I am in a large family group chat where we share our experiences. Recently one in the group changed their phone from iOS to Droid. Since then whenever we send a video it comes in VERY tiny and degraded. Low quality mode is not turned on and it is very annoying. To me it seems like a big that needs to be fixed. What can I do to get this resolved?
iPhone 12 Pro
I agree with you that carriers need to upgrade the old SMS technology. However I don’t see why the iPhone can’t discriminate between an iPhone user and a Droid user. It knows which of my contacts are on the iMessage network. That is why I called it a possible “bug” or RFE.
When you send video and image files via iMessages from iPhone to iPhone, the quality is not downgraded. This is because the file is sent over 4G / 5G or WiFi - so the amount of data is close to unlimited. But when you send a video from iPhone to Android, you send a "normal" SMS, or closer to an MMS. MMS can not contain that much data, therefore the files are compressed.
It is the telecommunications companies that must change this. Possibly, by using the RCS standard. The phones support it, but not all Carriers do yet. Until then, the best solution is to use a internet messenger app, ex. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger to send files through, between iOS and Android.
This has been the case since iMessage came in iOS 5. I personally do not believe that iMessages will become a common standard, but one should never say never. FaceTime has been opened up a bit more, even though it requires you to be invited from an Apple device.
Degraded Videos
