on instagram, tapping the thumbnail has no user feedback and is never selected
on whatsapp, tapping the same video thumbnail results in a "preparing media" modal that never ends, until pressing cancel
on airdrop, a similar preparing model appears that never makes any progress and only has a cancel button
on imessage, tapping the same video thumbnail results in a circular progress bar overlay, as if it was downloading it from icloud, except it never finishes and was never in icloud
unable
Makes sense - definitely an "unable" - I was just curious where the delay was coming, but that iMessage example really sounds like a system issue I agree.
Glad iOS 27 fixed it.