Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

WhatsApp Now Lets You Send Photos and Video in Original Quality

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
67,490
37,778


WhatsApp is rolling out a new option that lets users on iPhone share photos and video over the messaging platform in their original quality.

Whatsapp-Feature.jpg

As spotted by WABetaInfo, the official changelog included with WhatsApp's 23.24.73 update on the App Store says that users can now "easily send original quality media as a file."

The update follows a recent feature addition that lets WhatsApp users send media in high resolution or "HD quality." While that was an improvement that addressed the service's low quality media sharing limitation, it still involves compression.

whatsapp-share-media-files.jpg

WhatsApp's latest feature avoids compression altogether by allowing photos and video to be shared as files, thereby preserving their original quality. WhatsApp's changelog adds that the new option is rolling out "over the coming weeks," so some users may not immediately see it on their device.
  1. Open an existing chat in WhatsApp or start a new one.
  2. Tap the + icon, left of the text input field.
  3. Tap Document ➝ Choose Photo or Video.
  4. Choose the media that you want to send, then confirm by tapping the blue arrow. Note the 2GB limit on the files that can be sent using the feature.
send-media-files-whatsapp.jpg


When the files are sent, previews of the media are not shown in the chat window, but the recipient can tap the files to view them. WhatsApp has also been testing the same feature for Android, although there isn't any further information about when it will become available.

Article Link: WhatsApp Now Lets You Send Photos and Video in Original Quality
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/12/04/whatsapp-send-photos-video-original-quality/
  • Love
Reactions: sideshowuniqueuser
Kylo83 said:
Yeah it’s been there for ages doing that it’s not new, not sure why they now put it in the release notes
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was gonna comment the same. I suppose the new feature is that they added the choice of document or photo and video, as before I think there was only mention to documents and then iOS asked you if you wanted to open files or photos
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mother Nature
one more said:
This could already be done for a while, by choosing to send a Document > File and then attaching an original uncompressed photo or video.

How is this different?
Click to expand...
They just want to stay relevant. I’ve been able to do this for ages. What about just allowing to select Photo & Video Library directly instead of the convoluted process.
 
jdavid_rp said:
Yeah, I was gonna comment the same. I suppose the new feature is that they added the choice of document or photo and video, as before I think there was only mention to documents and then iOS asked you if you wanted to open files or photos
Click to expand...
That's the difference.
 
Kind of a weird implementation. It's not obvious to choose "Documents" on an intuitive level. It should just be an option upon selecting photos/video.

Also, I really hope that someday they move the "typing" indicator to a more natural spot like other messenger apps. Meaning, at the bottom of the chat. The eye is already naturally down there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: macsound1 and Hank001
I resisted What’s App until this year. We use it for large group work pertinent chats and it’s a great messaging app with team split between iPhone and Android.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hank001
RoboCop001 said:
Kind of a weird implementation. It's not obvious to choose "Documents" on an intuitive level. It should just be an option upon selecting photos/video.

Also, I really hope that someday they move the "typing" indicator to a more natural spot like other messenger apps. Meaning, at the bottom of the chat. The eye is already naturally down there.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Though when sharing the normal photo method it strips all meta data using the document method includes meta data so they probably don’t want that the default. Would love it to work the normal way but just an option per contact on whether to include the meta data.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mihailo88 and RoboCop001
MacRumors said:


WhatsApp is rolling out a new option that lets users on iPhone share photos and video over the messaging platform in their original quality.

Whatsapp-Feature.jpg

As spotted by WABetaInfo, the official changelog included with WhatsApp's 23.24.73 update on the App Store says that users can now "easily send original quality media as a file."

The update follows a recent feature addition that lets WhatsApp users send media in high resolution or "HD quality." While that was an improvement that addressed the service's low quality media sharing limitation, it still involves compression.

whatsapp-share-media-files.jpg

WhatsApp's latest feature avoids compression altogether by allowing photos and video to be shared as files, thereby preserving their original quality. WhatsApp's changelog adds that the new option is rolling out "over the coming weeks," so some users may not immediately see it on their device.
  1. Open an existing chat in WhatsApp or start a new one.
  2. Tap the + icon, left of the text input field.
  3. Tap Document ➝ Choose Photo or Video.
  4. Choose the media that you want to send, then confirm by tapping the blue arrow. Note the 2GB limit on the files that can be sent using the feature.
send-media-files-whatsapp.jpg


When the files are sent, previews of the media are not shown in the chat window, but the recipient can tap the files to view them. WhatsApp has also been testing the same feature for Android, although there isn't any further information about when it will become available.

Article Link: WhatsApp Now Lets You Send Photos and Video in Original Quality
Click to expand...
The problem is that it's still limited to 2gb 👎🏻 No such limitations in iMessage
 
4odomi said:
The problem is that it's still limited to 2gb 👎🏻 No such limitations in iMessage
Click to expand...
Not true. iMessage limit is actually only 100MB. Bigger files are sent through iCloud Drive share link.
 
Last edited:
hacky said:
Not true. iMessage limit is actually only 100MB bigger files are sent through iCloud Drive share link.
Click to expand...
That's an Apple statement from 2012.
I've sent far bigger videos than that without the iCloud link, videos I couldn't send on WhatsApp,
Even if you have to use the link, it's not something u can do on WhatsApp
 
4odomi said:
That's an Apple statement from 2012.
I've sent far bigger videos than that without the iCloud link, videos I couldn't send on WhatsApp,
Even if you have to use the link, it's not something u can do on WhatsApp
Click to expand...
There are articles from 2022 about this https://splaitor.com/how-long-can-be-a-video-to-send-in-imessage/

2020 and Apple did perform quite heavy compression on videos sent through iMessage https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252139048

Could not find official recent Apple statement on this. If anyone has any I would love to see the exact limits of iMessage as of 2023.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Reggaenald
How does it handle proprietary file formats, such as .MOV? I'm always anxious about sending screen recordings out because I fear that Windows and Android users won't be able to see them. Thankfully, WhatsApp has been converting these transparently, as does Google Chat.

Does this new "send as-is" feature break that? Do they receive a file that they can't view?
 
By this time, people should be able to send and receive full quality pictures and videos across any messaging app on any operating system.
 
Few months back I bought a Sony Xperia 1V to use as a second device so that I don’t need to have Social Media apps in my iPhone. RCS is a good feature but most of my contacts are using Whatsapp. So, allowing to upload photos in original quality will be a nice feature. Hope it comes to android soon.
 
Sounds good, but and I am surprised no one has said it yet, but I wish they would hurry up and finish the iPad app and also do one for the Apple Watch. If I had a watch app I’d be happy to occasionally leave my phone behind.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back