As one ofthe best chat apps on Android, WhatsApp doubles up as a useful tool for sending files to people in your contacts, especially if you don’t want to bother with cloud storage and access requests. While sending media has been rather straightforward, WhatsApp’s heavy-handed compression was a major demerit. Althoughsupport for sharing HD imagesandvideosrolled out to users recently, compression is still a part of the picture. Now, finally, WhatsApp is giving beta testers a way to conveniently share uncompressed media.
WhatsApp doesn’t compress documents before sending them, so you could always share uncompressed images and videos by attaching them as documents. However, this workaround required using the Android system file picker instead of the WhatsApp media picker UI. This could be a challenge if you didn’t know exactly where media is stored in your phone’s internal storage.
Last month, we spotted Metadeveloping a new optionin the document sharing menu, which redirects to the WhatsApp media picker.WABetaInforeports this option is now available to beta testers through the Google Play Store. If you have access, you can conveniently send uncompressed full-resolution media by tapping thepaperclip iconin the message box, selectingDocument, and then tappingChoose from gallery.
While we would have liked to see WhatsApp add a new “Original” or “Uncompressed” quality option in the HD image sharing fly-out menu, the current beta implementation is also smart because it builds on the workaround people have been using for years. Backed by the liberal 2GB file size limits, beta testers can now share images and videos without worrying about loss in sharpness, detail, and colors because the images retain their HEIC metadata. The feature is also particularly useful for sharing HDR videos, which are often ruined by compression.
The feature is in the beta testing phase now, and WhatsApp could change things before it rolls out in the stable channel. However, chances are slim, and we hope users worldwide get access to this feature sometime soon.
