WhatsApp launches channels and finally lets you send photos in better quality
More improvements for WhatsApp! The rollout of the new Channels feature has begun, meant for sending messages to large groups of followers. In addition, WhatsApp has added the ability to send images in high HD quality in its latest beta version. This new feature is coming soon to users for iOS and Android. Read more about this good news here!
Channels feature
With the new Channels feature, users will be able to receive updates from celebrities, influencers or big brands, for example. With Channels, these individuals and organisations can send messages to large groups of followers, with content available exclusively to recipients. This new feature bears similarities to competitor Telegram's public channels. "Launching Channels is a long-awaited step that our users have been asking for for quite some time," WhatsApp said. To make the feature work well, it will first be tested with celebrities and selected organisations in Colombia and Singapore in the coming weeks. Based on the experiences in these countries, improvements will be made. Then, the feature will be gradually rolled out to other countries in the coming months so that a wider audience can use it. So we will have to wait a while here!
Send better quality photos
Another cool new feature is that WhatsApp will soon say goodbye to the compression process that was applied when sending images until now, which sometimes resulted in (considerable) loss of quality. In fact, the latest test version of the messaging service has added a feature that allows users to send images in higher quality. A screenshot shared by social media expert Matt Navarre showed an HD button that allows sending better-quality photos. Sending and receiving photos in HD quality looks a lot better, but it also consumes more data during the sending process.
Not yet for videos
WhatsApp's new feature for sending higher-quality images currently only applies to chat conversations. Videos are still compressed by default by WhatsApp in the same way. If users want to send videos in higher quality via WhatsApp, they can send the files as a 'document'. This allows users to share videos without compression. According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp will add some light compression for HD photos too, but not as much as before. Also, the app will add a small HD icon to the thumbnail of the photo in chat to indicate that the image is high-quality.
In any case, we are very happy with these new features!
