What happens to your profile picture after you upload it
You upload one photo. The app makes several smaller copies, compresses them and cuts them to its shape. Knowing that helps you upload the right file.
Resized
A profile picture is shown at many sizes: tiny next to a message, larger on your profile page. Apps make copies at those sizes from what you upload. A larger, sharp original gives them more to work with; a small one gets enlarged and turns soft.
Compressed
To load fast, the copies are saved with stronger compression than your camera uses. Every round of compression loses detail. A photo that was already compressed by a chat app loses more. Upload the original from your camera roll.
Cropped
Most apps cut a square from the middle and many then show it as a circle. Anything near the corners goes. Crop it yourself first, so you choose what stays. The circle crop shows what a round crop keeps.
So: what to upload
- The original photo, not a screenshot.
- Cropped square, with your face in the middle and a little above it.
- At the size the platform states, or a square of about 1,000 pixels when it states none.
- As a JPEG or PNG: every platform we checked takes those.