Uploading media to social networks is one of the most basic things we do now. When you upload content on Twitter for example, they are subject to compression due to obvious storage concerns.
I hate compression. Compressed photos look worse than the original files. They lose color and sharpness that is present in the original JPEG file.
Well late last year, Twitter announced that they will support higher resolution uploads. This is great since Twitter compresses the hell out of high resolution JPEGs. Twitter said that they will support upto 16MP which means photo uploads will be sharper than before.
Well it seems like that improvement is being rolled out to a number of users, specifically those users on iOS. Some users have posted screenshots of a new option for uploading photos in 4K which is higher quality.
If you're on Twitter iOS you can press & hold on my images and it'll show the 'Load 4K' option (best viewed landscape)🥰📸
— Liam Wong (@liamwong) February 23, 2020
Alar. Twitter now gives you an option of loading pichas in 4K. pic.twitter.com/L4MGHhAYrT
— harmonica (@MonyqueXO) February 23, 2020
— Nolan O'Brien (@NolanOBrien) February 24, 2020
Twitter limits photo uploads at 4096 x 4096 pixels which is 16MP as a square,12MP as a portrait or landscape, maximum of 5MB and needs to be JPEG. 4K is a term that is loved by marketing to mean a higher quality image but in essence it is technically 8.8MP so I understand why Twitter had to use this marketing term.
According to Twitter’s developer Nolan Brien, for this to work, the source image needs to be of high resolution (above 9MP you’ll be okay).
On Twitter for iOS, you can view such high quality images uploaded by pressing and holding on images and it will show the “load 4K option”.If you have an iPad or iPhone, try to view photos like this one below.
Hold down on this photo and click “load 4k” 😍 https://t.co/CxlocF05DZ
— Alexis • pinned tweet (@Amusedbyalexis) February 21, 2020
It seems like this option is not available for Android users but if it is updated, we will update you on that.