Related posts not showing images when they are too small

Have a look here:

https://github.com/Automattic/jetpack/blob/master/modules/related-posts/jetpack-related-posts.php#L1102

The image has to have a minimum width of 350px and a minimum height of 200px. That hasn’t changed ever, it’s always been that. So my suggestion is, when you notice these, you can go back and edit the posts to give them a larger featured image. That will also help with shares on Facebook, as Facebook also requires images to be at least 200pm by 200px, and preferably larger. Note that if you do so, you likely won’t see the updated images right away, as the Related Posts results are cached for up to 12h.

Alternatively, you can completely turn off images for Related Posts, but generally we find that posts with images are more likely to get additional clicks on them.

Strange, never noticed that before. I’ll leave it then as it is. I don’t want to go editing at least 2500 posts ;).

Perhaps the minimum 350px by 200px requirement could be made more noticeable. I’ve used related images for years and have only recently started to notice that some images don’t show in the related posts section. I have never before noticed the 350 x 200 minimum requirement.
I also notice that at https://jetpack.com/support/related-posts/ the word resize is used in relation to the 350px wide by 200px tall requirement but there is no mention that these are also the minimum dimensions.
I just think that fewer people will have this issue if the requirement is more noticeable ??

Nevertheless, it really worked before, so I don’t see why it can’t be made to show every featured image, even it is has been added too small in the past. Just make those cropped images the size of 350×200. Even when they get a little bit blurred, it’s better than no image at all. Now I often have white spaces in my related posts section, like here: https://www.jacktummers.nl/frisse-groene-blaadjes-in-de-herfst/

Even when they get a little bit blurred, it’s better than no image at all.

Unfortunately we can’t make that decision for every site owner out there, as a lot of people would prefer no image to a blurry image.

We’ve developed the Related Posts to display an excerpt from the post when no image can be fetched; this way there is no white space appearing instead of an image in the Related Posts; instead you will see the post excerpt.

That’s not really a good workaround on your own site though, since your posts only include an image, and no text at all.

There are 3 different workarounds I would suggest to make things look a little bit better on your site:

1. You could use the jetpack_relatedposts_filter_thumbnail_size filter to change the minimum image size Jetpack Related Posts will use. Instead of the default 350×200, you could set it to 20×20 for example. You can read how to use that filter here: https://developer.jetpack.com/hooks/jetpack_relatedposts_filter_thumbnail_size/
2. You could add a default image that would be used in Related Posts whenever a post does not include an image that’s large enough. Here is how to do that: https://jeremy.hu/jetpack-missing-images-related-posts/
3. You could automatically remove all posts that don’t include a big image from your Related Posts. This is explained at the bottom of the post I linked to above.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Jeremy! I think I can live with one of the options you gave ?? and see what works best in my case. I already searched the plugin files for places where to change the minimum image size, but did not think of filter.