Can someone check to see if iMessage compresses photos/videos yet?

[Siderz]

Best way to check would be to send it to a device over iMessage, saving it to the camera roll, then transferring it to a computer and checking the file size from the computer. Either use the cable to transfer it, Dropbox, or if AirDrop works then I guess use AirDrop. Don't use something like Imgur, this will compress the photo.

This is something I've complained about in the past, iMessage doesn't compress photos/videos before sending them. This means you can get huge photos of like 3MB sent up and down, not only wasting storage space but also wasting mobile data and even iCloud storage.

I delete all of the pictures sent over iMessage (And my computer's iMessage will keep them so it's not like they're completely gone) but this is a bore. Luckily it seems you can nuke all the pics in a thread now but that doesn't solve wasting mobile data.

Edit: Before you suggest email, WhatsApp, or the least useful texting, bear in mind this has been suggested so many times already that it doesn't need to be suggested anymore.

Also just because something is "compressed", does not mean it looks like it was taken on a potato. Something can be compressed and still be good quality, BBM's compression is awful, compression doesn't have to be to a BBM standard. Go to page 2 to see my examples.

 

[utahman130]

Best way to check would be to send it to a device over iMessage, saving it to the camera roll, then transferring it to a computer and checking the file size from the computer. Either use the cable to transfer it, Dropbox, or if AirDrop works then I guess use AirDrop. Don't use something like Imgur, this will compress the photo.

This is something I've complained about in the past, iMessage doesn't compress photos/videos before sending them. This means you can get huge photos of like 3MB sent up and down, not only wasting storage space but also wasting mobile data and even iCloud storage.

I delete all of the pictures sent over iMessage (And my computer's iMessage will keep them so it's not like they're completely gone) but this is a bore. Luckily it seems you can nuke all the pics in a thread now but that doesn't solve wasting mobile data.

2.3 MB a picture for me.

 

[Siderz]

2.3 MB a picture for me.

Well this is so annoying, I expect <300KB if it's going to be sent over the Internet as a message. I don't know what their game could be not compressing photos but I think everyone is losing out.

 

[afsnyder]

Well this is so annoying, I expect <300KB if it's going to be sent over the Internet as a message. I don't know what their game could be not compressing photos but I think everyone is losing out.

100% quality I suppose

 

[Siderz]

100% quality I suppose

I feel like if it's sent as a message, likelihood is it's either going to go nowhere else or just uploaded to something like Twitter where it'll be compressed anyway. If you need it uncompressed then AirDrop should be good.

 

[LordQ]

That's something amazing about iMessage, full quality photos. WhatsApp does compress them tho.

 

[Siderz]

That's something amazing about iMessage, full quality photos. WhatsApp does compress them tho.

I used to use WhatsApp but now use Telegram, and I guess there is a bit too much compression, however with Telegram, if you choose to send a photo as a "document", then it'll send uncompressed

 

[jclardy]

Personally I like that it sends full quality, but it would be preferable to have the option to compress (Even if it was just an option in settings and not every time.)

 

[Siderz]

Personally I like that it sends full quality, but it would be preferable to have the option to compress (Even if it was just an option in settings and not every time.)

Yeah, actually, an option in the settings would work for me.

Just out of curiosity, why do you want them uncompressed? What benefit is there? I think there needs to be at least a bit of compression, because pics sent over Telegram/WhatsApp aren't super ugly, they're just not the highest resolution.

 

[sumsingwong]

Can someone check to see if iMessage compresses photos/videos yet?

It didn't seem to compress it.

I send a photo through iMessage and attempted to email it. The actual size to send was the almost same as the original that I emailed to my computer.

 

[C DM]

Yeah, actually, an option in the settings would work for me.

Just out of curiosity, why do you want them uncompressed? What benefit is there? I think there needs to be at least a bit of compression, because pics sent over Telegram/WhatsApp aren't super ugly, they're just not the highest resolution.

I save many pictures that are sent to me via iMessage into my camera roll and then save them onto my computer or other places--having them come to me in full quality essentially makes it as if I took them myself with the same quality that would be there for the other pictures I took on my camera, or at least the full quality of whatever device that the photo was already taken on.

