WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging and voice/video applications in the world, has announced that it is rolling out the ability to send photos in HD quality. And according to Meta, videos will get the same treatment later on.
According to the announcement via Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s broadcast channel on Instagram, “Photo sharing on WhatsApp just got an upgrade. Now you can send in HD.” The new feature will roll out globally in the coming weeks, with the ability to send HD photos on Android, iOS or the desktop version. Recipients know it’s HD by the highlighted icon at the top of the screen.
Pictures of WABetaInfo (see above) when this feature was still in beta shows what the markup will look like after it’s officially rolled out. When you tap the HD icon, two resolution options appear: standard quality (1600 x 1052) and HD quality (4096 x 2692). And the HD images still have the end-to-end encryption that WhatsApp is known for.
Recipients can choose between keeping standard quality photos or upgrading to HD quality, which is a relief for those on slower connections. And for those concerned about storage space issues that can result from too many HD photos sent, Standard quality remains the default for senders.
WhatsApp’s HD upgrade is late but still great
It is almost shocking that with all WhatsApp quality of life changes and updates over the years, the option to send photos and eventually videos in HD is only now available to users. Sending high-quality photos seems so easy in terms of improvements, but it’s better late than never.
And this isn’t the first time a company has overlooked such an obvious and frequently requested feature. In April 2023, Discord announced that it would be increasing the upload limit from 8 MB to 25 MBwhich was in response to images and file sizes getting larger over time.
And unlike many other applications, WhatsApp is a completely free-to-use service with no paywalls for all its features. So any updates it receives will be available to its more than two billion user base. Features like transfer chat logs, send video messagesallowing the app to edit and add new contactsand more.
So hopefully we’ll see more upgrades like this for sent content so that WhatsApp stays up to date with the fast-moving times.