You Can Finally Send High Quality Photos on WhatsApp
WhatsApp may be the most popular chat app in the world , but it’s not the best for sending photos and videos. The app has a 16MB limit on any media file you send, and yet compresses it to save space. This compression results in lower image or video quality, which is frustrating at a time when smartphones have incredible cameras. As it turns out, there are ways around this quality issue, including a brand new feature currently in beta testing.
According to WABetaInfo , WhatsApp is currently testing the ability to send high-quality images to chats. The company has deprecated this feature in the latest WhatsApp beta, which is version 23.11.0.76 for iOS and 2.23.12.13 for Android. If you’re running one of these betas on your iPhone or Android device, you may now see a new option when you select a photo to send.
This new button, located next to the crop tool, lets you choose whether to send the photo in “standard quality” or “HD quality”. The former is likely applying the same compression to your image that WhatsApp has been using for years, which noticeably reduces the overall quality when sharing large, high-quality photos. However, the HD Quality option lets you share your photo in more detail than you’d expect from posting a photo in something like iMessage. However, it’s not perfect: WhatsApp still applies some compression to photos with this setting, so you won’t be able to send HD photos in their original quality. But they will look much better than before.
Also, this option only appears for images that are large enough to justify HD quality. If WhatsApp thinks the photo isn’t big enough, you’ll only be able to send it in SD format as usual. This feature also only applies to photos, so you won’t be able to send higher quality videos this way.
WhatsApp will roll out this feature in the coming weeks, but it will be available to some as early as today. For the best chance to try this feature, you should sign up for WhatsApp Beta on your platform. Unfortunately, the iOS beta is currently full , but Android users can sign up for the beta from here . If you sign up, update the WhatsApp app to make sure it installs the beta version. Alternatively, you can download the latest beta from APK Mirror .
You don’t need to be in WhatsApp beta to send high-quality images
If you can’t get this feature to work in beta, there’s a workaround to send high-quality photos and videos in conversations. Instead of sending photos and videos in photo and video format, they should be sent as documents . WhatsApp may have a 16MB limit for media files, but has a 100MB limit for documents. And anything can be a “document”.
As MUO explains , you can open a WhatsApp conversation, tap the attachment icon (Android) or (+) (iOS), select Document, and then select the photos and videos you want to share. WhatsApp will send uncompressed files so you can share your content in full quality (as long as it’s under 100MB).