 

[XboxMySocks]

Send it through text instead. This feature is awesome.

 

[Siderz]

It didn't seem to compress it.

I send a photo through iMessage and attempted to email it. The actual size to send was the almost same as the original that I emailed to my computer.

Image

Image

Thanks a lot for the pics.

Well beta 1 isn't final so we've still got time to hope they'll give us some more options.

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Send it through text instead. This feature is awesome.

Good idea I'll ask my brother currently in the US to start spending like £1 per text sending us photos to the UK

 

[C DM]

Send it through text instead. This feature is awesome.

Well, you can actually just do it over email as there you even get a choice of what size of a picture to include as I recall. And similar to iMessage it just uses data and works fairly quickly too generally speaking.

 

[XboxMySocks]

Good idea I'll ask my brother currently in the US to start spending like £1 per text sending us photos to the UK

Use email or quit whining, it's not even a big deal

 

[Siderz]

Use email or quit whining, it's not even a big deal

Don't tell me it isn't a big deal, we obviously have different priorities here, I'm not gonna get my whole family to fiddle around with emails as a replacement for instant messaging.

 

[RTWG]

I love that it sends full-quality files. Anything else would be silly in this world of broadband/4G.

 

[Siderz]

I love that it sends full-quality files. Anything else would be silly in this world of broadband/4G.

I think it's silly to be sending full resolution files to a tiny screen...if you want it high res, send it over AirDrop, why does AirDrop even exist?

 

[XboxMySocks]

Don't tell me it isn't a big deal, we obviously have different priorities here, I'm not gonna get my whole family to fiddle around with emails as a replacement for instant messaging.

Then quit whining because it's not a big deal to just use the original file really

 

[C DM]

I think it's silly to be sending full resolution files to a tiny screen...if you want it high res, send it over AirDrop, why does AirDrop even exist?

Does AirDrop work over distance?

What's the point of all the good things about iMessage and its powerful infrastructure if basic photos are going to be compressed? I agree that having an option somewhere would be nice and probably useful for at least some, but at the same time if there's only one default I would rather have it send the actual thing I'm sending rather than some compressed version of it.

 

[Siderz]

Then quit whining because it's not a big deal to just use the original file really

What does that even mean? I've already listed my reasons for not liking it:

• Wastes mobile data
• Wastes internal storage
• Wastes iCloud storage
• Takes more time to upload/download

And you think it isn't a big deal? ~3MB is big for a photo file which is only being viewed on a tiny phone screen. Now imagine someone sends 10 photos at ~3MB each, that's 30MB.

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Does AirDrop work over distance?

Then there's iCloud Drive/Mail Drop

 

[C DM]

What does that even mean? I've already listed my reasons for not liking it:

• Wastes mobile data
• Wastes internal storage
• Wastes iCloud storage
• Takes more time to upload/download

And you think it isn't a big deal? ~3MB is big for a photo file which is only being viewed on a tiny phone screen.

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Then there's iCloud Drive/Mail Drop

To be fair, in many cases photos sent over iMessage aren't used just for viewing on the phone, they are often saved or transferred somewhere and used as real full photos just like any other photo taken by the phone could be.

Well, if there are other options to send full photos, there are similarly other options to send compressed photos, like plain MMS and email, as mentioned before.

 

[richwoodrocket]

Can someone check to see if iMessage compresses photos/videos yet?

I like that it sends full resolution photos unlike SMS which compresses them to 1024X768. And by the way, it taking longer for the photo to download, when has that every impacted you? I never have any problems with photos needing to download. They appear instantly when I get the message.

 

[C DM]

The real ultimate point is that, yes, it would be nice if some options existed, and it would be useful to some. None of us here can explain why things are this way or that way given that Apple designed them, and none of us here can change that. Realistically there's nothing more to say about it beyond that.

 

[Siderz]

I like that it sends full resolution photos

Why?

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And by the way, it taking longer for the photo to download, when has that every impacted you? I never have any problems with photos needing to download. They appear instantly when I get the message.

You don't see it downloading, you only get the notification once it's downloaded.