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Here's how to easily send clear videos, pictures between iPhone, Android

Cody Godwin   | Paste BN
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Have you ever been sent a video, but it's nearly unwatchable because it's blurry, grainy, tiny, or all of the above? Well, the culprit could be your operating system. Specifically, the problem of one person using an Apple device and the other an Android. 

The issue arises because there’s a disparity between the pixel density of the two operating systems. On most Android devices, the density is around 720p or 480p, while on the iPhone, it's about 1080p. So, when you send videos or images from one system to another, the quality is likely to deteriorate, and your images may appear small and blurry. 

Apple and Android are the two biggest operating systems in the country, with around 57.8% of the US market using iOS and 41.9% using Android, according to the website Statcounter, so it's a problem many people are facing on a regular basis. 

How to send clear videos

There is currently no official fix for sending media between Apple and Android devices. 

However, there are some workarounds, though they may require additional apps and/or steps. 

Share clear video by: 

  • Using a third-party messaging service, like WhatsApp or Messager on Facebook
  • Uploading the media to a cloud-based photo-sharing system, like Google Photos or iCloud, and sharing the link
  • Sending it via e-mail

You might have to change the sharing settings for some of these options to ensure the recipient can see and/or download the content you’re sharing. 

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Why does this happen? 

Cellphone service providers, like Verizon and AT&T, have size limits for media sent over the cellular network, but Apple and Android offer built-in messaging services to bypass some of these restrictions imposed by old-fashioned text messaging.

Their messaging services "supercharge regular text messages" and incorporate features like text effects, encrypted messaging, higher-quality images, and more. 

These services operate over wifi or with cellular data, but only work when sending between iOS-and-iOS or Android-to-Android.

Because the platforms aren't compatible, images sent between the two appear compressed. 

Will this ever get fixed? 

It’s hard to say if the two companies will form a truce and allow clear cross-device messaging.

The two competing cell phone software companies have been battling it out for years, but that didn’t stop Google from launching a campaign to get Apple to fix texting between the devices. 

In September 2022, Insider reported Apple Boss Tim Cook said he doesn’t hear Apple “users asking that we put a lot of energy on [cross-device messaging] at this point.”

More problems, solved

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