Noticing a difference between images taken on your Messages and the camera app? You are right, there is.
We will explain all the Difference Between Taking Photos in Messages Vs iPhone Camera in this article.
Advanced photographic capabilities have become a common thing to expect in mobile phones. The quality of images you capture with a camera mobile of decent specifications can even compete with those shot with professional standalone cameras.
Whether for a hobby or profession, iPhones are excellent options to capture top-notch images. However, some expert tips can help get the best out of your photographic mission.
In this post, I will explain the difference between taking photos in Message Vs iPhone camera.
Knowing how your iPhone processes images is important to understand the basics of photography on your gadget. Therefore, the topic I will walk you through will help you use your iPhone like a pro when it comes to photography.
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Difference Between Taking Photos in Messages Vs iPhone Camera
Though a camera is a window that gets in the images of the objects and scenes in front of your phone, different apps on your iPhone process the images differently. Therefore, the app that is processing the images ultimately decides the characteristics of your pictures.
iMessage has a built-in feature to capture images and share them with your contacts. One other common way to capture pictures is directly on your iPhone camera which the iOS processes automatically and stores in your device’s memory.
However, both these processes have some inherent differences in how the images are processed. This fact makes all the difference you will see in the characteristics of the images you get in both these ways.
Now let us split this topic into different steps to understand the basics of iPhone photography and know how to get the best photographs on your iPhone.
- How to take Photos in iMessage
- How to take photos in the iPhone Camera app
- What is the Difference Between Taking Photos in iMessage Vs iPhone Camera
- How to share photos using iMessage
- How to share photos taken on the iPhone camera app
- Why You Should Stop Sending Photos using iMessage
How to take Photos in iMessage
iMessage app on your iPhone has inbuilt functionality to capture photographs or videos. Follow these simple steps to take photos with your iMessage.
Open the iMessage app on your iPhone.
Tap the camera icon and frame the shot you want to take in the viewfinder. Then tap the click icon.
To take a video with iMessage, tap the camera icon and choose video mode. Tap the record icon to start recording.
If you want to choose from an existing photo or video, tap the picture icon to see the recent shots. You can now swipe up or down to browse through all the photos and videos in the pictures.
How to take photos in the iPhone Camera app
To start the camera app and take pictures with your iPhone camera app, use the following steps.
To open the camera app, tap the camera icon on the iPhone home screen. The alternative way to open the camera app is to swipe to the left on the iPhone lock screen.
You can also open the camera app by touching and holding the camera icon on the iPhone lock screen. The other way to open the camera app is to open the control center and then tap the camera icon.
When the camera is in use, you will see a green dot in the top right corner of the iPhone screen.
To capture a photo with the camera app, fix the shot you want to take and then tap the shutter button or volume button to take the shot.
When you open the camera app, Photo is the standard mode you will see. You can use the Photo mode to capture still photos and live photos.
You can choose from a list of camera modes by swiping to the left or right on the camera screen including Video, Time-Lapse, Slo-mo, Pano, Portrait, Cinematic, and Square.
If you want to save any other mode from the above list as a default mode to work when you open the camera, you can make the appropriate settings in your iPhone.
On any iPhone model, you can zoom in and zoom out by opening the camera app and pinching the screen.
On iPhone models with dual or triple cameras, you can toggle between 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 2.5x, and 3x. For zooming more precisely, touch and hold the zoom controls and drag the slider either right or left.
What is the Difference Between Taking Photos in iMessage Vs iPhone Camera
The main difference between the photos captured in iMessage and those that are taken through the iPhone camera app is the quality of the images.
Photos are taken in iMessage lack image quality as they are compressed using jpg. The iPhone processes the captured images in HEIF format. They are not compressed and hence sport the best quality.
Now let me explain to you the difference between HEIF and JPG picture formats.
High Efficiency Image File format, HEIF is a type of container format meant for independent images or image sequences. This format was developed by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) and has been defined by MPEG-H Part 12.
