In the old days, we’d post our photos and videos on social media for the world to see. Right now, it’s far more common to send these pictures and clips to friends and family through private chat groups—but what you might not have realized is that they get pretty heavily compressed along the way.

There are many reasons for this: It means the files get sent faster, for example, and that the companies behind these messenger apps don’t have to spend quite so much on cloud storage (imagine millions of images being sent by millions of users, all the time). However, the recipients of these photos and videos are missing out, and getting copies that are of a much lower quality.

A lot of the time, you can’t really tell the difference on a small phone screen, which is why apps can get away with it. But if you’re looking at something on a computer screen or trying to print something out to get a permanent physical copy, the compression quickly becomes apparent. It’s something most messenger apps do—but there is a workaround if you want your photos and videos shared at full resolution.

How much do messenger apps compress your files?

Look out for the HD button when sharing on Instagram.
Credit: Lifehacker

Messenger apps are rather coy when it comes to revealing just how much compression they apply: Search the web and you’ll hit Reddit threads and support forums rather than actual official documents. Apple admits iMessage applies compression “when necessary”, and Google acknowledges files “may have a lower resolution” when sent through Google Chat, but it’s all rather vague.

To try and get a bit more clarity, I ran a quick test myself, with a 12MP, 4,000 x 3,000 pixel, 3.4MB image taken on a Pixel. Bearing in mind that compression levels will vary depending on what you’re sending, and this was just a test with a single image, here’s how the file was changed after it got sent through various DMs:

• Facebook Messenger: 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, 392KB

• Google Chat: 1,600 x 1,200 pixels, 324KB

• Google Messenger: 4,000 x 3,000 pixels, 3.4MB.

• iMessage: 4,000 x 3,000 pixels, 3.2MB

• Instagram: 1,000 x 750 pixels, 138KB

• WhatsApp: 2,000 x 1,500 pixels, 390KB

You can see there’s a lot of compression going on here, but Google Messages and iMessage are the clear winners when it comes to retaining original quality (at least with images)—a good advert for both Apple’s proprietary messaging system and for RCS.

It’s also worth delving into the settings for each app. In Instagram, for example, there’s a HD button next to the photo and video picker: When I selected this, Instagram shrank my original photo down to 2,000 x 1,500 pixels, with a file size of 421KB.

In its help section, Instagram says it automatically adjusts image compression based on current network conditions, which is something else to think about—you might want to do all your photo and video sharing over wifi (which is what I did here).

How to send files in their original quality through messenger apps

It only takes a couple of taps to get iCloud links in Apple Photos.
Credit: Lifehacker

You can make sure your photos and videos get to your friends and family in their glorious, original quality, but you lose a bit of convenience along the way. Essentially, you need to pick a cloud storage service where your images and videos will be stored in full resolution, and then share links to these files—rather than sharing the files themselves.

It’s not quite the same immediate experience if you’re sending around baby pictures or party pictures: Your recipients will just see a rather dull-looking link instead of thumbnails right inside their apps (though in some cases, there might be a small preview attached). If quality is what matters most to you, this is the way to go when it comes to sharing photos and videos.

You’re free to use your cloud storage provider of choice, but if there is one made by the same company behind your favorite messaging app, it makes sense to combine them together. In Google Photos on Android, for example, you can tap on a photo to view it, then choose Share and Share again to find the Create link feature: You can then share this link with any contact in any app.

For Apple Photos on the iPhone, you can get a link to a photo once you’ve opened it up by tapping the share button (lower left), then Copy iCloud Link. Again, you can paste this anywhere you like, and it’s not much more difficult to share entire folders of pictures rather than individual images.

There is an extra advantage to sharing photos and videos this way, in that you can revoke sharing permissions any time you like: New people can be added and other people can be removed from albums showing your toddler growing up for example. It’s not as fast and easy as direct file sharing, but you do get a bit more control (and higher resolutions).