WhatsApp, how to hide your profile photo

To protect your privacy, you can hide your profile photo on WhatsApp from all your contacts or just some people. Here's how to do it

When it comes to WhatsApp, the number one concern for users is privacy and protecting their personal data. The amount of information we share with the messaging app has grown by leaps and bounds: pictures, videos, phone numbers, geographic location. All of our most important data is present within WhatsApp, including even our profile picture.

And it is precisely the photo we choose for our account that is one of the most sensitive data we share with WhatsApp. Especially for the fact that it can be seen not only by all our contacts, but also by the people who add us on the messaging application knowing the phone number. Being a photo in the public domain, it could also be used for illicit purposes or to open fake profiles on social networks. WhatsApp, however, offers the possibility to hide your profile photo on the application: you can decide to obscure it to all contacts or only to some people. Here's how to do it on Android and iOS.

How to hide your WhatsApp profile photo on Android

Protecting the image you use on your WhatsApp account is very simple: just follow a few step-by-step steps that will take no more than five minutes. On the Android version of WhatsApp you will be able to hide your profile picture from all your contacts as well as from a single person.

To hide the picture from all your contacts you have to enter the application, click on the icon with three vertical lines in the upper right corner and then on Settings. A new window will open and you'll have to click on Account and then Privacy. If you click on "Profile picture", a pop-up menu will open and you'll have to choose the option "None".

To obscure the profile picture of only one contact, the procedure is slightly more complex: you'll first have to delete the phone number from the Address Book and save it in a note. At this point you'll have to enter WhatsApp, press on the icon with three vertical dots in the top right corner and then on Settings. By clicking on Account and then on Privacy you'll enter a section dedicated exclusively to the protection of your data. By tapping on "Profile Picture", you'll have access to a pop-up menu from which you'll have to select "My Contacts". In this way the profile photo will only be seen by your friends. In case the people to be included in the "black list" are more than one, you will have to repeat the initial procedure for several times.

How to hide the profile photo of WhatsApp on iOS

Also on the iOS version of WhatsApp there is the possibility to obscure your image. The procedure to follow is very similar to the one just seen for Android.

To hide the profile picture on WhatsApp from all users you have to launch the application, press on the Settings icon in the bottom right corner, then on Account and finally on Privacy. Tapping on the "Profile Picture" item you will have to select the "None" option. This way when a user will add us on WhatsApp, as a profile picture he will see a stylized little man in white color on gray background.

Also on the Apple operating system you can hide the profile picture to a unique contact. First you will have to delete the phone number from the address book and then save them within the notes of the smartphone, in case you still need them. At this point, you have to open WhatsApp, press on Settings in the lower right corner and then on Account and Privacy. A new section will open up and by pressing on the "Profile picture" item you'll have to select "My contacts". If the people to whom you want to hide the profile picture are more than one, just repeat the initial procedure.