If you need to transfer some pictures to a cell phone, there are a variety of ways you can accomplish this. Your choice of methods depends on the nature of the transfer: Are you sending them to yourself or someone else? Does the recipient have a smartphone (iPhone, Android, Windows phone)? Are the images on your computer or on your own phone? The answers to these questions will help you figure out how to send the images.
Emailing Pictures From Computer to Phone
Open your email program or email website on your computer.
If the phone you are sending the images to supports email, it should be able to download the images as attachments. You can also send email messages to a phone using MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service).
Compose a new message.
Most smartphones these days allow you to check emails directly on the cell phone.
Attach the images.
Click the “Attachments” button in the composition window to browse for the images on your computer. Most email services support sending up to 20 MB, which is usually about 5 images per message.
Enter the recipient.
There are a couple different ways you can do this, depending on who you are trying to send the image to:
- Standard Email – If you are trying to transfer the images to your own phone, enter your own email address. If you are transferring the images to someone else, and they have a phone capable of receiving email, you can enter their regular email address.
- MMS – If you want the message to be sent as an MMS message to the cell phone, use the recipient’s MMS address. Click here for details on finding someone’s MMS address. When looking through the chart, make sure to choose the MMS address, not the SMS address.
Send the message.
You may have to wait a few moments for the images to upload to your mail server, and another few moments for the message to be delivered.
Open your email or the MMS message that contains the sent images on your phone.
If you’re sending the images to yourself, the message should appear on your phone after a few moments. Make sure that your phone is on and has a network connection.
- To receive an MMS message, you will need to have a cellular data connection.
Save the images.
The process for this varies depending on your phone, but generally you can press and hold an open image on your screen or tap the Menu button and choose to save it to your phone. Repeat this for each of the images in the message.
Sending Pictures from One Phone to Another
Open the picture on your phone that you want to send.
Use your Photos app on your phone to open the image that you want to send.
Tap the “Share” button.
This looks different depending on the phone and version that you are using.
Select the method that you want to share the image.
There are several options to choose from, depending on the apps you have installed on your phone.
- Email – This sends the photo as an attachment on an email message.
- Messaging – This sends the photo as an attachment to a text message (MMS), or through your iMessage (if both you and the recipient have Apple iPhones).
- App-specific options – There will be a variety of other options listed based on what you have installed, including Facebook, Hangouts, WhatsApp, and more. Pick the option that best matches the needs of you and your recipient.
Finish sending the message.
Depending on the method you chose, you’ll need to finalize the message that will go along with the image. The message may take a few moments to send if you’re sending multiple images.
Transferring Images from a Computer to an iPhone
Consolidate all of the image you want to transfer into one folder.
You can have multiple subfolders in the folder, but having them all in one place will make it much easier to add the images to your iPhone.
Connect your iPhone to your computer using the USB cable.
Open iTunes.
Click here for instructions on downloading and installing iTunes.
Select your iPhone.
If you haven’t connected the iPhone to your computer before, you will need to authorize the computer to use your Apple ID. iTunes will guide you through the process and ask you to log in with your Apple ID and password.
- You will also be asked to trust the computer on your iPhone’s screen.
Select the Photos option in the left menu after selecting your iPhone.
Check the “Sync Photos” box.
Select the folder that contains the pictures you want to transfer.
Click the .
Apply Your photos will be synced to your iPhone and can be found in the Photos app.
Transferring Images from a Computer to an Android Phone
Prepare your computer.
Depending on your operating system, there are a couple prerequisites to take care of:
- Windows – Ensure that you have Windows Media Player 10 or later installed. You can check for updates by click the “Help” menu and selecting “Check for updates”.
- Mac OS X – Download the Android File Transfer tool from Google. This utility allows you to connect your Android device to a Mac computer. You can get it for free from android.com/filetransfer/.
Connect your Android device to your computer via USB.
If you are using Windows, the Autoplay window will likely appear. If you are using a Mac, your Android device should appear on your desktop.
Open your Android device on the computer to browse its files.
You will see a series of directories that contain all of your Android’s files.
Open the Pictures folder.
This is the best place to transfer images to, as the Gallery or Photos app on the Android will automatically pull pictures from this folder.
Copy the images you want to transfer into the Pictures folder on the Android device.
You can copy and paste or drag and drop images into the Pictures folder. It may take a while if you’re copying a lot of images.
- Don’t disconnect the Android phone until the transfer is finished.