My wife has an iPhone. I have a Samsung S23. Why do videos she texts me look like super low res shit?? Can iPhones not text videos?
My wife has an iPhone. I have a Samsung S23. Why do videos she texts me look like super low res shit?? Can iPhones not text videos?
Why are you still using sms in 2024?....
There's a solution nobody has mentioned yet, which is using an iMessage bridge application (allowing you to message iPhone users over iMessage). If you have a machine running MacOS, I just started using one called OpenBubbles that works great and, unlike other bridges (AirMessage or BlueBubbles), doesn't require you to spin up and run a Mac as a server.
Alternatively, iOS 18 drops this month and has support for RCS, as some have mentioned. This is assuming you use Google Messages...
The answer is as others have stated appl not supporting the open standard RCS.
I will elaborate with apple are deliberately dragging their feet supporting standards as a deliberate attempt to put social pressure on you to buy an iphone.
an audience member asked Apple CEO Tim Cook for some tech support. “I can’t send my mom certain videos,” he said; she used an Android device, which means she can't access Apple’s iMessage. Cook’s now-infamous response: “Buy your mom an iPhone.”
The Apple Antitrust Case and the ‘Stigma’ of the Green Bubble
The solutions others have suggested of installing other messaging apps like signal will work but I will suggest another; Buy your wife an Android.
THE solution is not to buy the wife an Android, that is ONE solution.
In total, there are a few solutions, I number them to make it easier to refer to them, not to order them from best to worst.
- Get yourself an iPhone
- Get your wife an Android
- Wait for iOS 18
- Switch to a messaging app like Element or Signal.
1 and 2: Unless you yourself can accept switching to using the other system, it is unfair to demand that the other part does that.
I have tried to switch to Android, I did it back in 2019, but I just disliked the feel of the OS enough that after dropping my phone and smashing the screen after 2-3 months, I didn't even bother to get it fixed, I just moved back to my iPhone.
- iOS 18 will have RCS, and will probably solve this.
Apple will support RCS in the next iOS 18, so maybe they can just wait a month.
Send the video over a messenger instead?
Sending multimedia via traditional text messaging uses the MMS service, which is ideal for very low resolution images, like sub megabyte, I didn't even know it could support videos! Wild.
I suggest you add her on something like Discord, or WhatsApp, LINE, whatever works for you, and send each other multimedia that way :-)
Also depending on your provider you may incur lower costs and faster load times, too.
signal is the way
Its due to compression of the video in order to fit on a MMS message, which is very small. Android uses RCS as a new message standard that can send bigger files but Apple has yet to add it to their OS. Its similar to how Apple uses iMessage to do the same, however this is not a standard and is locked to only apple devices.
Apple is supposedly adding support for RCS during the new iOS update but until then you can use a different messaging app to send better/larger files.
I recommend Signal as it is easy to sign up and start using while also being private.
Apple doesn't do RCS. This should be changing soon, but for now you should be using another messaging app, because everything you send is unencrypted and shittier quality
It also depends on the carrier. Girlfriend has iOS 18 Beta and RCS option is missing.
SMS/MMS has really low file size limits, and iPhones may downscale a little more aggressively than required.
Just pick an internet based messaging service. I like Signal, but they all work.
The next version of iOS should add support for RCS which should allow for cross platform larger images as well.
RCS from what I can tell still has some significant limitations, like the version common on Android having some Google proprietary extensions it's not clear if other vendors will fully support. I'd still recommend something like Signal to most people, though RCS improves the experience for those not using that.
It's because Apple has refused to adopt new messaging standards like RCS (not that Google is doing that much of a better job), but it's purposefully broken interoperability to force people into buying into product ecosystems (iPhone vs. Android) to make you stick with one and get stuck on it.
It's stupid anti-competitive and I freakin' hate it.
