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?

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.

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.

So many people asking me to have my wife do something different on her end. Beloved, she is on iPhone because she doesn’t want to do anything “weird.”

Assuming using a third-party messaging app is "weird", then she can't send you video with acceptable quality. That's how it is.

She can't fix that. You can't fix that. None of the readers here can fix that unless they work at Apple. This may improve in the future when Apple adopts RCS, but there's a lot that real-world implementations of RCS do that isn't in the standard, so the full details of interoperability are uncertain until we see it in the wild.

Now, why can’t I get iMessage on my android phone?

Because Apple doesn't want you to. Apple wants situations like this one to pressure people to buy iPhones because that's apparently easier for some people than agreeing on a messaging app.

Anything over MMS gets compressed insane amounts.

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.

Permanently Deleted

The real reason: Apple intentionally doesn't support the open protocols that send pics and videos to non-Apple devices. These protocols are a decade old and work great. They use a proprietary protocol instead, which they will not share with other phone manufacturers.

What the average iPhone user thinks: Apple is better than Android!

It's pretty dumb.

You both use Signal, problem solved.

Why are you still using sms in 2024?....

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

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.

Apple isn't doing everything it can to optimize the quality of videos iPhones send or receive over MMS. Video quality between Android phones, even over MMS, is much better.

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.

You'll need a third party messaging app. Like Signal or WhatsApp.

signal is the way

Apple dragged their feet for years in implementing RCS.

Send the video over a messenger instead?

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.

I think everyone has explained the how and why, but not any real solutions that don't involve using a completely different application. I don't have an iPhone in front of me, but with Android you can share as a link to Google Photos instead of sending the picture/video directly. I am pretty sure you can do something similar with iCloud. Have her try the share as iCloud link instead.

Update: I just tested it. I had them open up Photos, go to the image/video, tap the share button, and then if you scroll down a tiny bit there is a share as iCloud link. I was able to view it just fine on my Android phone.

Keep a stock message on your phone to cut and paste whenever an iPhone user sends you a potato-quality video. This is mine:

Please don't send video to me via iMessage from your iPhone. In fact, you really shouldn't send video via iMessage at all. Video sent by Apple looks terrible on non-iOS phones. This is not a shortcoming of other phones, this is entirely Apple's fault and is their explicit intention. If you want to send a video from your iPhone, you can open the Photos app, tap the share button, and select "share as an iCloud link". That will enable All users to view your glorious video of your cat/kids/dinner/vacation/rant/whatever in the high resolution that your overpriced phone is capable of. Another option is to send the video using a messaging app such as Signal or WhatsApp. Alternate messaging apps are what most of the world use in lieu of sms/mms text messaging.

This is a form letter response and you will get it every time you send me video from your iPhone via iMessage.

P.S. I love you

Apple intentionally makes iPhone-Android interoperability crap in order to sell iPhones. That's not conspiracy theorizing, Tim Apple blatantly admitted to it.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/7/23342243/tim-cook-apple-rcs-imessage-android-iphone-compatibility

Use Whatsapp or another 3rd party messenger. It's annoying but an easy solution.

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.

You're probably getting suggestions for what she should do different because, at least at a starting point, it could just as easily be something her phone is doing before sending as it is something your phone is doing on the receiving end.

I've had a phone say 'video to big, do you want to crop or share through abc app' before. Don't recall the exact message, but seems more likely than you phone downgrading something it's receiving.

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

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...

Cause then you won't buy an iPhone.. Duh

@geometry dash the RCS is not something Apple does. Your messages are currently unencrypted and of worse quality; however, this will be rectified shortly. In the meantime, you are better off using a different messaging software.

Because it is using the native functions of the phone? I am not here to force FOSS or go on some privacy brigade against a strangers wife. I am here to try and help in a constructive manner.

One of you has a lower res screen so there is a conversion issue on the sending

iPhones tend to have pretty shit cameras compared to Samsungs - it's not just purely a question of pixels but lense quality as well.