WhatsApp fully embraces HD photos and videos

Last year, WhatsApp finally added the option to share photos (and, later, videos) in HD quality. Unfortunately, the feature had one big limitation: You had to remember to choose it every time you upload a photo, otherwise it would be uploaded in standard, SD resolution.

Now, as spotted by Android Police, WhatsApp is adding the option to select high definition quality sharing for images and videos to be the default.

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The new feature, which is currently rolling out in the latest WhatsApp beta, should appear in the app's Settings under Storage and data, where you can tap Media upload quality to select HD quality if you so desire.

If you do go for the HD quality option, WhatsApp will warn you that photos and videos will be slower to send, and can be six times larger (which can be costly if you're sending media over a mobile data connection). But if you do care about image quality, you'll probably be willing to live with those limitations.

Also, it should be noted that this pertains to media uploads only, and not status updates.

This is still a beta option, and there's no word when (or if) it will reach the official release, but given several people have reported seeing it in beta, it will likely become officially available for everyone soon.