Multimedia communications is the field referring to the representation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of machine‐processable information expressed in multiple media, such as text, voice, graphics, image, audio and video. With the advent of high capacity storage devices powerful and yet economical computer workstations and high‐speed integrated services digital networks providing a variety of multimedia communications services are becoming not only technically but also economically feasible. Applications in medicine, education, travel, real‐estate, banking, insurance, administration and publishing and advertising are emerging at a fast pace. These applications are characterized by large multimedia documents that have to be communicated within very short delays. Computer‐controlled cooperative work, whereby a group of users can jointly view, create, edit and discuss multimedia documents is going to be characteristic of many transactions in the year 2000. In this paper, we review the activity in Multimedia Communications, Services and Applications. Copyright © 1991 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.