WhatsApp is contemplating a significant upgrade to its photo-sharing capabilities.

 

In the messaging app, WhatsApp is now testing a new feature that may make it much simpler to send high-quality pictures and videos.

At the moment, any photos you send to friends or family through the messaging app are crunched down using lossy compression, which drastically lowers the quality of the images you send them.

Image credit:: WABetaInfo

In the meanwhile, according to WABetaInfo, a new option now being tested in the WhatsApp beta for Android (version 2.21.14.16) would allow you to choose between transmitting pictures or videos in the 'Data saver' (compressed) format or in the brand new "Best quality" format.

It is not yet clear if 'best quality' refers to fully uncompressed video or, more likely, to a lighter type of compression that maintains picture quality throughout the compression process. All that the beta states for the time being are that "high-quality pictures are bigger in size and may take longer to transmit."

The photo-sharing service Google Pictures already provides a similar dual choice for its photos, but its alternative to compressed photos is 'Original quality,' which retains the same resolution and quality as the original image file.

However, it's likely to be a very useful option for anybody who frequently sends pictures through WhatsApp but prefers to keep them intact rather than having them compressed by the messaging app's compression algorithm. The same beta version of the app also has a video option that is similar to the previous one. These two choices will most likely be accessible under the storage and data' area of the WhatsApp app's settings for Android devices, but it is not yet known if the same functionality is being tested for iOS users. 

Even while it is theoretically feasible to transmit uncompressed pictures over WhatsApp at the moment, doing so needs an inconvenient workaround that entails turning the image into a PDF first and then transferring it. However, it is not yet known when WhatsApp's new 'Finest quality' feature will be formally launched, but it promises to be a much slicker, and long overdue, method to share pictures that retain the quality that is achievable with the best smartphone cameras. However, although it is reasonable that WhatApp's default mode compresses pictures for the sake of speed and mobile data use, the messaging app's widespread use makes it a convenient method to rapidly share photos with almost anybody. That applies to professional photographers as well, who would be more likely to utilize the app to send preview images to customers if it didn't reduce all pictures go approximately 2MP. 

The promise of an 'Auto' option in the beta screenshot above also indicates that you may be able to delegate control over the amount of compression to WhatsApp, which will be determined by whether you're using mobile data or Wi-Fi data. However, we'll have to wait until the complete release, which should be coming shortly, before we can see precisely how that choice will function.