WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. One of WhatsApp’s key features is the ability to send and receive photos and videos. A common question many users have is whether the photos and videos sent and received on WhatsApp get saved to their phone’s gallery.
Do received WhatsApp photos save to gallery?
The short answer is yes, photos and videos sent to you on WhatsApp get automatically saved to your phone’s gallery. When someone sends you a photo or video file via WhatsApp, it gets downloaded and stored in your phone’s internal storage. Your phone treats this like any other photo or video you might take directly with the camera app.
On both Android and iOS devices, there is a dedicated WhatsApp folder in your main gallery where all received WhatsApp media gets stored. On Android this folder is usually called ‘WhatsApp Images’ while on iOS it is called ‘WhatsApp’. Any photos or videos you receive in WhatsApp chats will show up in this folder automatically.
In addition to being saved in the WhatsApp folder, received photos and videos also show up in your main camera roll alongside your own photos. So you can access them directly from the gallery without going through the WhatsApp folder.
Do sent WhatsApp photos save to gallery?
Similar to received files, photos and videos you send through WhatsApp also get saved to your device’s gallery. When you select a photo or video from your phone to send to a WhatsApp contact, it doesn’t get “moved” or deleted from your gallery.
The selected image simply gets sent via WhatsApp while remaining available in your camera roll or gallery. So you can still view it, edit it, share it, etc like any other photo on your device. This applies to media you send through both individual and group WhatsApp chats.
However, there is a small caveat on iOS devices. If you select a photo that was originally saved to iCloud rather than local storage, it will not save permanently to your iPhone’s gallery after sending via WhatsApp. The copy sent on WhatsApp gets deleted after 30 days if the original iCloud version was not also saved locally.
Can you save WhatsApp photos to gallery manually?
While WhatsApp photos get saved to your gallery automatically, you can also manually save specific photos to your camera roll if desired:
- On Android: Tap and hold the photo in WhatsApp, then tap the download icon in the top corner.
- On iPhone: Tap and hold the photo in WhatsApp, then tap ‘Save to Photos’.
This allows you to selectively save WhatsApp images to your main camera roll outside of the WhatsApp folders. The original will still remain in WhatsApp media.
How WhatsApp media save options work
WhatsApp provides options to control media saving and visibility in your phone’s gallery:
- Save to Camera Roll – By default enabled. Received media is saved to your camera roll.
- Media Visibility – By default enabled. Allows gallery apps access to WhatsApp media folders.
If you disable ‘Save to Camera Roll’, received WhatsApp media will only be saved to the WhatsApp folders, not your main camera roll. Disabling ‘Media Visibility’ stops gallery apps from seeing WhatsApp media folders.
Advantages of WhatsApp media saving to gallery
Some key advantages of WhatsApp photos and videos saving to your native gallery include:
- Access media outside of WhatsApp – You can view, edit and share received media using your preferred gallery apps.
- Back up media – Gets included in your regular phone backups and cloud syncs like iCloud.
- Free up WhatsApp space -Media moves out of encrypted WhatsApp storage to free up app space.
- Enhanced organization – Media mixes into your camera roll alongside your own photos.
Disadvantages of WhatsApp media saving to gallery
Some potential disadvantages include:
- Clutters gallery – A large amount of WhatsApp media mixed into your own photos can be unwieldy.
- Privacy concerns – Received media becomes visible outside of WhatsApp encrypted storage.
- Storage usage – WhatsApp media duplicates may take up extra device storage space.
However for most users, the convenience of having WhatsApp media automatically saved to the native gallery outweighs these disadvantages.
WhatsApp media storage locations
Here are the typical default locations where WhatsApp media gets stored on common devices:
| Device | WhatsApp Media Folder | Camera Roll Location |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone | /Camera Roll | |
| Android | /WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images | /DCIM |
| Windows Phone | /SD card/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images | /SD card/Pictures |
The WhatsApp media folder and camera roll location may vary based on your device and settings.
How to stop WhatsApp from saving media to gallery
If you want to prevent WhatsApp photos, videos, etc from saving to your phone’s gallery, you have a couple options:
- On Android, go to WhatsApp > Settings > Chats > Media Visibility and turn it off. This will stop your gallery seeing WhatsApp media folders.
- On iPhone, go to WhatsApp > Settings > Chats > Save to Camera Roll and turn it off. This will prevent saving to your camera roll.
- Alternatively, you can use a third-party app like NoCrop for Android or Watusi for iOS to block WhatsApp media saving.
Disabling media visibility or saving is the only way to stop WhatsApp content from populating your native gallery apps. There is no setting within WhatsApp itself to delete this media after the fact.
Does disabling media saving delete existing media?
No, turning off the media saving and visibility options within WhatsApp settings does not retroactively delete media that has already been saved to your gallery.
It will simply stop any new incoming WhatsApp photos, videos, etc from being saved to your camera roll going forward. Any existing media in your gallery will remain intact.
To actually delete previously saved WhatsApp media from your phone’s storage, you will need to manually delete it from your gallery app or use a dedicated storage cleaner/gallery organizer app.
Manually deleting WhatsApp media from your gallery
If you want to manually remove previously saved WhatsApp photos, videos, etc from your phone’s gallery, here is how to do it:
- Open your device’s Gallery or Photos app.
- Navigate to the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Images folder.
- Tap and hold on a media item to select it.
- Tap additional items to select multiple media files.
- Tap the delete icon to delete the selected items.
- Confirm the deletion when prompted.
Repeat this process to delete any other unwanted WhatsApp media from your camera roll. While time consuming, this ensures media will be permanently removed from your phone’s storage.
Using gallery organizer/storage cleaner apps
On Android, apps like Files by Google and SD Maid offer advanced gallery cleaning features to swiftly mass delete WhatsApp media duplicates and recover storage space.
For iPhones, you can use built-in storage management in Settings or specialized utilities like PhoneClean to remove WhatsApp media clutter.
Backing up WhatsApp media
Even with WhatsApp media saving disabled, you may still wish to preserve important photos, videos, etc from WhatsApp chats. There are a few ways you can back up this content:
- Manually save individual files to another location like cloud storage or your computer.
- Use your phone’s built-in backup utility to include WhatsApp in the backup.
- Enable WhatsApp’s built-in chat backup which can optionally include media files.
This allows you to securely archive WhatsApp media outside of your camera roll while keeping your phone’s gallery clutter-free.
Conclusion
To recap, WhatsApp media including photos and videos sent and received within chats gets automatically saved to your native phone gallery for convenience. While this behavior can be disabled for privacy or storage reasons, most users appreciate having WhatsApp media seamlessly integrate with their camera roll.
Manually deleting WhatsApp media from your gallery after the fact can be tedious but offers better control. Backing up important WhatsApp content provides a good solution for maintaining media while controlling gallery clutter. Understanding exactly how and where WhatsApp saves photos, videos, and files empowers you to manage this content effectively.