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WhatsApp might be the most popular chat app in the world, but it hasn’t always been the best for sending photos and videos. The app traditionally had a 16MB limit on any media you sent, and, even still, compressed it to save space. That compression resulted in lower quality images and videos, which is frustrating in a time when smartphones have incredible cameras.
It’s getting better, though. Mark Zuckerberg announced last year that WhatsApp supports high-quality photo sharing—although you might have missed the option if you weren’t looking for it. The update didn’t include support for HD videos, however, until the company quietly updated the app a week later.
HD quality is becoming the default
Fast forward to June 2024, and it seems WhatsApp is finally ready to commit to high-quality media: As reported by Android Police, Meta is now rolling out the ability to send high-quality photos and videos by default. That means that, once the update hits your app, your photos and videos should share in HD without you having to do anything. (Previously, you needed to hit the “HD quality” option to trigger this every time, which was frustrating for anyone who wanted to send their media in high quality with each send.)
You can check if you have this setting enabled from Settings > Storage and data > Media upload quality. Make sure “HD quality” is selected. WhatsApp will warn you that HQ quality media may take longer to send, and that it could be up to six times larger, which means it may put more stress and resources on your data plan. With this setting enabled, you should notice the HD option highlighted before you send your photo or video.
HD quality isn’t uncompressed
However, “HD” media isn’t exactly what you might think it is. Videos max out at 720p, even if your original video was recorded in 1080p or 4K, which means WhatsApp is still compressing the video quite a lot. Still, it’s better than standard quality, which drops the resolution to around 480p. Likewise, WhatsApp still applies some compression to photos sent via the HD Quality setting, so even still, you won’t be able to send HD photos in their native resolution with this method.
Use this loophole to send full resolution photos and videos on WhatsApp
WhatsApp actually has a better solution for sending high-res content: Rather than send your videos as videos, send them as documents. This has been the best way to send full-res media for a while, as WhatsApp previously had a 100MB limit on documents, and just about anything can be a “document.” Recently, that limit jumped to 2GB per file, which makes it possible to send most (if not all) of your photos and videos in their full resolution to whoever you want in WhatsApp.
To send a video file via this method, open a WhatsApp conversation, tap the attachment icon (Android) or the (+) (iOS), choose “Document,” then choose the files you want to share. WhatsApp will send the files without compression, so you can share your content in its full quality (as long as it’s under 2GB). To preserve the quality of anything larger than 2GB, you’ll need to use another sharing method, like Dropbox or Google Drive.
