WhatsApp will allow photo sharing in original quality

Although it seems trivial, sending a picture on WhatsApp or other social media platforms is not exactly at original quality, with most social media platforms using reprocessing algorithms that reduce file size at the expense of image quality.

Introduced as a way to achieve the shortest possible waiting times for photo exchanges, automatic downconversion of images to lower resolutions is becoming less and less necessary as both PC and mobile users access broadband/5G internet connections.

Unlike services such as Google Photos, retrieving pictures at original quality does not require permanent storage of those files, just a good enough internet connection speed.

Starting with version 2.21.15.7 of the Android app, WhatsApp users will be able to access three quality settings from the WhatsApp menus:

• Automatic – when connecting over WiFi, image quality is prioritized
• Best Quality – compression preserves approximately 80% of the original quality within a resolution of 2048×2048 pixels
• Data Saver – web-quality solution, not so low as to remove essential details from the image, allowing the file to be transmitted as quickly as possible

There is currently no information on when the new functionality will be available in the WhatsApp version. At least through the smartphone app, WhatsApp could become the preferred way to transfer high-resolution photos, at least as long as all the app’s settings are ideally checked.