Facebook Messenger, or just Messenger these days, is finally getting a feature that its users will take advantage of, the ability to share HD photos and the app won’t compress them into hazy images, hooray!
Messenger is also about to debut other features for file sharing and adding new connections.
Facebook’s messaging app is notorious for having crappy photo quality, previously, if you went to share pics and selfies on Meta’s Messenger app, they’d be compressed and lack the same detail that appeared on your phone.
It was easily one of the worst things about Messenger for casual users. My solution was always to put my photos into folders in Google Photos, and then to share a link to said folder with my friends and family on Messenger.
But now, from today, Messenger is finally getting the photo upgrade it has so sorely needed for so long.
With the latest update, when you go to send photos in Messenger, you’ll see a toggle to enable or disable HD pics in the top right of the photo library. It feels like such a simple thing to have, but here we are, in the year 2024, getting a feature I feel like we should have had for years. The update is being rolled out, and you may not get it immediately.
But that’s not all Meta is adding in with the latest Messenger photos update. The social media giant has introduced shared photo albums so you and your friends/family/associates can collaborate on shared photo collections in your chats.
When you select multiple photos in the Messenger photo library, you’ll now see a prompt that says Create Album. Individual photos sent in the chat can also be long-pressed to create an album.
You’ll be given the option to change the album’s name and to remove photos from it. You’ll also be able to add to the album over time, as will any friends in the chat. To access your chat’s albums, tap the group chat name, then media. This feature is set to roll out over the coming weeks.
On top of this, there’s an extra useful feature being rolled out, an update to file sharing, bumping the maximum file size up to 100MB. Meta says all major formats are supported, including .XLS, .PDF, and .DOCX. A new QR code feature is also being added to Messenger, with the code unique to your profile, so that friends and family can quickly add you on the app and start chatting.
This is honestly a good, much needed update to the app. Messenger has so many competitors these days, in particular, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Discord, and up until now, a major holdback has been image compression.
The last major update that Messenger got was end-to-end encryption enabled by default, but boy have there been some pretty non-features added to the app over the years. I don’t think I’ve used the ‘Channels’, ‘Calls’, ‘People’, or ‘Stories’ tabs once in the years that they’ve been available in-app – I certainly haven’t used the Communities features at all.
So, thanks for the good update Meta.
Image: iStock/Disney