Sharing limits are not all the same
Email, chat, and portals fail for different reasons. Mail servers reject large MIME parts. WhatsApp and similar apps have their own document ceilings that change by platform. University LMS hosts often sit between 10 and 25 MB. Match the preset to the channel, then attach.
Gmail, Outlook, and 25 MB
Google’s common attachment ceiling is about 25 MB for the whole message. One 28 MB PDF will bounce even if the rest of the mail is empty. Balanced usually lands a slide-heavy report under that line without Maximum mush. If you are still over, split the appendix.
Chat and mobile data
WhatsApp document limits vary and are often far below email. Compress here, then send. Recipients on cellular will thank you for the smaller download even when the app would have accepted the original.
When to split instead
A 120-page scan that must stay sharp should not be Maximum’d into illegibility. Use Split PDF for the pages they actually need, then compress those. Hyperlinks on digital PDFs usually survive Light and Balanced; scans never had links.