Literally doesn't have to be this way, it's a choice (mostly by Apple, but once again doesn't mean Google is better).
https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/15/24178470/apple-rcs-support-wwdc-announcement-android-imessage
Apple was largely forced to support RCS in response to the mounting pressure from global regulators and competing companies. That may help explain the somewhat disgruntled approach to announcing its rollout in iOS 18.
https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to-switch-on-rcs-messaging-in-ios-18
Here's a walkthrough to ensure RCS is enabled on your wife's iPhone, once iOS 18 drops in the next month or so.
Don't forget to add in the primary reason they don't want to implement it is exactly because of comment's like OPs, because it makes it look like Android phones are the problem. Most people assume that it's because it's an android it doesn't work right, and so everyone should just have iPhones. Why fix what is already great marketing for them, even if it is a complete lie?
A lot of RCS is using Google Jibe, it’s one of the ways they were able to roll it out so fast not necessarily with carrier support. I can’t fault them too much for not immediately embracing it. Based on the Toms Hardware link it looks like they are depending on carrier hubs. For me that means I may not get support for a long time as an MVNO user.
Anything over MMS gets compressed insane amounts.
I have an iPhone and whenever my Android-owning friend sends me something, it’s a tiny thumbnail of a photo. So yeah, goes both ways.
The trick is to send a link to the photo or video instead of the actual file. This is also how iPhone users can use FaceTime with people on other platforms.
Apple dragged their feet for years in implementing RCS.
Not that surprising. Google Jibe is the largest player in RCS. Samsung created their own RCS alternative to Jibe and there are a few others, but Google is hands down the dominant platform. Apple had their own thing already, not exactly jumping to integrate Google Jibe or create another product isn’t surprising.
Samsung had support before Google and Jibe... but they have abandoned their own RCS support. Simply because Google's works on all of their devices and they don't need to do any development to support it going forwards. Why pay for development and support for a system you don't have to and get nothing from? No one is buying a Samsung phone for the Samsung Messages RCS capability.
You'll need a third party messaging app. Like Signal or WhatsApp.
Yeah, why the hell is OP using SMS?
Probably because they're from the U.S. where SMS is still used extensively for messaging.
Messaging between iPhones uses iMessage and messaging between android probably uses RCS, both of which do not have the limitations of MMS, which is a limit of around 3.5 MB for most carriers. “Texting” pictures and videos from iPhone to android or vice versa will likely use MMS, hence the blurry media. Until Apple joins the party, the solution is to use another app like WhatsApp, telegram, signal, etc.
Use Whatsapp or another 3rd party messenger. It's annoying but an easy solution.
One of you has a lower res screen so there is a conversion issue on the sending
What do the videos look like on her phone?
If they're shit there, it's the phone (or the operator). If they look good there and change to shit when they get to your phone, it's something in that process. Perhaps set to send a low res version by default.
It's fine, great on her phone. After sending to me it's unwatchable.
they use proprietary file formats (MOV and HEIC) that need to be converted to a universal format like jpg or MP4 to be viewed on android (I think this can be changed in iPhone settings), and the conversion looks like shit
HEIC is not proprietary to Apple at all, they were just one of the early adopters of it.
My Android phone takes pictures in HEIC/HEIF by default, and it's not nearly as much of a problem anymore almost all software can handle the format now.
It’s very funny you say MOV and HEIC are proprietary and then list MP4 considering
- HEIC is just H.265, the video codec, used to encode images
- H.264, the codec used for most mp4 files has the same license as H.265 with patent bullshit license fees going on
- MP4 container is pretty similar to MOV, and is also not an open standard
- this also means MOV and MP4 can be losslessly converted
- Apple provides documentation for MOV format free of charge while ISO really wants you to pay to get official standard PDF
- All this doesn’t matter anyway because ffmpeg can decode everything (though I guess it might matter in bizarro land where software patents are a thing)
Also Android can totally read at least HEIC images. Not sure about MOV. Any of this is also not related to the problem the OP has.
iPhones tend to have pretty shit cameras compared to Samsungs - it's not just purely a question of pixels but lense quality as well.
That’s hilariously out of touch with reality and also not the issue he’s talking about.
