Move over, Zalo: Messenger now sends HD photos

Starting Tuesday, the Meta application will have an "HD" option for sending photos, which will allow them to be sent over the application without reduced image quality.

Ngoc Tram, a communications worker in Ho Chi Minh City, said that when she had to send high-quality photos for content approval in the past, she always had to use Zalo.

"It’s inconvenient as I am used to chatting on Messenger, yet I have to switch to a different application to send a high-quality photo. The new update from Meta has resolved that problem," Tram said.

Mai Thanh Phu, who provides social media services, said that Facebook had the ability to send high-quality photos and videos since 2017, but the feature was only limited to certain markets like the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.

"The ability to send HD photos would be especially useful for Vietnamese users in daily communication, from sharing personal photos with friends and families to sharing work photos conveniently, without a need for other platforms like Zalo, Viber and Telegram," Phu said.

The new functionality, however, is not available to all users yet.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday that users could send entire high-quality albums of photos and videos via Messenger, and would have the ability to name each album. Meta also said that users can now send files of up to 100 MB on their own phones, instead of resorting to email. However, the company did not specify exactly which markets would be supported with the functionality. Several users in Vietnam reported that they have only been able to send HD photos, not larger video files.

There are around 54.5 million Messenger users in Vietnam, and it is one of the nation’s most popular messaging applications, according to a January report by Data Reportal.