Home How To How to hide your WhatsApp profile picture and why you must do it
Many of us use WhatsApp both for personal and professional purposes, and there are times when we might want to use display photos that are not meant for everyone to see.
WhatsApp has some pretty neat privacy features including one that lets you hide your profile photo from other users. Many of us use WhatsApp both for personal and professional contacts and it possible that you might want to use a display photo on the messaging app that you do not want others to see. WhatsApp does have an option for you to block that from certain users.
Why you must hide your WhatsApp profile pic?
WhatsApp profile pictures can be seen and saved by all WhatsApp users by simply taking a screenshot if it is not hidden. You might have spoken to certain people on WhatsApp who are not family or friends and are not on your contact list. If your profile photo is not hidden then anyone can see and save it if they want.
The best thing to do is to hide your profile photo from people you do not know and do not trust.
Also, by choosing to allow only certain people to see your WhatsApp profile photo means that you can use any photo you like without having to worry about it.
How to hide your profile picture on WhatsApp
- Open WhatsApp and go to ‘Settings'.
- Click on ‘Account' and then click on ‘Privacy'.
- Now, tap on Profile Photo.
- You will see that the default setting here allows “Everyone” on WhatsApp to see your profile photo.
- Change this to “My contacts” if you want your photo to be seen only by those whose numbers you have saved in your phone book.
- If you want no one to see it, pick “Nobody”. This hides your picture from everyone on the messaging app.
Once your profile picture is hidden, all the people messaging you will just see a grey avatar as your DP.
Unfortunately, there is no way to hide your profile picture from only a bunch of users. One way around it is to not save the numbers of random people you might have to message for one-off reason - like a delivery guy who needed your location for example.
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First Published Date: 02 Jan, 14:58 IST
Tags: whatsapp
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To restrict it on an iPhone, you can go into the phone's Settings menu, then tap 'Privacy', 'Photos', and deselect WhatsApp. For Android users it's a little bit complicated.<br><br>Using a file explorer app such as ES File Explorer, you can find WhatsApp's 'Images' and 'Videos' folders and create a file within each called '.nomedia'. This will stop Android Gallery app from scanning the folder.2/6
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<br><br>Anyone offering a free subscription, claiming to be from WhatsApp or encouraging you to follow links in order to safeguard your account is definitely a scam and should not be trusted. These links could lead to websites that install malware and spyware or track your personal details.4/6
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<br><br>You can disable or restrict who sees your 'last seen' time in WhatsApp's 'Profile'; 'Privacy' menu, in Android, iOS, Windows or Blackberry. <br><br>However, if you turn it off, you won't be able to see other users' 'last seen' times either.6/6
By default, the process of sharing photos via WhatsApp automatically saves media files to the recipient's device memory when they are opened in the messenger application.
This approach is largely justified, but it can cause certain inconveniences and is often evaluated negatively by users. In the article, we will consider all aspects of using the function of uploading photos coming via WhatsApp to the device storage on Android and the possibility of configuring its operation. nine0003
With the default settings, when you open an image in WhatsApp for Android, it is automatically saved to your device's storage and then displayed in your smartphone or tablet's Gallery. Further in the article, we will first consider setting a ban on the implementation of these two possibilities, and in the final third part of the material we will demonstrate how to clear the device’s memory from media files already downloaded from WhatsApp.
So, the first thing you can do if the function of the messenger that involves downloading images has become inconvenient (for example, increased consumption of traffic by the device or too fast filling of free space in its memory), is to deactivate the option to automatically download media files.
It is possible to establish a ban on its implementation in two ways.
The most radical approach to solving the problem of stopping uncontrolled saving of media files from WhatsApp to the memory of an Android device involves revoking the permission granted to the messenger to access the storage. The instruction below is suitable only for those users who do not plan to use the information exchange system in question for transmitting and receiving files, regardless of their type. nine0003
Please note that depending on the version of the mobile OS and the system shell launcher used, the names of options and menu items may differ from those described and captured in the screenshots below, but the general principle is the same in all versions of Android!
Then find the “WhatsApp” item in the list of software installed on the device that opens and tap on its name. nine0020
WhatsApp developers for Android have provided in this version of the service client application the possibility of quite flexible adjustment of various parameters, including those related to the function in question. This allows us to solve our problem more “elegantly” and “correctly” than the method proposed above in the article.
WhatsApp will automatically download images using your cellular connection to give you quick access to your latest photos.
To set up auto-upload of photo, video and audio files, just go to WhatsApp > Menu > Settings > Chats and Calls > Media Autoload .
You can choose when WhatsApp automatically downloads media files.
Selected media files will be automatically downloaded when you connect to a cellular network.
The selected media will automatically download when connected to a Wi-Fi network. nine0003
If your goal is not to save space in the memory of your Android smartphone / tablet or the traffic consumed by the device, but to organize photos in the built-in OS tool for viewing and organizing them - "Gallery" , then you can use one of the following methods.
Please note that when using the first two instructions from the article presented later in this section, not only pictures will be hidden in the Gallery, but also videos received via the messenger, as well as GIF animation! nine0003
First, you can turn off the display in the Gallery of not absolutely all the pictures that you viewed in WhatsApp, but only those that were received within a single conversation or group chat.
