How to Send pictures on WhatsApp without losing quality

WhatsApp is now more like your Camera application. It is inevitable and irreplaceable. Everyone has it installed on their device and if you don’t have it in yours, you, definitely, are going to be the odd one out. But are you really very satisfied with the quality of the images that are being sent over WhatsApp? Well, there are many more users in the same boat as you, so don’t worry!

WhatsApp is actually meant to be a lightweight application, and mind you, it definitely is doing its job great, sending messages over the Internet to your loved ones the very instant you hit the Send button. However, being fast does come with its own set of disadvantages. For obvious reasons, if you ask WhatsApp to send a 6MB image or a 30 MB video instantly and if WhatsApp tries to send it across, definitely there will be a penalty on the sending speed as huge data like photos and videos take longer time to get sent than simpler normal text messages. So, it is WhatsApp’s way of handling this speed issue, with bigger files, by compressing them!

But again, if you have some important files to be sent over WhatsApp, without compromising on their quality, there definitely are ways, and we are here today to talk all about it! Read on, to learn how you can easily send images/videos over WhatsApp without losing their quality.

Solution 1: Send the Image as a Document

In this method, instead of sending images or videos in their respective formats, we send them across as documents. Documents are sent by WhatsApp as such and they are not compressed.

Step 1: Launch WhatsApp and open the chat window of the person to whom you want to send an image or a video.

As next, on the message typing box at the bottom, towards the right corner, you will see a paper clip icon. Click on it.

 

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Step 2: From the list of options that expand out, click on the one that says Document.

 

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Step 3: You will now be able to select the image or the video that you want to send. You can either choose the file from the Recent items list or if you want to browse further, you can click on the Browse icon located at the top left corner of the screen, browse and click on the file that you want to send.

 

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Step 4: Once you get the following confirmation window, hit the SEND button to proceed.

 



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Step 5: That’s it. The file you selected is now sent over WhatsApp as a document, thus not compromising at all on its quality.

 

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Solution 2: Set Best Quality as Photo Upload Quality

This is the simplest of all the solutions. The solution is straightforward and it is an in-built feature that WhatsApp provides its users with.

Step 1: Launch the WhatsApp application and click on the Settings icon at the top.

 

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Step 2: From the options available, click on the Settings option.

 

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Step 3: Now on the Settings screen, click on the Storage and data option.

 

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Step 4: As next, under the Media upload quality section, click on the option Photo upload quality.

 

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Step 5: In the small pop-up window that follows, you get to choose the quality with which you want your images and videos to be sent across.

The Best quality option is the one that ensures the least compression, Data saver option compresses your image as much as possible and the Auto (recommended) option compresses your images/videos based on other dependency factors like your Internet speed. Once you have selected the Photo upload quality option, hit the OK button to proceed. That’s it.

 

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Note: Though this solution is the most simple and straightforward, it is not the most efficient as there are no noticeable differences in these 3 different modes. Images do get compressed to some extent even if you go for the Best quality option. If you are not satisfied yet, please try out the other solutions in this article.

Solution 3: Send the Image After Changing its Extension

This is a somewhat complex method. But if you are into complex tricks and tips, this method is definitely the one for you. WhatsApp doesn’t compress files with the extension doc, Docx, pdf, etc. So if we change the extension of our image or the video to one of these extensions, then they won’t get compressed by WhatsApp while sending them. But the thing is, once the file is received by the recipient, the recipient should change the extension of the file back, to use it.

There are 2 sections for this solution. The first section explains how the sender should send the image after changing its extension and the second section explains how the receiver should change the extension of the image back, once it is received.

Section 2.1: How the Sender Should Change the Extension and Send the Image

Step 1: Open the applications drawer, locate and click on the My Files application.

Note: Every Android device would have an in-built application to manage files and folders. But based on the device’s model and OS, the name of the application might vary. Sometimes the name would be My Files, sometimes the name would be File Manager, and so on.

 

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Step 2: When the My Files application launches open, click on the Internal storage option.

 

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Step 3: Now, navigate to the location where your image or video to be sent is present at, long press on the file to select it, and then click on the 3 vertical dots icon present at the top right corner of the screen.

 

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Step 4: From the options available, click on the Rename option.

