Войти
WhatsApp offers two routes. Videos sent as ordinary media are recompressed to save data, and reporting as of November 2026 places the effective cap well below a gigabyte, with some sources quoting figures around 100 MB at 720p. Sent as a document, a file may be up to 2 GB, but then the recipient gets a file card instead of an inline player and must download it. Older articles still repeat a 16 MB limit, which dates from before a 2022 update.
The sources disagree on exact figures for the media route, so test with your own phone and your own file. Either route involves recompression or a download, which is the part you can avoid.
A link opens the video in the phone browser and streams it, so the recipient does not have to wait for a big download or spend mobile data on the whole file in advance. You also avoid the quality loss from recompression, and a single link can be forwarded to a whole family group chat.
| Способ | What the recipient gets | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| As a video (media) | Inline playback, lower quality | Recompressed and subject to a lower cap |
| As a document | The original file, up to 2 GB | Must be downloaded before viewing |
| As a link to a hosted copy | Streaming in the browser at full quality | Needs internet while watching |
WhatsApp figures as of November 2026; sources differ, so test before relying on them.
Short intros help. A line such as eleven minutes, the full ceremony saves people from opening it at the wrong moment. For older relatives, test that the link opens from the WhatsApp in-app browser, and mention that tapping the full screen button turns the phone sideways.
If you only want to send a highlight, trim the video first with the video trimmer, or turn a moment into a loop with the GIF maker.
Phone recordings of over an hour can reach several gigabytes. If your mobile connection is slow, upload from a computer on Wi-Fi, or move the file to a cloud drive and let the server import it with a remote URL upload. That way your phone does not need to stay awake while the transfer runs.
Upload the video, copy the link and paste it into the chat. The whole family gets the full-length version.