According to the MPEG group, a HEIF image can store double the amount of information when compared to a JPEG image of the same size. Therefore, the quality of HEIF images is much higher.
HEIF images take less space when stored locally. They also need reduced iCloud download/upload bandwidth and minimal iCloud storage. Therefore, Apple has adopted the HEIF format to take advantage of the higher quality and lesser storage space possibilities.
So, we can say a JPG image of around 5MB will be close to the same quality as the HEIF image of around 3MB.
iMessage stores the photos taken in compressed JPG format. iMessage has adopted the JPG format in order to ensure cross-platform compatibility since JPG seems to be the most popular image format across the majority of platforms.
Therefore, while using iMessage to take photos, you land on images in JPG format, which are potentially lower in quality and are also less efficient.
How to share photos using iMessage
In the iMessage app, you can share photos and videos while messaging. iMessage also has the tools and functions to edit photos and videos. You can also share, save or print the attachments. To send a photo or video with iMessage, follow the steps below.
To share a photo within Messages, tap the camera icon and frame the shot you want in the viewfinder. Tap the click button to capture the shot.
To take a video within Messages, tap the camera icon, choose video mode and then tap the record button.
To choose any photo or video already stored in your phone, tap the picture icon to see the recent shots. Swipe up to go to the entire collection of photos and albums.
To send a photo or video in iMessage, tap the send button. Tap the cancel button to quit the process.
When you receive several photos or videos at the same time, they are grouped automatically into a stack or collage. By swiping through a stack, you can view, interact with or reply to each of the photos or videos.
When you want to save a photo or video, tap the download button next to the individual photo or stack.
How to share photos taken on the iPhone camera app
To share the photos taken on the iPhone camera app, follow the steps below.
To share a single photo or video, tap the photo or video to open and then tap the send button to choose a sharing option.
To share multiple photos or videos, tap the thumbnail of the stack of images or video you want to share and tap the share button to choose a sharing option.
In the share option in the iPhone camera app, you can choose to remove all embedded data in the photos or just location data. This is a secure way of sharing your photos.
Why You Should Stop Sending Photos using iMessage
Photos are taken in iMessage lack in quality as they are made available in JPG format. However, one downside to using iMessage to take photos seems to be security concerns. Let me explain this to you.
You know that location tagging is a useful feature you find on your iPhone. The phone uses this feature to embed the time, date, and location of the photos taken to enable categorizing the photos by their location.
Though you will find this feature useful, usually it is not. When you send photos on social media apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Signal, and Telegram, the photos are stripped of their metadata before sharing. When these images are downloaded on the recipient’s device, private information is not revealed.
On the other hand, Apple’s iMessage does not seem to be as secure as these social media apps.
While composing a new message, if you tap the camera icon and take a photo directly, the location data is not sent. If you select an image from the photo album, it will be sent with the embedded local information.
Also, if you select the photo app in the iMessage, the photos sent will not be stripped of their metadata even if the location service is toggled off before sending.
Photos include embedded data only if it is captured. If you turn off location services for the camera, the GPS data will not be captured. However, in this method, you will miss out on the location function connected to your photos.
Difference Between Taking Photos in Messages Vs iPhone Camera – Conclusion
IMessage and iPhone camera apps are the two popular ways to take photos on iPhones and share them. Both these methods have their own pros and cons.
iMessage processes photos in JPG format resulting in compressed and poor image quality. The HEIF format used by the iPhone camera app ensures images of the best quality.
While sharing photos on your iPhone on either of these apps, ensure to clear the photos of their embedded data containing date, time, and location information if you have any security concerns.
Knowing the right ways to take photos and share them on your iPhone, you can take the best advantage of the technology featured in different iPhone apps you use without compromising your security.
We hope this guide on Difference Between Taking Photos in Messages Vs iPhone Camera was helpful.
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