Why are pictures sent from iphone to android blurry

Are you wondering why your Android videos are blurry in text messages? It's been this way for a long time, but with the recent push from Google for other companies to implement RCS, and the fact the best Android phones around all have superb cameras, people are starting to question why things are the way they are instead of simply accepting the situation. So, why is media so blurry on Android devices when sent via text?

Text messaging is more complicated than it used to be, especially when iPhones and Android devices are mixed together. Due to a few factors, media attachments like photos and videos can end up degraded in quality when sent over text messages, depending on the recipient and their phone.

Why videos sent via text message look awful

Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS for short, is how phones send media content to other phones over text messages. It's a standard that was created in the early 2000s—a time when the photo quality of most cellphones was only a few megapixels. So perhaps it's not too surprising that smartphones have outgrown the technology.

MMS has a strict file size limit.

The main problem with MMS is that most carriers have a strict limit on the size of files that can be sent. For example, Verizon only allows images up to 1.2MB to be sent over text messages and videos up to 3.5MB. AT&T is even stricter, only allowing videos up to 1MB in size. If an image or video is too large, it is compressed automatically.

What does compressed video look like?

Wondering how different a video sent via text looks versus one posted on YouTube? Take a look at the two videos below. The first video is the original 54MB recording (only affected by YouTube's compression), while the second is an AT&T text message video downgraded to 348KB.

By comparison, Apple's Message platform has a less-restrictive file size limit—somewhere around 100MB. Since messages sent between iPhones never leave Apple's servers, the quality is superior to Android. Media sent from an iPhone to an Android device, or anything sent between Android devices will be compressed.

How to work around the problem

There's no fix that can improve videos sent over MMS because the file size limits are enforced by carriers. However, there are workarounds that involve using different messaging protocols.

The easiest solution, in most cases, is to use a third-party messaging service that you and your recipients can agree on. Here are some of the more popular messaging apps:

WhatsApp

WhatsApp, the de-facto messaging standard in many parts of the world, allows you to send videos up to 16MB, but if you select to send videos as documents (by selecting Document instead of Gallery in the paper clip menu), you can go up to 100MB without further compression.

Telegram

Telegram is another popular option for sending messages between phones, and it has an even higher limit of 1.5GB.

Skype

Skype is available on Android and iOS (as well as PCs) and allows files up to 300MB in size.

You can also share messages via Google Photos if both parties have the app installed. Choose the desired video or photo from the Photos app, press the Share button, and select one of your contacts (or create a link, then send that to the recipient).

RCS on Google Messages may be the answer (someday)

One more option is to use Rich Communication Services, or RCS for short. It's the intended replacement for MMS, with support for larger file sizes. Carriers are slowly caving in to use Google's implementation as the one unifying standard. Google Messages offers RCS functionality and all three major U.S. carriers are adopting the RCS standard.

Google's Messages app is experimenting with a new way to send images and videos via SMS/MMS by sidestepping these protocols and instead automatically creating a Google Photos link that the recipient can open, with the full media quality intact. Neat, but not ready for prime time just yet. It's something to look forward to.

The big picture

With big parts of the U.S. still relying on text messages and MMS for communication, it's a bummer that carriers have been slow to embrace RCS. Outside of carriers, it's unlikely we'll ever see Apple adopt RCS either. We would like it to, but Apple isn't going to do something that helps its competitors more than it helps itself.

If you're looking for a secure alternative to sending messages to your friends and loved ones, you may want to explore end-to-end encrypted messaging apps.

Have you recently received a video or photo texted to you that looked like an old-school Atari pixelated mess? Most smartphone users have had that happen from time to time.

Your picture or video might look amazing when you take it. And it looks fantastic when you play it back on your device. But for some reason, when you send it, it turns into a grainy horror show.

Fortunately, there are ways to send videos and photos so that our friends and family members can enjoy the crystal-clear quality that our phone manufacturers intended.

In this article, we’re going to talk about how to fix blurry photos by exploring a number of image transmission options.

First, this isn’t about megapixels. Your phone is not the problem.