To deactivate saving absolutely all media files received from WhatsApp in the Gallery:
Another method by which you can prevent the display of photos from WhatsApp in the Gallery is available for implementation using many Android Explorers (hereinafter referred to as ES File Explorer).
to follow the path: WhatsApp / Media / WhatsApp Images /.
Among other methods, it is possible to hide pictures received via WhatsApp from the Gallery using the tools integrated into the media viewer application itself.
Select the "Make invisible" option, which will make the catalog no longer visible in the Gallery, but will not cease to exist. nine0020
Step 1. Open WhatsApp.
Step 2. Go to the "Settings" section.
Step 3. Expand the Data and Storage menu.
Step 4. Pay attention to the "Storage Management" item.
Modern instant messengers are almost the main source of wasted memory in the storage of every mobile device. Using the above menu of the WhatsApp application, you can assess the "scale of the tragedy" and carry out the necessary cleaning. nine0003
⚠️ If the instruction stopped working or you have problems at some step, please report it in the comments. We will definitely investigate the issue and update the article.
Source
The techniques described above in this article, which involve disabling automatic saving of pictures from WhatsApp and / or their visibility in the Android Gallery, are effective in relation to those media files that will be received after performing one or more other procedure.
To get rid of “old” images, for example, to free up the space they occupy in the device’s storage, either the tools provided in the messenger or manual deletion are used. nine0003
In order to delete photos received via WhatsApp for Android, you don't even have to leave the application, and clearing the smartphone storage from media files is quite flexible here.
Chat settings
Application settings
Next, click "DELETE OBJECTS" at the bottom of the screen on the right. Confirm the request received from WhatsApp by tapping "DELETE MESSAGES" in the window that appears.
Of course, if there are many dialogs and groups open in WhatsApp, and a large number of images have accumulated in the device’s memory in the process of receiving information from them, cleaning using the above method can take a long time. It is more convenient and in order to destroy all the photos downloaded by the messenger at a time, use any file manager.
April 30, 2020 Android iOS
With their help you will be able to use the messenger to the maximum.
WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messengers, which is used by millions of people around the world to communicate. However, many users still do not know all the features of the service. And among the latter, by the way, there are very useful ones. Let's talk about those.
Go to "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy". Here you can set the visibility of personal data: profile photo, status and information about the last visit.
If you want this information to be hidden from everyone, just select the "No one" option.
For iOS, identical settings are found in the "Privacy" item in the account settings.
Not everyone knows that text in messages can be bold, italic or strikethrough. To do this, you need to put a certain symbol before the word and after it. nine0003
Bold is an asterisk, italic is an underscore, and strikethrough is a tilde. For example: *word*, _word_, ~word~.
With active correspondence, the ability to reply to the desired message helps to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. In WhatsApp, this feature is implemented especially conveniently.
All you have to do is swipe on a chat message from left to right and it will attach to your next message, indicating exactly what you replied to. nine0003
Also, to do this, you can simply hold down the message and click on the arrow that appears in the top menu.
Adding a message to your favorites allows you to quickly return to it without using the chat search. This is useful when you need to save some coordinates, a shopping list, a task, and so on.
To add, you just need to hold down any message in the conversation and select the button with the image of an asterisk. It will immediately be added to a special menu, which can be accessed on Android through three dots in the upper right corner, and on iOS through the WhatsApp settings. nine0003
General mailing is especially useful when you need to share something with a large number of users without grouping them together. The function is available in the menu by pressing the three dots in the upper right corner. The message will be sent to everyone you mark in your contact list. Their answers will be visible only to you.
Not everyone knows that in WhatsApp you can find out the specific time when a person received a message and when he read it.
To do this, hold down the desired message in the chat, click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select "Info". On iOS, after pinching, select "Data" from the menu. nine0003
This feature is very useful when you can't reach a person and don't even know if they received your message. Note, however, that this only works if the user has not disabled "Read Receipt" in their privacy settings.
Unlike many other instant messengers, WhatsApp allows you to set up notifications about new messages and calls for each contact or group individually. This allows, for example, not only to turn off the sound signal for messages from a certain person, but also to select some kind of melody specifically for him. nine0003
With this option, you can find out who exactly wrote to you without even looking at the smartphone display. To configure, you need to open the contact or group menu and go to the "Individual notifications" item. There, by checking the box next to "Use", you need to edit the necessary items.
Disabling this feature is especially useful when roaming, as your mobile operator may charge you a significant fee for downloading data. nine0003
Go to Settings → Data & Storage → Media Startup. You will find three options: "Mobile network", "Wi-Fi" and "Roaming". In each of these items, uncheck the boxes next to "Images", "Audio" and "Video".
If you have a new SIM card, this does not mean that you need to create another WhatsApp account. Everything is much easier. Go to "Settings" → "Account" → "Change number". Confirm your old number, enter your new one, and you're done. nine0003
This will quickly transfer all your groups, settings and account information.
Some things are not meant for prying eyes. In particular, your correspondence in WhatsApp. And if you know that any of your friends or family members like to rummage through other people's messages, then the best solution is to protect WhatsApp with a password.
