One of the touted benefits of iPhones adopting RCS messaging in iOS 18 is that users will be able to send images to Android phones without compression and loss of quality. But you may not know that Google Messages also compresses images over RCS, but thankfully it seems Google’s taking this opportunity to fix that glaring issue.
At the moment Google Messages prohibits image sharing if the file is over 2,048 pixels tall. The “Send photos faster” option further reduces that to 1,600 pixels with additional compression.
Considering the last picture I took on my phone is 4,032 Pixels tall, those limits are not particularly helpful. But, according to an APK teardown by Android Authority, those limits are set to increase considerably.
Based on strings found within the Google Messages APK, the app will be increasing the image size limit to 8,192 x 8,192 pixels with JPEG quality set to 100. That’s a 300% increase on the current limits, and should mean far fewer photos are compressed when they’re sent via the Google Messages app.
“Send photos faster” will apparently be increasing to 2,048 pixels and will set JPEG quality to 90. While not quite as big an improvement, it is an improvement nonetheless. Plus you have to accept some compromises when you want to get your images delivered as quickly as possible.
Weirdly this limit seems to be a Google thing, rather than an RCS issue. Android Authority notes that Samsung Messages will send images in their original size, while Apple’s RCS will keep resolution and image quality intact — even if they are still compressed.
Considering Google had been pushing Apple to adopt RCS for years before the company finally caved, you’d think it would have stopped being so aggressive with image quality years ago. The ability to send high quality images may not be the only perk to RCS messaging but image compression is one of the things people tend to complain about most when iPhone/Android messaging is involved.
It’s not like Google didn’t get plenty of notice that Apple would be switching on RCS support. You’d have thought it would take the opportunity to get its own house in order to avoid potentially being embarrassed by Apple’s efforts.
But what matters is that Google has been putting code in place to solve the problem. Let’s just hope this gets switched on soon, before more people start questioning why their pictures are still being compressed to oblivion when communicating to and from Google Messages.
