WhtasApp’s beta is now available for iOS 15! While that is news, it is not the one we are excited about. Sure, it is important that WhatsApp explore and test their app on every available platform as soon as they are available. But new WhatsApp beta builds always come with new features we are likely to see in the coming updates for regular WhatsApp users.
The update is iOS beta version 22.7.0.76. The update introduced to be compatible with iOS 15 brings about quite a significant step forward in the functionality that is file sharing on WhatsApp. It bumped up the 100MB limit that used to be the staple for WhatsApp. It is important, especially when you need to be sharing large format media files like videos to your colleagues, or friends, or clients without the clutter and slowness of emails, or simply uploading to a cloud storage only to share a link after. They did not bump up the 100MB limit to 150MB, not just 1GB too. They have bumped up the file sending capacity to 2GB.
While WhatsApp tends to compress your images and videos, you currently can send uncompressed image files within WhatsApp. It is a small turnaround, but it is possible. But the current release of WhatsApp will still limit your file sharing size to 100MB. You can send most photos, AAC and FLAC audio files. You will not be able to share high resolution videos, or WAV files in most cases, important in certain professional environments.
2GB is basically a 2000% jump from the current limit. For us at least, 2GB could allow us to get our finished videos out to our clients via WhatsApp immediately instead of slow emails. It improves our workflow alongside the clients.
The test is currently only available to iOS and certain Android users in Argentina. It is just a test though, so we can only take it with a pinch of salt. Only time will tell if we are going to be able to share larger format files via WhatsApp for now. We are hopeful though, since WhatsApp is one of the main communication platforms we heavily rely on in Malaysia.
Source: WhatsApp Beta Info