You can now send higher-quality photos in RCS Google Messages chats. Here’s how

Google Messages is one of the most popular messaging platforms on the planet — so popular, in fact, that companies like Samsung and Verizon are doing away with their in-house messaging apps in favor of it. More than 1 billion users engage with Google Messages monthly, and a large part of the experience is RCS. We’ve been eagerly looking forward to the introduction of quality control when sending photos, a feature first spotted earlier this month.

Now, Google Messages has begun rolling out the “original quality” media-sharing feature, as noted by Android Authority. For now, it’s only available in the beta, but that’s a firm sign that all users will be receiving it shortly.

Activating the feature is simple.

• Select the Media Quality button in the top-right corner of your screen (the HD/HD+ symbol).
• You’ll have two options: Optimized for chat and Original quality. Select Original quality.
• Select your image and choose Send.

Optimized for chat will send the image at a lower resolution, with less data consumption, while Original quality will send the image through with no restrictions.

That’s all there is to it. Now, that stunning photo you took of the sunset will be available to your friends in all its orange-and-purple-hued glory, but it might take a bit longer to send with no compression (and it will use more data). It’s also worth noting that turning this feature on sets it as the default for the chat you’re in, as well as any other chats. At the moment, there’s no way to set Original quality on a per-chat basis.

The rollout is happening in beta 20241118_03_RC00 of the Google Messages app. Depending on the number of issues Google has to sort out before launching the feature, it should arrive to the wider public within a few weeks.