Compressed photo fix · 12 free credits on sign-up

Enhance a WhatsApp photo

Family photos sent through chat lose most of their pixels and all of their fine detail. PixelUp brings back what the compression took.

Choose a photo or drop it here

JPG, PNG, WEBP or HEIC up to 20 MB · 6 credits per run · Deleted after 24 hours

4.4 on the App Store, 64 ratings Never used for AI training About 15 seconds per photo

Bearded man in a black hat after PixelUp enhancement, sharp beard and knit detail

The same portrait before, a tiny low-resolution file that looks soft and blocky

BeforeAfter

Photo received through a chat app, one run of Enhance. Drag to compare.

What chat apps do to a photo

WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram shrink photos to around 1 to 2 megapixels and compress them hard. The damage is predictable, which is why it can be repaired.

Fine detail restored

Hair, fabric, foliage and skin texture are the first things compression erases. The pass rebuilds that texture so the photo looks like the original again, not a soft copy.

Portraits, group shots and scenery
Faces are kept the same person

Smiling woman with curly hair and freckles after enhancement, every freckle sharp

The same portrait before, a small blurry file with no detail

BeforeAfter

Blocks and banding removed

Heavy JPEG compression leaves visible blocks in skies and skin and bands in gradients. These are detected and cleaned without blurring the real edges.

Smooth skies and skin
Crisp edges stay crisp

BeforeAfter

Back to printable size

A photo that arrived at 1,280 pixels can go out at 2K or 4K with real detail, which makes it printable again, or usable as a wallpaper.

2K for screens, 4K for prints
JPG or PNG output

Snowy hike with the second skier erased, clean snow where they stood

Snowy hike with a second skier in the background painted over for removal

BeforeAfter

How to restore a chat-app photo

Three steps, no software to install.

Upload the photo

Click the button or drop the file on this page. JPG, PNG, WEBP or HEIC up to 20 MB, straight from a phone is fine.

See the result

In about 15 seconds you see a full before/after. Drag the handle to check the exact spot you care about.

Download in HD

The download is included in the run. 2K and 4K are extra runs at 10 and 16 credits.

Questions people ask before uploading

Is this free?

Sign in with your email and get 12 free credits, enough for two runs. After that each run costs 6 credits at 1K, 10 at 2K, 16 at 4K, with the download included.

Why do WhatsApp photos look worse?

WhatsApp resizes photos to roughly 1,600 pixels and compresses them at a low quality setting to save data. Fine detail and sharp edges are the first casualties.

Does this work for Messenger, Telegram and Instagram saves?

Yes. They all shrink and recompress in similar ways. Instagram downloads and screenshots of Stories work too.

Can it recover the original quality?

It recovers most of the visible detail and sharpness. It cannot recover information that was never sent, such as detail finer than the compressed file could hold, so the result is sharp and clean rather than identical to the original file.

Should I ask the sender for the original instead?

If you can, yes; "Send as document" in WhatsApp sends the full file. When the original is gone, this is the fix.

What sizes can I download?

1K, 2K or 4K on the long edge, as JPG or PNG. 4K is about 4096 pixels, enough for an A3 print.

More fixes for the same photo

PixelUp for iPhoneFree on the App Store · 4.4 ★

The same fix, straight from your camera roll

Same AI, same credits. The iPhone app adds the tools that need a finger on the screen:

Color room: manual edits, LUTs, curves and filters
AI backgrounds from a text prompt
Save back to Photos in one tap

Download on theApp Store iOS 15 or later

BeforeErased

Fix the photo they sent you

Enhance the photo