Photo: BigTunaOnline (Shutterstock)
Across much of the world, WhatsApp is now the default messaging app (except, of course, in the U.S.). And that’s mostly for good reason—it’s free, it’s fast, and it’s end-to-end encrypted. But one side effect of WhatsApp’s popularity is it compresses the hell out of every photo and video you share. Sometimes, you have to send or receive an image over WhatsApp, and it needs to be high quality. While there is no official support for this in WhatsApp, there is a workaround that will help—send the image as a document.
It’s easy enough on Android, but requires a detour to the Files app on the iPhone. We will cover both options below.
How to send high-quality images in WhatsApp on Android
On Android, you can directly send images or videos as a document. To get started, open the conversation where you want to send the media. Then, tap the Attach button (looks like a little paper pin icon) and choose “Documents.”
Here, navigate to the folder with your media, and tap to select (you can select multiple files together). Tap the Send button, and confirm from the popup. The images will be sent as documents in their full file size.
How to send high-quality images in WhatsApp on iPhone
As we mentioned above, the process on the iPhone is slightly more convoluted. First, you need to pick your images or videos and you need to add them to the Files app. Open the Photos app, and choose the images you want to share. Tap the Share button and use the “Add to Files” option. Here, choose the folder, and tap “Save.”
Now, go to the WhatsApp conversation, tap the Plus button, and choose “Document.” This will open the Files document picker. Navigate to the folder where you saved the images. Here, tap the Menu button at the top and choose the “Select” option if you want to send multiple images. Select the images, and hit “Send.”
