WhatsApp has officially started the rollout of HD photo sharing for its users. Meta is implementing this feature over the coming weeks, allowing users on both Android and iOS, as well as on WhatsApp Web and desktop, to share high-quality images within their chats. Images shared in HD will display an ‘HD’ icon, indicating their enhanced resolution. Additionally, the company has announced that support for sending HD videos will be introduced in the near future.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, announced the update on Thursday through a post on Facebook. Users will notice the HD icon when attaching images to chat threads. This feature was previously tested in June on the beta channel and is expected to improve image clarity. However, users should be aware that HD images require more data during transmission and occupy more storage space than standard images.
Functionality of WhatsApp ‘HD photos’
The feature tracker WABetaInfo has previously indicated that WhatsApp will apply light compression to HD images. The default setting will still use the standard non-HD option, requiring users to manually select the HD option whenever they wish to share a high-resolution image.
Meta has not detailed the extent of compression that will be applied to HD images or how they will compare in appearance to transmissions on competing services like Apple’s iMessage.
It is important to note that all media shared via WhatsApp, including HD photos, will be secured with end-to-end encryption. Moreover, recipients with slower internet speeds will have the option to download the standard image version.
In addition, WhatsApp has also rolled out a new screen-sharing feature during video calls, designed similarly to platforms like Google Meet or Zoom. During these calls, participants’ video feeds are displayed in small rectangles on one side of the screen while the main view showcases the shared content.
