WhatsApp is flipping a switch that will allow users to send higher-quality “HD” images on the messaging platform. “Photo sharing on WhatsApp just got an update,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced via his Meta streaming channel on Instagram. “Now you can send in HD.”
The feature will roll out globally over the next few weeks, so users with the feature can send higher quality, higher resolution images (probably still compressed from the original) from Android, iOS, or the web, and recipients on any platform. You will see a small icon that indicates it as such. According to Meta, support for HD videos will follow soon after.
Once users get the new feature, they will see an “HD” gear icon when adding an image to a message thread, as first seen in beta builds shared on screenshots by WABetaInfo. The post noted that the feature first hit beta testers in version 23.11.0.76 for iOS and version 2.23.12.13 for Android.
In the example shown by WABetaInfo, the “photo quality” menu appears after touching the HD icon. It offers two resolution options: standard quality (1600 x 1052) and HD quality (4096 x 2692). Meta hasn’t mentioned details about how compressed the images will be in general and how they will look compared to sending images via Apple’s iMessage or any other competing platform. Higher quality images will also be subject to the same WhatsApp end-to-end encryption defaults.
On slow connections, recipients will be able to choose to keep the standard quality version or upgrade to HD. Plus, standard-quality streaming will remain the default for senders, delaying the inevitable need to free up space on your phone’s storage after receiving too many images in group chat.
