Soon, you won't be able to save WhatsApp profile photos
After utility focused features, WhatsApp is working towards making its messaging service more secure for users. The Facebook-owned company recently launched an option that prevents non-contacts from adding users into groups. Now, in another big move, it is gearing up to prevent users from saving the profile photos of other WhatsApp users in their contact list. Here's how.
WhatsApp beta ditches option to save display pictures
WhatsApp has long been providing its users an option to save, copy, and export profile pictures of their contacts. The capability is useful, but now, WhatsApp is ditching it as part of an effort to make things even more private. The feature has been removed from WhatsApp's latest beta (version 2.19.60.26) for iPhone just a few weeks after removal from the Android beta.
One can always take screenshots, however
The new feature highlights WhatsApp's focus on security but it isn't going to do that much good. Basically, even if there is no option to save a photo, users can always take a screenshot of a profile picture and save it on their phone. For true privacy, WhatsApp has to disable screenshots for profile pictures as it did for chats in a recent beta.
Also, groups remain unaffected
The option to save profile pictures has only been removed from contacts in WhatsApp. This means if you open the display picture of a group, the option to save that icon will be available.
No word on stable availability of this feature
It is important to note that the feature is available in WhatsApp's iOS and Android beta versions right now. This means that the service plans on bringing this feature but there's no timeline for its stable release. To note, the latest iPhone beta also brings improvements to video streaming and group photo downloads in WhatsApp and revises voice message format to M4A (AAC codec).
