Pixel 3 unable to play received video in sms - no valid app found

[2mkb1]

Hi, I have a brand new Pixel 3 through Verizon with android Pie.
I can record video and it plays when I send it to someone else or to myself, but when I receive it, it does not play, it just shows an image.
When I send it to myself and view the thread, it plays on the sent text, but not on the received text. The details screen on both the sent and received video are identical. Both say multimedia and the size.
I can save the video to my gallery and it plays fine once saved. the details there say they are MP4. This happens on video received from others and also recorded with my phone.
I have tried 4 different message apps with the same results.
I am currently using the stock sms app.
There is a wrench above the video, when I click on it, it says "no valid app found".
When i click on the 3 dots above the video it asks me what to open with and I can click on gallery or google photo and it will open the video in that app but it still will not play.
If I click on either app separately from messaging it plays in both.
It seems like the apps are not integrating correctly with my sms.
I cleared my cache in all apps even though the cache is new.
In sms settings auto download mms is on for roaming and for not roaming.
Only download over wifi is off.
On the video the play arrow shows with the time of the video until the screen is maximized.
I have rebooted numerous times.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Sending video via MMS is not ideal, since there is an attachment filesize limit of around 1 MB. As you can imagine, a video that is only 1 MB long would have to be very short or very low-res. It's better to upload the video to your Google Photos or YouTube, then share the link privately.

There are other messaging platforms that handle video better (like Telegram), but that requires the recipient to use that app as well.