Why Photos from Chat Apps Are Always JPG
You may have noticed: the photo is .heic in your iPhone library, but your friend receives a .jpg through WeChat. Not your imagination — somewhere along the chat pipeline the format quietly changed. This page explains who converts, when, and how to get around it.
Who is silently converting
Both layers: iOS often hands a JPG transcode to apps whose compatibility it can't assume; WeChat and QQ then compress quality on top. WhatsApp and Telegram also normalize to JPG outside 'original quality' modes.
Nobody 'swapped your HEIC' — the send path did automatic compatibility conversion.
What the 'original photo' option does
Checking Original in WeChat or sending as a document in WhatsApp lets HEIC travel intact. The cost: much larger files, and the recipient's device must actually open HEIC — otherwise they've received something they can't view.
Where the quality really goes
Most 'it got blurry when I sent it' isn't the format conversion — it's the chat app's own recompression: standard sends upload a heavily squeezed version. For quality, send originals or use file transfer, and stop blaming the format.
Practical advice
- Sending to view: standard send is fine — saves data for both sides.
- Sending assets to a designer or print shop: convert to JPG first and send as originals, or send the raw HEIC as a file.