One of the benefits of the iPhone's adoption of RCS messaging in iOS 18 is that users will be able to send images to their Android phones without compression or loss of quality. However, you may not know that Google Messages also compresses images on RCS, but thankfully, Google seems to be taking this opportunity to fix that glaring problem.

Currently, Google Messages prohibits the sharing of images if the file exceeds 2,048 pixels in height. The “Send Photo Faster” option allows for further compression down to 1,600 pixels.

These limitations are not particularly helpful given that the height of the last photo I took on my phone was 4,032 pixels. However, according to the APK teardown by Android Authority, these limits are set to increase significantly.

According to strings found within the Google Messages APK, the app increases the image size limit to 8,192 x 8,192 pixels and sets the JPEG quality to 100. This is a 300% increase over the current limit, meaning that far fewer photos will be compressed when sent by the Google Messages app.

“Send photos faster” would increase to 2,048 pixels and the JPEG quality would be set to 90. Not as big an improvement as this, but an improvement nonetheless. Besides, if you want to deliver images as quickly as possible, you have to accept some compromises.

Oddly enough, this limitation seems to be Google's, not RCS's problem: according to Android Authority, Samsung's messages send images in their original size, while Apple's RCS maintains the resolution and image quality - even if compressed Even if it is compressed.

Given that Google had been pushing Apple to adopt RCS for years, one would think that Apple would have stopped being so aggressive about image quality years ago. While being able to send high quality images may not be the only perk of RCS messaging, image compression is one of the things people tend to complain about the most when iPhone/Android messaging is involved.

It's not like Google didn't get plenty of notice that Apple was switching to RCS support. You would have thought they would take the opportunity to get their own house in order to avoid the possibility of being embarrassed by Apple's efforts.

But the important thing is that Google has code in place to resolve this issue, and I hope it is resolved soon before more people wonder why their photos are still compressed when they interact with Google Messages! I hope this issue is resolved soon before more people wonder why their photos are still compressed when interacting with Google Messages.