 

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Step 5: Now you will be able to see the name of the file with the extension. In the following example, the extension of the file is jpg and this is an image file. Being an image file, it will get compressed when getting sent over WhatsApp.

 

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Step 6: Change the extension of the file to PFF or DOC or DOCx as shown below. These are document file extensions and they won’t get compressed. Once done, hit the Rename button.

 

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Step 7: When you get the following Change file extension window, click on the Change button to proceed with the operation.

 

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Step 8: Now long press on the file, you just changed the extension of, to select it, and then click on the Share button.

 

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Step 9: From the list of applications available to share files, click on WhatsApp.

 

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Step 10: That’s it. Your file is now sent. In Section 2.2, we have explained how the receiver can receive this file and use it.

Note: If the PDF extension doesn’t work for you, you can try doc and docx. I have taken the doc extension as an example here.

 

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Section 2.2: How the Recipient Should Change the Extension Back

The recipient should download the file just like how every single file is downloaded on WhatsApp. Once the file is downloaded, it cannot be opened straight away right from WhatsApp. To open the file, there are some steps to follow.

Step 1: Launch the My Files application just like in the previous section. Once it is launched, click on the Search icon at the top of the screen.

 

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Step 2: Start typing in WhatsApp on the search bar and click on the WhatsApp folder from the search results.

 

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Step 3: Now, on the WhatsApp folder, click on the sub-folder named Media.

 

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Step 4: Inside the Media folder, open the sub-folder WhatsApp Documents.

 

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Step 5: Now, the recipient will be able to see the file that he/she just downloaded. Long press on it to select it and then click on the 3 vertical dots icon present at the top right corner.

 

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Step 6: From PDF/DOC/DOCX, now is the time to change the extension back to its original form. In our case, the file is an image file and hence I have given the extension jpeg. Hit the Rename button once done.

That’s it. Your file is now all set to rock the show! Enjoy!

 

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Solution 4: Zip the Images and Send the Zip File Over WhatsApp

This is another useful method using which you can share high-quality image/video file(s) over WhatsApp. In this method, we will zip the files to be sent and send the zipped file across.

Step 1: Launch the My Files application. Navigate to the location where your files to be sent are present. Select all the files that you want to send and then click on the Settings icon present at the right corner of the screen at the top.

 

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Step 2: Now, hit the Compress option.

 

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Step 3: Give any name to your zip file. But please make sure that the extension is zip or 7z or whatever compression is supported by your device.

Hit the Compress button to proceed.

 

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Step 4: Now, long press on the zip file you just created, to select it, and then click on the Share button at the bottom.

 

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Step 5: Choose the WhatsApp application from the list of sharing applications available.

 

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Step 6: That’s it. Your zip file will now be sent. The recipient can receive it, unzip the zip file and retrieve the files present inside in their original quality, as simple as that.

 

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Solution 5: Upload the Image to a Cloud Storage and Send Link Through WhatsApp

This method requires a cloud storage application like Google Drive as well, along with WhatsApp, to send an image or video in its original quality.

Step 1: Firstly, launch the My Files application and navigate to the location where the image/video file(s) to be sent are present. Select it and hit the Share button at the bottom.

 

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Step 2: Scroll and select the Drive application next.

 

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Step 3: Choose a folder in your Google Drive where you want to temporarily save the file(s) selected. Hit the Save button once done.



 

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Step 4: Now, open the Applications Drawer and click on the Drive icon to launch the Google Drive application.

 

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Step 5: When Google Drive opens before you, find the file you just uploaded and then click on the 3 vertical dots icon associated with it.

 

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Step 6: From the list of options available, click on the one that says Manage access.

 

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Step 7: On the Manage access screen, under the Restricted section, click on the link named Change.

 

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Step 8: You will now be at the General access screen. Click on the Restricted tile.

 

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Step 9: As next, click on the option Anyone with the link.

 

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Step 10: Now click on the link icon present at the top right corner of the screen to copy the link to the uploaded image.

The link is now copied to your clipboard.

 

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Step 11: Open WhatsApp and simply paste the link and then hit the Send button. That’s it!

The recipient can now click on this link and download the file from its source. It’s as simple as that.

 

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Please tell us in the comments section which method is your favorite.

Stay tuned for more useful technical tricks, tips, solutions, how-tos, and hacks!