signalapp
iOS Copy/Paste Videos Workaround Disappeared this Weekend
- [X] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
- [X] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
- [X] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic
Bug description
There was a very convenient workaround for sending a video in original quality: Instead of using the photo/video selector in Signal or sharing a video through the iOS Share Sheet, all you had to do was copy the video and then paste it in the Signal 'message' field. Sometime this weekend, this functionality vanished. Now, when you copy/paste a video in Signal, the video quality is markedly degraded. Not only that, but the video size increases considerably. Example: I attempted to send a 20mb video and Signal ballooned the size to 89mb and the quality was degraded. What? I always see comments that "compression" is necessary in order to reduce strain on Signal servers, but that argument loses legitimacy when the Signal app is actively increasing the size of videos. Just about every video that is now sent using the copy/paste method balloons the video size and with way worse quality to boot. Yes, I realize you can zip the video and that will still allow you to send it in original quality. But that defeats the purpose of displaying the video in-line within the conversation, and not to mention that also adds extra steps for the recipient(s) just to view a video. Also, sending the video as a "File" from within the Signal app has the exact same result, namely an inflated video size in degraded quality.
I'm wondering what happened here. Was this intentional or is this just buggy Signal code on iOS?
Steps to reproduce
- Copied a video
- Pasted the video in the 'message' field
Actual result: This video that was being copied and pasted was 20mb in size, but Signal sent the video with an inflated size of 89mb and the quality of the video was considerably degraded and seemingly reencoded.
Expected result: The video should've pasted and sent in original quality (as opposed to being sent as a reencoded video with degraded quality) and should've remained 20mb in size instead of ballooning to 89mb in size. This copy and paste functionality on iOS had previously worked flawlessly since I started using Signal in 2021, but all of a sudden, this functionality just vanished over the weekend.
Screenshots
Device info
Device: iPhone 16 Pro Max
iOS version: 18.3.1
Signal version: 7.47 (625)
