Google appears to be testing a new feature that allows people to choose to send lower-resolution versions of their images but have them sent more quickly. The new option is available to some people using the Messages app on Android phones.

Not yet rolled out to everyone but rather seemingly offered to a small group of testers, the new option is simply a toggle in the Messages options, and it's designed to give people more control over how their phone sends images over RCS.

Slower and better or faster and worse

The new toggle, first reported on by 9to5Google, is called "Send photos faster" and says that images will have their "resolution is reduced for faster sending."

The option could be useful not only for people who just want to wait less time for messages to send, but also for people who are on particularly spotty connections or simply want to make sure that they are less likely to fall foul of their data caps while on the move. To that point, 9to5Google notes that Google hasn't configured a maximum size for RCS image transfers. However, both AT&T and T-Mobile appear to have capped the file size at 100MB themselves.

It isn't immediately clear how Google is choosing who to give this new option to, or when it will begin to roll out to everyone. But it's a feature that could prove important for those who need it and it's always good to see Google iterating. The Messages app might not be the first place you'd expect it to happen, but here we are.

It's thought that this new toggle is only applicable to RCS chats and not SMS chats where images are sent via MMS. Images sent over the MMS network are already low-res enough, and we can't imagine making them much worse and still making them worth sending in the first place.