WhatsApp is improving the way you share photos and videos – but there's a catch

If you love sharing photos with friends and family on WhatsApp then there’s good news coming – if you have an iPhone.

A new feature being rolled out over the coming weeks will allow users to send pictures and videos in their full, original quality, but only for iOS.

WhatsApp currently compresses media files so they’re easier to share, requiring less data to send and store.

There is a crafty workaround, by sending photos as a PDF or DOC, but let’s face it, that was a bit of a faff and who has time to manually change file extensions just to share a picture?

But now users can quickly choose to send photos and videos as a regular media file in their original size with a couple of taps.

And while at the moment the feature is only being rolled out for iOS, WhatsApp has been beta testing the same function in Android since September, so it will likely be an option for everyone soon enough.

However, the move comes shortly after Google announced that chat and media back-ups will soon count towards Android users’ Google account cloud storage limit. This means bigger photos will fill up your storage quicker.

Users should also be warned that bigger photos and videos will use more data to send and download if not on Wi-Fi.

The update is different to WhatsApp’s HD photos function released in August, which reduced the amount of compression applied to photos before sending.

Earlier this week WhatsApp announced a big boost for cross-platform use, allowing status updates to be shared on Instagram.

And last month it finally released its long-awaited ‘secret code’ to allow users to hide their locked chats from prying eyes.

How to send full-sized photos and videos in WhatsApp iOS

1. Open the chat you want to send the picture to
2. Click on the + sign
3. Tap on ‘Document’
4. Tap ‘Choose Photo or Video’
5. Select the photo or video you want to send
6. Add a caption if you want to include a message
7. Tap the blue arrow to send

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