Why WhatsApp videos look blurry

Send it in HD quality

1. In the chat, attach the video and tap the HD icon.
2. Choose HD quality, then send.

To make it the default, open WhatsApp's Settings > Storage and data > Media upload quality and choose HD quality. WhatsApp says your connection still affects the quality, even in HD, and HD isn't available for status.

Send it as a document

In a chat, choose Document and pick the video. WhatsApp allows documents up to 2 GB. This is often suggested as a way to keep the original's quality, but WhatsApp's Help Center doesn't say whether a document is compressed, and we have not tested it.

What we saw in our test

On 25 and 26 October 2026 we sent a 3-minute video to ourselves from one phone, a Galaxy S23+, and measured the files WhatsApp kept as sent. One phone and one video: this is not a rule.

• With the default quality, the original, 1080p at 120 frames per second, was sent at 480p and about 30 frames per second.
• A 720p copy of it, made with Clipmino's Email · 25 MB size on the free plan, was sent as it was: WhatsApp repackaged the file but did not re-encode its video or audio.
• We did not measure HD quality, so we can't say how a Clipmino copy compares with it.

Make a copy yourself

If you'd rather decide the size and resolution yourself, make a copy under WhatsApp's 64 MB limit and send that.

1. Open Clipmino and choose the video, or share it to Clipmino from your gallery.
2. Choose WhatsApp · 16 MB, or type a larger size, up to 64 MB. A larger copy keeps more detail.
3. Clipmino compresses on your phone and checks the copy before it says done. Share the copy to WhatsApp.

We have only tested a copy under 25 MB, so we don't know whether WhatsApp sends larger copies unchanged too.