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How to share photos at original quality in WhatsApp
In This Article
WhatApp users on iPhone can finally send uncompressed photos with contacts. Here’s how to ensure you send your best snaps at the original quality on WhatsApp.
Since WhatsApp’s inception, users have been unable to share photos at their original resolution, with the app compressing the image down to a much smaller size during the sending process.
While this is a great way for users to save data both in the sending and receiving of images – the compressed photos have much smaller file sizes – while also speeding up the sharing process, many miss being able to share the snap at the best quality.
For example, if the recipient plans to further edit the photo and perhaps even print off a copy, sharing through WhatsApp is far from ideal. I’ve often asked someone to share viaAirDropor another method to preserve the original quality of an image.
Now, foriPhoneusers at least (Androidusers, it’s been in beta for a while so the feature should arrive soon), WhatsApp is rolling out the option to share at full quality. There is the slight caveat that image previews won’t automatically appear and the recipient will have to tap the file to download, but that’s a small price to pay.
While the feature won’t have reached all users, here are the steps you’ll need to follow:
What you’ll need:
The Short Version
Step1
Open a WhatsApp chat on your iPhone
Choose the person you wish to share the image with from the WhatsApp contact screen
Step2
Hit the “+” button in the bottom left corner
This will load the options to share items like photos, documents, location, contacts and polls
Step3
Select Photo and Video library from the options
This will load the iPhone’s photo library
Step4
Select the photo you wish to share from the grid
You can add more than one if you wish
Step5
From the pre-sharing screen select the HD icon
This enables the option to toggle the image quality
Step6
Select HD quality
You can choose between standard quality (2048 x 1536) or HD quality (4032 x 3024)
Step7
Send the image
Continue with the editing process, add a caption or simply hit the blue paper aeroplane to send your image, knowing it’ll be transmitted at high quality
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Chris Smith is a freelance technology journalist for a host of UK tech publications, including Trusted Reviews. He’s based in South Florida, USA. …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
