WhatsApp’s latest update brings support for high-resolution photos

We all know that WhatsApp is not the best app when it comes to sharing photos or videos. Meta’s messaging app compresses media files lowering the quality and while that’s probably fine if you view them on your phone, the situation is much different if you open these on the desktop.

It took quite a long time for WhatsApp to acknowledge the issue, but we’re finally happy to report that you can now send HD photos and the app will preserve their resolution.

The information was confirmed by Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg on his Facebook page, so if want to see the new feature in action, there’s also a short video attached to his post that sheds more light on support for HD photos.

Although this is a really nice surprise, we knew WhatsApp was testing the ability to share HD photos since June. What’s interesting is that support for HD videos is still not available, although Meta claims this will come very soon.

It’s also important to mention that support for HD photos is available for iOS and Android users, which makes sense considering the feature was spotted on both platforms a few months ago.

If you get the update, a new “HD” button should appear at the top of the photo-sharing screen, so tap it and then choose the photo quality. Although the default selection remains Standard Quality, you can now choose HD quality if you want your photos to preserve their resolution.

Those who are on the receiving end will notice that the picture shared using the HD quality option will have an HD label in the bottom left corner, which will confirm that they’ve been sent a higher-resolution picture.

According to Meta, all HD photos sent via WhatsApp are protected via the app’s end-to-end encryption system, so you won’t have to worry about privacy/security.