Add 📷 photos, 🎥 videos, 🎵 audios and 📄 files

---

Add attachments to your message

Tap the or button to the left of the message composition area to attach files or photos/videos from your library or take them directly from Olvid, record an audio message, scan a document, specify ephemeral message settings or change the order of these buttons.

• For some features, your device’s operating system may require that you allow Olvid to access your microphone or camera. This is necessary, but you can also reset these permissions later.

iPhone iPad

Attach file allows you to open your file app to select one or more files to send in your next message.

• Attachments are not limited in size, nor are they modified when sent or received. You can read more about this here.

Photos & video library allows you to open it and select one or more photos or videos to send in your next message.

• The attached videos will be re-encoded by the system when they are sent. You can read more about this here.

Camera allows you to take one or more photos or videos directly in Olvid to send them in your next message.

• They will not be saved elsewhere on your device.

Ephemeral message allows you to activate the automatic deletion of your next message and to modify its visibility and existence parameters.

Mic allows you to record an audio message directly in Olvid to send it in your next message.

• It will not be saved elsewhere on your device.

Scan a document allows you to open your application to scan documents into a PDF to send in your next message.

• It will not be saved elsewhere on your device.

Introduce allows you to introduce the contact in this discussion to another of your contacts.

Customize allows you to change the order of the previous buttons as you wish.

Reset buttons order to default allows you to reset the order of the previous buttons to the default state.

Android

Change icon order allows you to change the order of the next buttons as you wish.

Attach files allows you to open your file app to select one or more files to send in your next message.

• Attachments are not limited in size, nor are they modified when sent or received. You can read more about this here.

Ephemeral message allows you to activate the automatic deletion of your next message and to modify its visibility and existence parameters.

Insert an emoji allows you to insert an emoji from Olvid’s built-in emoji library.

Mic allows you to record an audio message directly in Olvid to send it in your next message.

• It will not be saved elsewhere on your device.

Attach images allows you to browse your pictures to select one or more pictures to send in your next message.

• Photos attached this way will only be re-encoded by the system when sending if you enable Remove sensitive JPEG metadata in Olvid Settings > Photos. You can read more about this here.

Take a picture allows you to take a photo directly in Olvid to send it in your next message.

• Photos attached this way will not be saved anywhere else on your device. They will only be re-encoded by the system when sending if you enable Resize photos taken in Olvid in Olvid Settings > Photos. You can read more about this here.

Record a video allows you to record a video directly into Olvid to send in your next message.

• It will not be saved elsewhere on your device.

Send your location allows you to share your location once or continuously in your next message.

Send GIFs

You can paste a GIF you’ve copied from a GIF app or website into an Olvid message.

On Firefox and Chrome, for example, a long press on the image copies it, before pasting it into an Olvid discussion.

• Olvid deliberately does not include third-party GIF management libraries. This is to avoid sending any data in clear to a third party.

iPhone iPad

Nothing to report.

Android

Many Android keyboards (SwiftKey, Gboard) support GIFs natively.

• Please note that when you search for a GIF, the content of your search is sent to the external provider that depends on the keyboard (the content of the message, of course, is not sent).

• Before Android 9, GIFs were not displayed.

No file size limit

Our users regularly exchange multi-gigabyte files via Olvid.

The attachments are not limited in size, and never modified, when sent or received.

There is an exception on Android when you enable Remove sensitive JPEG metadata or Resize photos taken in Olvid in Olvid Settings > Photos.

Deduplication of attachments

An attachment sent or received several times is only stored once on the device if it is the same file.

Olvid performs deduplication on your device to intelligently optimize the space occupied by attachments.

Olvid cannot avoid re-uploading the same file sent in different conversations, for logical reasons of crypto and different recipients, since the files are encrypted on your devices and for each of your recipients and not on our servers.

Give time to large files

For very large files, give Olvid time to load and send them before you close the application.

Sending a large file requires time to copy it as an attachment to the message before sending it.

If you quit Olvid before it is finished, it may not work.

Give access to the file

Olvid must have the right to access the file on your device. This right is defined in the operating system and the rights granted to the Olvid application.

Free up space

You can free up space used by Olvid and your files received and sent.

---