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There is a demand for using messaging systems to transport data between wireless applications in mobile communications. As multimedia messaging service (MMS) is a promising messaging system to meet the demand, it is under enhancement in related standardization bodies to make it effective in transporting application data. The enhancement should be compatible with the existing MMS services for its smooth and safe deployment. This paper proposes a solution to make the enhancement backward compatible, so that a new MMS service of transporting application data has no impact on the existing MMS services. The solution also provides forward compatibility, so that an MMS service of transporting application data does not hinder the introduction of any application in the future, allowing instantaneous deployment of a wireless application. The standardization bodies did not define any format for data communication between a wireless application and MMS in a terminal. A common format in this regard would help mass availability of wireless applications for different purposes independent of manufacturing a mobile terminal. Based on an analysis described in this paper, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is the suitable format for the purpose. This paper also presents examples of XML file to indicate what data should be communicated in this regard. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]