video/3gpp

The video format of the flip-phone age: 3GP is a slimmed MP4 profile the 3GPP consortium specified (TS 26.244) so cameras with kilobytes of RAM and networks billed by the message could still move video. RFC 3839 registered it in 2004, when MMS was the distribution channel and H.263 plus AMR was a respectable encode. Modern phones outgrew it, but Android still records .3gp in low-quality modes and decades of mobile clips survive in it. The container is ISO base media format — ftyp box at offset 4, brand beginning 3gp — so players that speak MP4 usually open it whatever the label says.

.3gp is the GSM-lineage format; .3g2 (video/3gpp2) is the parallel CDMA variant from 3GPP2.

Defined by RFC 3839 · IANA registration. Registry facts from the IANA media-types registry via mime-db.