Help making image background transparent in iMessage MessageExtension

I'm working on a MessageExtension app and trying to send an images with a transparent background through imessage. However when I add the image to the message, the image loses its background transparency and is filled in with a solid white. is there a way to mitigate this?

For some more context, the user is picking the image from a CollectionView full of cells that contain a UIImageView. I can see in the CollectionView that the images have transparent backgrounds, and also when I run the program with a breakpoint and view the active variables the image has a transparent background. So I believe it has something to do when adding the image to a message.

this is my code for adding the image to a message:

guard let conversation = activeConversation else{
            print("conversation failed")
            return
        }
        let layout = MSMessageTemplateLayout()
        layout.image = image //image is a UIImage
        let message = MSMessage()
        message.layout = layout
        conversation.insert(message) {error in
            if let error = error{
                print("error sending message: \(String(describing: error))")
            }
        }