A multimedia message adaptation system with presentation layer adaptation, including a message parser for stripping message headers, multimedia object attachments, and presentation layer information from a message received from a sending device, a device capabilities database for maintaining multimedia device capabilities information, a multimedia adaptor for identifying the recipient device, querying the device capabilities database to determine media characteristics for presenting the multimedia objects on the recipient device, and adapting the multimedia objects for presentation on the recipient device in accordance with the characteristics, a presentation layer preferences database for maintaining multimedia object presentation preferences, a presentation layer adaptor for querying presentation layer preferences to determine preferences for presenting the multimedia objects, and adapt the presentation layer in accordance with the preferences, and a message encoder for packaging the adapted multimedia objects, presentation layer information, and message headers into an adapted message for delivery to the recipient device.