WhatsApp has been testing a new feature that lets users pick the quality of photos and videos that get automatically downloaded to their phones.
According to WABetaInfo, the auto-download quality option is rolling out to users with WhatsApp beta version 2.25.18.11 on Android, and more beta testers should get it in the next few weeks.
This feature will be available under Settings > Storage and data, right below the “Media upload quality” option. It’s labelled “Auto-download quality” and gives you two choices—Standard or HD quality.
Picking standard means WhatsApp will auto-download a smaller, compressed version to save space, but you can still manually load the HD version later in the chat—as long as it’s still available on WhatsApp’s servers.
WABetaInfo also reports that WhatsApp now uses a dual-upload system when sending high-quality media. When someone sends an HD photo or video, their phone uploads both a standard and an HD version to WhatsApp’s servers.
This happens because of end-to-end encryption—WhatsApp can’t compress files on its own servers, so both versions have to be uploaded from the sender’s side. If the receiver has auto-download set to standard, they’ll get the smaller file, but the HD version stays available if they want it.