Billions of WhatsApp users warned upgrade could eat up your data – and cost you more
WHATSAPP users have been warned about a new update coming to iPhones and Android devices that could eat up their data.
With the app, the most popular messenger in the world, more than 100 billion messages, links, photos, videos and more are sent every day.
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In the latest free update, WhatsApp is introducing the ability to send high-definition (HD) videos, according to leaked screenshots WABetaInfo.
Currently, this is only available to a handful of lucky beta testers.
However, once this rolls out globally, WhatsApp users could inadvertently end up charging high data rates.
WhatsApp is currently reducing the photo and video quality so that the file size is significantly smaller.
This means they can be sent faster and use less data.
Some of us are frustrated with the grainy videos on the app.
However, WABetaInfo noted that a slight compression is still applied to videos sent via the HD option.
While the videos aren’t exactly the quality they were shot in, they’re a lot better.
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In early June, WABetaInfo also revealed that WhatsApp was also working on a feature to send photos in HD.
The feature offers users the option to choose between sending images and videos in standard WhatsApp quality or in HD.
However, it’s important to note that sending HD images and videos to friends and family uses a lot more data than a standard clip.
And if you go over your data limit, your wireless service provider will charge your account extra—often at a much higher rate than normal.
If you own an iPhone and are looking for ways to send pictures and videos — especially many of them in HD — consider Apple’s AirDrop feature instead.
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