Typically, it is your brand’s logo. You set the default icon when configuring the Web channel. You can also override the default icon for an individual message. See Optional features: Web icon.

If you are including Safari support, the default icon must be square and at least 256 x 256 pixels. Overriding the icon in an individual message is not supported for Safari.

Email

You can add images to your Email message content or TemplatesReusable message content. Templates support personalization using merge fields and other logic..

^{1. Additional formats are supported (e.g., TIFF, BMP), but they do not always display in email clients.}

Recommendations:

• 72 DPI.
• Keep image size as small as possible. Use compression to decrease the size and balance quality.
• Consider using an image that is twice the size of the space you’d like to fill so that it looks good on all screens. You can adjust the dimensions in the WYSIWYG editor, or with <img> tags if using HTML. The width of the image will depend on the space you are trying to fill, but for reference, it is commonly recommended to have your email width at 600 px.

SMS (MMS)

You can add media to your MMS message content or TemplatesReusable message content. Templates support personalization using merge fields and other logic.. SMS does not support media.

Twilio automatically resizes supported image file types  based on specific carrier limits. See also Twilio Programmable SMS Supported File Types and Size Limits for MMS Media Messages .

Virtual Contact File (vCard)

Airship sends vCard files without validation or other processing. We recommend verifying vCard rendering on devices before sending to users.

vCards must start and end with BEGIN:VCARD and END:VCARD and also include a VERSION. The table below is to illustrate the sample vCard. For additional information, including requirements and formatting variations for different versions, see Properties  in the vCard Wikipedia article.

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
FN:Sabine Airlines
N:Airlines;Sabine;;;
TITLE:SMS Text Alerts
TEL;TYPE=sms:01234
URL;TYPE=Homepage:https://www.example.com
ADR;TYPE=Address:;;5678 Party Place;Portland;OR;97296;USA
NOTE:Text STOP to 01234 to unsubscribe from alerts.
PHOTO;TYPE=JPEG;VALUE=URI:https://example.com/logo.jpg
END:VCARD

Properties and example values for the above sample vCard:

Message Center and landing pages

The hosted content limit for a Rich PageA landing page or Message Center message in your app that can include HTML, video, etc. is 1.5 MB, which includes the HTML and images. So the maximum image file size to use should be calculated in aggregate with other included images and kept as low as possible. See also: Message Center content: Hosting and page size; this information applies to both Message Center and Landing pages.

You can enter a URL for video content in the Interactive and Visual editors, but the Interactive editor accepts YouTube URLs only. The same image file types are allowed in both editors.

Message Center thumbnail image

The default size for a Message Center thumbnail image is 64x48 points. This translates to 256 x 192 px for xxxhdpi screens on Android and 192 x 144 px for @3x on iPhones. To avoid image scaling on Android devices, we advise using 256 x192 px.

In-app automation

You can add media to your In-App AutomationMessages cached on users’ devices and displayed when users meet certain conditions within your app, such as viewing a particular screen or opening the app a certain number of times. content and TemplatesReusable message content. Templates support personalization using merge fields and other logic..

• Banner image — A small thumbnail image that appears on the right or left side of the message.
• Modal image — A large image embedded in the message.
• Fullscreen image — A large image embedded in the message.
• Fullscreen video — Can be displayed instead of an image.

Scenes

In SceneA single or multi-screen in-app experience cached on users’ devices and displayed when users meet certain conditions in your app or website, such as viewing a particular screen or when a Custom Event occurs. They can be presented in fullscreen, modal, or embedded format using the default swipe/click mode or as a Story. Scenes can also contain survey questions. content you can use images and video for background media and the Media content element. If using the List content element, you can use an image for each bullet. We recommend that all bullet images in a list have the same aspect ratio.

The following image dimensions are meant to provide a single recommendation that works reasonably well for both Android and iOS devices.

Image width and height:

<sup>1. These dimensions are equal to the screen size of the iPhone X, XS, and 11 Pro.
2. These dimensions are equal to the highest resolution Android phones while maintaining the aspect ratio, providing a good balance between quality and file size, and should display well on most modern smartphones.
3. These dimensions are equal to the screen size of the iPhone 11 Pro Max, 12 Pro Max, and most high-end Android devices.
4. This aspect ratio is an optimal middle ground as it is used by many modern smartphones, including recent (as of 2025) iPhones and Android devices.</sup>

Media can appear cropped based on device screen size. When configuring the Fit option for background media and the List and Media content elements, you can determine how or if the media will be cropped. See the options for Fit and Position in Background color and media and Design property field reference in Configure Scene content.

Additional guidelines:

• Place important elements within the middle 80% of the image, leaving at least 10% margin on all sides. For example, if your image is 1000 x 2000 pixels, keep the focal point, such as text or a subject, inside a center area of 800 x 1600 pixels.
• Leave larger margins from the edges for Text elements.
• Test on various devices or emulators to ensure acceptable display across different screen sizes.

Responsive design

Images for HTML content should be designed for and tested on multiple devices to ensure your content looks great on a range of screen sizes and orientations.

• Make sure your images are wide enough to look correct on a wide desktop screen.
• Be aware of what part of your content will appear on smaller screens or in landscape mode when the page loads, and what will show only when scrolling.
• If you include text within your images, make sure your font is large enough to be readable when it is resized down to smaller screen sizes.

Open channel

When including media URLs in open channel payloads, make sure to use media that match the criteria of your OS or interface, or the third-party service you are integrating with.