Mark Zuckerberg has announced today that the HD Quality Photos feature will be available from today in WhatsApp on both iOS and Android. The feature, which has been in beta testing for some time, allows for the option to share a photo in a much higher quality than the standard setting.
The option, visible when a photo is selected prior to sharing, allows users to select either "Standard Quality" which is the default option, or the new "HD Quality" option preserving far more of the image's original resolution.
The option to share in HD cannot be set as default and needs to be selected each time that an image is sent to ensure that users still have "quick and reliable access" to image sharing.
Any user who receives an image in HD quality will see the thumbnail preview has a small 'HD' icon in the lower left corner, which will also alert users on limited data connections or in areas of poorer reception to wait to download or choose to receive the standard quality instead and then upgrade it to HD later on.
Mark Zuckerberg also went on to state that all photos sent, even those with the HD option selected, are covered by WhatsApp's existing end-to-end encryption.
These photos aren't necessarily the original resolution of the photo, but they are compressed far less than the existing Standard Quality option that WhatsApp has historically used.
The most recent version of the app available on both the App Store and the Google Play Store contains the update, however, users will have to wait for the option to hit their devices as it will be rolling out in waves over the coming days.
Zuckerberg also stated in the announcement that the ability to share HD videos will be coming but didn't specify a release date.
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