Compress images and videos before upload + new upload/preview dialog + use system camera

[mahibi]

• resolve Use compression for images and files selected via gallery #5190

• resolve replace photo camera code with intent to open system camera #2461

  Adds automatic compression of images and videos before upload in chat, replaces the old attachment picker/preview dialog with a new Compose-based
  one, and removes the app's built-in camera capture screen in favor of the system camera.

• Compress images and videos before upload

  • New ImageCompressor/VideoCompressor utilities: images are downscaled and re-encoded as JPEG; videos are downscaled to 540p (short side) and
    transcoded via Media3 Transformer on a dedicated HandlerThread, keeping the main thread unblocked.
  • BitmapShrinker modernized to use ImageDecoder on API 28+ (single-pass decode+scale with automatic EXIF rotation for JPEG/HEIC), falling back to
    the previous BitmapFactory path on API 26/27.
  • UploadAndShareFilesWorker shows live "Compressing… X%" progress (via Transformer.getProgress()) before switching to the upload progress notification.
    --> this is just a temporary solution until in chat upload previews are implemented.
  • Fixes MIME-type resolution for file:// URIs (e.g. camera-captured photos/videos), which previously broke dialog/thumbnail detection since
    ContentResolver.getType() only handles content:// URIs.

• New attachment preview/upload dialog

  • FileAttachmentPreviewFragment/FileAttachmentPreviewDialogCompose rewritten in Jetpack Compose, with thumbnails and per-file dimensions/size shown
    before sending.

• Media quality setting

  • The compression toggle is now a "Sent media quality" setting under Settings, presented as a dialog with Original quality / Reduced quality
    options (previously a simple switch), persisted via AppPreferences.

• Removed built-in camera

  • Deleted TakePhotoActivity, TakePictureViewModel, and the associated layout/drawables. Photo/video capture now goes through the system camera;
    PickImage, ConversationCreationActivity, ConversationInfoEditActivity, and ProfileActivity updated accordingly.

Assisted-by: Claude Code 2.1.199:claude-sonnet-5

🖼️ Screenshots/Videos

🏚️ Before	🏡 After

Demonstration video

Screen_recording_20260803_150537.mp4

Settings

TODO for followup PR's

As not to go even further off-topic with this PR it only focuses on the upload/preview dialog and not on the upload itself. So

• show uploading files in conversation #2375

is not part of this PR but should be a next step soon.
Although the order of the previews can be modified by drag and drop in this PR, the related code to upload and share does not yet respect this order. This must be part of a followup improvement.

🏁 Checklist

• ⛑️ Tests (unit and/or integration) are included or not needed
• 🔖 Capability is checked or not needed
• 🔙 Backport requests are created or not needed: /backport to stable-xx.x
• 📅 Milestone is set
• 🌸 PR title is meaningful (if it should be in the changelog: is it meaningful to users?)

🤖 AI (if applicable)

• The content of this PR was partly or fully generated using AI

[github-actions]

APK file: https://github.com/nextcloud/talk-android/actions/runs/30387637532/artifacts/8699821637
To test this change/fix you can simply download above APK file and install and test it in parallel to your existing Nextcloud app.
(please click on link to get QR code displayed)

[github-actions]

APK file: https://github.com/nextcloud/talk-android/actions/runs/30388822788/artifacts/8700239068
To test this change/fix you can simply download above APK file and install and test it in parallel to your existing Nextcloud app.
(please click on link to get QR code displayed)

[jancborchardt]

It would be nice to formulate and design it a bit less technical. Signal e.g. specifically calls it "Sent media quality" with an easy to understand "Low" and "High" setting.

I'd say we could have a single-select segmented button in the send flow with:

• Original quality
• Reduced quality

And last selected setting remembered. What do you think @nimishavijay

[mahibi]

For reference: thats how signal does it in the send flow (in the left pic it is the (crossed) HD button):

[github-actions]

APK file: https://github.com/nextcloud/talk-android/actions/runs/30476294926/artifacts/8734032240
To test this change/fix you can simply download above APK file and install and test it in parallel to your existing Nextcloud app.
(please click on link to get QR code displayed)

[nimishavijay]

If we are able to have a fullscreen preview of the image before sending like in whatsapp,telegram, signal, etc, the HD/SD icon-only button is pretty standard. if that is not possible then the radio-style buttons in the current UI make sense :)

[github-actions]