The blurry image problem stems from your cellular network. When you send a text or video through your MMS (multimedia messaging service) app, your images and videos are likely to be greatly compressed. Different cell phone carriers have different standards as to what is allowed to be sent without being compressed.

Those amounts range from 0.3MB to 1.2MB. To make it worse, if you are sending a file to someone who has a different phone carrier, the limit is often at the lower end of that spectrum.

Why Is Picture Quality Worse When Receiving a Pic From an iPhone?

That’s a good question. Apple’s proprietary app, iMessage, does allow for sending and receiving larger files over the internet. If one iPhone user sends a video or picture to another iPhone user, they are likely to receive the message without major compression issues.

That’s because iMessage runs on your internet signal. You can send iMessages through Wi-Fi, LTE or 4G. Many other messaging apps run on this same premise of communicating via the internet as opposed to running on your cellular network. A few examples are Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts and WhatsApp.

Because iPhone users most often send messages through iMessage, their photos and videos usually look great to other iPhone users. But if you are using a different platform, like Windows or Android, you are likely to get a degraded image.

Here Are 3 Steps for Sending High-Quality Videos and Texts

1. If You Have an iPhone, Keep iMessage Turned On

That will ensure that you are sending high-quality videos and photos to other iPhone users.

2. Sending a File to an Android Device? Use Email

If you are sending a file to someone who uses Android, consider sending the file via email instead of text. For instance, Gmail has a 25MB limit for attachments, and that’s much higher than the limit for most MMS services. If you send your photos or video through Gmail, your recipient is going to get a much better image than if you send via your MMS app.

If you have an Android phone, you’ll want to consider sending all of your photos and videos through an internet-based messaging service (like the ones noted above) as opposed to your stock MMS app. You could also send the images via email as noted above.

3. Use a Cloud-Based Service

Another option (which also deals with the issue of sending really large files) is using a cloud-based service like Dropbox or Google Drive. If you are a Gmail user, you’ll find it’s pretty easy to attach an image or video as a Google Drive file. After you upload the file, you can also text the link to your recipient.

Google Drive will give you 15GB of storage to use for free just for signing up. You can also have your pictures and videos automatically uploaded to Google Drive by enabling the Auto Backup feature on the app (you’ll need an internet signal for that to work).

It takes a bit more work to send a file through Dropbox, but hey, you’ll be getting the file there in its original and glorious state.

4. Download and Use the Send Anywhere App

And one more great option, for the sake of being thorough, is the app Send Anywhere. This app allows you to share photos, videos and contacts very easily and without degrading the quality. There are zero limitations on file type, size or amount — and it’s free!

One Final Option

Now that you know how to send images while preserving their quality, you may also be interested in fixing photos with a little magic.

You can manually fix blurry photos by using photo-editing software. You can sign up for a trial version of Photoshop, but there are some free options as well. Check these out:

  • Fotoris a highly-rated photo editor
  • Gimp is an open-source image editor
  • Paint is a free graphics editor which comes with Microsoft Windows
  • Photoshop Expressis like a free and stripped-down version of Photoshop
  • Pixlis a free program with more than two million effects

Do you have tips for sending crystal clear photos and videos? Let us know in the comments below!

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Why are my pictures blurry when sent from iPhone to Android?

Once you send something via SMS, your carrier gets involved and that data gets terribly compressed. While data compression affects all images and videos, it typically impacts larger or high-quality images the most. Videos are also heavily affected, and usually, end up extremely blurry and unwatchable.

Why are pics sent from iPhone blurry?

Your iPhone has a setting that limits the resolution and quality of an image sent from iMessage. The iPhone does that to save storage space and internet bandwidth. However, this can cause blurry images in some instances. So it's best to disable this option.

How do I share photos between iPhone and Android without losing quality?

Using Google Photos is probably one of the easiest ways to share your photos between Android and iOS without sacrificing picture quality. The app comes pre-installed on most Android phones, while iPhone users can download it from the App Store.

How do I stop my iPhone from sending blurry pictures?

But if you don't have concerns for either of those, here's how you can turn it off..
Open the Settings app on your iPhone..
Scroll down and tap on Messages..
Scroll all the way to the bottom..
Toggle Low Quality Image Mode to the Off position..