How to avoid automatic downloading of images on Whatsapp from Android
Whatsapp is not only extremely useful for communicating with friends and family at any time, it is one of the most popular apps in the world, including the most widely used messaging app today. But all this fame and success doesn't make the app perfect.
One of the biggest complaints from app users on Android devices is that it simply downloads any photos and images that are sent to you. This is a standard behavior of Whatsapp, which unfortunately fills our devices with images we don't normally want to store. Especially when we are part of one or more groups.
Fortunately for us users, it is possible to avoid automatically downloading images in the app quite easily on the Android system by just making a few adjustments to the settings of the app itself. We have already given several interesting tips about Whatsapp, so we could not help but make a detailed tutorial about it. Check it out below!
Read also: Learn how to use Whatsapp on computer
Disabling automatic image download
Whatsapp on Android offers a very simple option so you don't have to hold a bunch of photos on your phone or tablet. To get started, just open Whatsapp, where you'll see the usual home screen.
Step 1: Click on the three vertical balls in the upper right corner of the app home screen and you will see some options. Click on "Settings" and a new screen will open.
Step 2: From the new options that appeared, choose “Conversations and Calls” to proceed. Now click on “Automatic Download” to see the options of this feature.
You can configure it any way you want, but we can give you some tips. If you still want the app to automatically download images, but don't want to do so when the connection is 3G (not to waste your data), just select “When using data network” and click on “No media”.
Step 3: Possibly the option “When connected to Wi-Fi” will have the option “Images” enabled, meaning that the app already downloads the photos sent to you automatically. You can only click this option to disable the feature once and for all.
Once that is done, you will notice that the app will never download the images you receive, and you will need to tap them to download manually. You can still change this at any time through the same menu and activating whatever you want automatically downloaded by the app.
The only downside is that when you receive an image, you can't even get a preview of its content. Therefore, it becomes a little difficult to know if you would really like to download it or not.
Learn how to back up to WhatsApp
While you have just learned how not to automatically download images in the messaging application, you may also be interested in finding out how to back up your conversations in WhatsApp. This is ideal to prevent conversations from being lost in case your phone experiences a problem or even the app itself gets corrupted.
If you don't want to worry about having all your messages erased from time to time, we recommend backing them up. The procedure is actually quite simple, requiring no technical knowledge. To do this, see our 5-step tutorial for backing up WhatsApp.
Want to be invisible to your WhatsApp contacts?
By default, when we use the app we appear as online to other users. While this setting is on, your contacts can know exactly when you are using the app, or at least when it was last accessed, and can see when messages were read.
Thinking of giving your users more privacy options, the app also offers the option to take it online and be invisible to other contacts. However, it is also important to consider that by doing so, you will not be able to see when your own contacts are online. Would you still like to be invisible in the messenger? Read our guide and learn how to do it in just 5 steps!
See how to reduce WhatsApp data usage
Making the app not automatically download images is one way to reduce your data usage, but not the only one. If you're looking to get WhatsApp to consume less of your package, there are other things you can do to help it.
These include options to disable downloading of other types of files, not just images, but also videos and documents. In addition, other alternatives can also help you save money without really impacting your app usage much. See our guide to 5 ways to reduce data usage.
Before you leave, check out some more articles about Whatsapp:
What do you think about our tutorial not to automatically download images on WhatsApp from Android?
Very simple, didn't you think? This mainly helps not to save unwanted images and not take up storage space on your Android device. After you have done the procedure on your device, tell us if you have succeeded or have any questions about the process!
