Xperia 5 II : Blurry video call experience on WhatsApp

[GreXperia]

Hi All,

I got my Xperia 5 Mark II today and just finished setting it up. While I am happy with the phone so far, the people whom I video- called on WhatsApp reported that my video quality was very bad and blurry. I tried calling the same people at the same time using the same network (WiFi) on my Google Pixel 3 and the video quality was excellent.

The selfi photos from the front camera are also high quality,  it's just the outgoing video quality on video calls (WhatsApp, Google Duo and similar). 

Is there a solution to this problem?

[fjxperia]

Having the same issue, very super keen to get this addressed as soon as possible. 

The generic advice re "This app is not working" on the Sony website is not very helpful at all.

[CosmicTomato]

Hi @fjxperia  have you tried repairing the software using the Xperia companion app? also does this happen in all apps or certain apps only, if it's specific apps, have you tried these generic steps on each one of them individually and the issue remained?

[fjxperia]

Hi @CosmicTomato,

The thing is it isn't a 'repair' thing that can be fixed in the app, it's the actual quality that's super concerning.

It looks like a low bitrate video if that makes sense. Tested it (Whatsapp video call) on a Samsung and a Huawei, both phones connected to local wifi so there was no lag, but just very muddy and very blurry quality vs Sony's offering.

[CosmicTomato]

Sorry it got a bit confusing, is the video quality bad on the Xperia or the other phones?

Either ways you can still troubleshoot the app itself, in either model of what you have that would be facing issues, the settings allow you to uninstall updates for certain apps, try doing this and see what happens.

[fjxperia]

I think I've found the issue - made all the more baffling as it has been something I've never had to do before on a new device.

In WhatsApp's settings > Storage and data > switch off 'Use less data for calls'.

This seems to have solved the issue so far from what I've seen; but my concern earlier stemmed from not having to uncheck this setting before in any new WA installation.