Users of WhatsApp will receive a new optional feature that can significantly improve their messaging experience – at the expense of their internet packages, the popular encrypted messaging app will introduce a new beta feature that allows users to send high-resolution photos and videos to their contacts.
The update basically gives you a high-resolution (HD) option for photos and videos, which means you won’t lose any quality when you post all these important memes in a group chat, but there’s one problem: High-resolution content consumes much more data than standard profiles.
This means that if you leave the option turned on, it can consume your monthly data balance very quickly, forcing you to buy more, and as a quick example, a standard quality image uses about 2.2MB of data but this rises to about 5MB if published in HD quality, which is more than double the size.
Videos can be more hungry for memory and those without unlimited data may find that they suddenly need additional web access every month – which is usually not cheap, and because many WhatsApp users send hundreds or even thousands of files to each other over the years, they can add up very quickly and leave you with less storage space on your phone.
Fortunately, Meta seems to have thought about this, and according to WABetaInfo, “standard quality” is always the default option for any video submitted unless you select the high-quality option, moreover, the high-resolution videos and images you receive will be highlighted as such.
Whatsup stores the files you receive on your device as a default, so it’s worth checking your settings to make sure this option is only turned off to save some storage, and the new feature is being tried as part of the WhatsApp beta program, which means it won’t be available to every user yet.
However, as it is being tried on Android and iPhone versions of the app, there is a good chance that it will be released soon on all versions of WhatsApp.