APK file: https://github.com/nextcloud/talk-android/actions/runs/30641574479/artifacts/8797835298
To test this change/fix you can simply download above APK file and install and test it in parallel to your existing Nextcloud app.
(please click on link to get QR code displayed)

[github-actions]

APK file: https://github.com/nextcloud/talk-android/actions/runs/30656399981/artifacts/8803577048
To test this change/fix you can simply download above APK file and install and test it in parallel to your existing Nextcloud app.
(please click on link to get QR code displayed)

[mahibi]

@jancborchardt @nimishavijay which solution of the HQ selection do you prefer? Do you have more feedback for this current state?:

[jancborchardt]

@mahibi I’d say the last one with the toggle on the bottom that has actual text. Makes it very clear every time.
It’s best to do it clear & safe in the beginning, we can still make it more obscure later if we notice it’s too much. Important is also that the last preference is remembered.

(Another option to merge the approaches and save space could of course be to have the icon in the top right, but then make it open a menu with 2 entries which have clear wording "Original quality" and "Reduced quality".)

[mahibi]

@mahibi I’d say the last one with the toggle on the bottom that has actual text. Makes it very clear every time.

alright thanks for the quick feedback.
For the "remember" behavior: The default can be set in the settings. This will be the state that will be set whenever the dialog is opened. Same behavior as for other messengers.

[github-actions]

APK file: https://github.com/nextcloud/talk-android/actions/runs/30807911255/artifacts/8854216608
To test this change/fix you can simply download above APK file and install and test it in parallel to your existing Nextcloud app.
(please click on link to get QR code displayed)

[rapterjet2004]

Can you remove HighQualityIcons.kt and replace it with the xml equivalent? Found here.

https://fonts.google.com/icons?selected=Material+Symbols+Outlined:high_quality:FILL@0;wght@400;GRAD@0;opsz@24&icon.query=hq&icon.size=24&icon.color=%23222222&icon.platform=android

Which can be used in Compose with painterResource. That way all the resources are in one place. If we keep them in code in it might be a pain to track them all later.

[mahibi]

Can you remove HighQualityIcons.kt and replace it with the xml equivalent? Found here.

https://fonts.google.com/icons?selected=Material+Symbols+Outlined:high_quality:FILL@0;wght@400;GRAD@0;opsz@24&icon.query=hq&icon.size=24&icon.color=%23222222&icon.platform=android

Which can be used in Compose with painterResource. That way all the resources are in one place. If we keep them in code in it might be a pain to track them all later.

Done 👍 . I was thinking "let's use the compose equivalent from now on" (but yeah, should have chosen a better place to save it of course) but it seems the official documentation from google still recommends to just download the XML:

...we recommend using Google Font Icons and download the XML file from the Android Tab to create an up-to-date Material Symbols style Icon.

https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/compose/graphics/images/material

[github-actions]

APK file: https://github.com/nextcloud/talk-android/actions/runs/31164884771/artifacts/8988875188
To test this change/fix you can simply download above APK file and install and test it in parallel to your existing Nextcloud app.
(please click on link to get QR code displayed)

[github-actions]

APK file: https://github.com/nextcloud/talk-android/actions/runs/31165927913/artifacts/8989198806
To test this change/fix you can simply download above APK file and install and test it in parallel to your existing Nextcloud app.
(please click on link to get QR code displayed)

[RoboPolaris]

A great first step — thank you so much! This is a really important improvement for using Talk as an everyday messenger.

A few things that would make the experience even better:

1. Visible compression progress
   It would be very helpful to have a clear visual indicator while a video is being compressed. At the moment, there is no %-display to see in my version and therefore it is not obvious that a compression process is running.

2. Video preview in received messages
   When receiving a video, it would be great to see a muted preview directly in the chat without having to open the player first.

3. Better fullscreen video player
   The player would benefit from a proper fullscreen option, automatic fitting to the screen, and automatic rotation/orientation handling.

4. Higher video quality or selectable presets
   540p is quite low for normal everyday videos. 720p or 1080p (like Telegram) would be much more useful. Ideally with selectable presets (which would be better than any other messanger) such as:

   • Data saver: 540p
   • Standard: 720p
   • High quality: 1080p
   • Original

5. Higher image resolution
   768 px is also quite low for photos. In my opinion, the short side should be at least 1080 px, while still keeping the option to send the original file.

Overall, this is a fantastic and very important step. With a little more flexibility in media quality and a few improvements to the video experience, Talk could become much more suitable as a real replacement for mainstream family and friends messengers.