What type of messages does SMTP primarily manage?

SMTP, which stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, is primarily designed to handle the sending and receiving of email messages. This includes a wide range of content types beyond simple text. Email messages can comprise a mix of text, images, audio, video, and attachments, allowing for rich interactions and communications.

The use of MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) in conjunction with SMTP enables the protocol to support various formats and complex content types. This flexibility allows for emails to include embedded images and formatted text, as well as attachments such as documents and multimedia files. Therefore, the ability of SMTP to manage email messages that contain diverse contents makes it a vital protocol in email communications.

The other options would be too limiting, as they do not encompass the full range of capabilities that SMTP offers in terms of handling different kinds of content within emails.