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WhatsApp is rolling out an important update that will take the privacy of its users one step further. With this new feature, which was first noticed by Android Police, WhatsApp users will no longer be able to save a person’s profile photo as a screenshot. As a result of the updates made on Android devices, when a person’s profile photo is displayed in full screen and when trying to take a screenshot, an error message is encountered, resulting in the screen remaining blank. Although it is not possible to prevent this behavior, it is stated that a warning message can be added when this feature comes to the stable version of the application.
However, despite this privacy-focused change, the ability to take a screenshot of the thumbnail profile or profile preview remains, which can be expanded when viewing entire WhatsApp chats. This can be described as a lower resolution version of your full-screen profile picture.
As Android Police points out, this behavior comes by default and is not limited to a specific app build. This suggests that the functionality is not limited to specific builds, but is instead rolled out via a server-side update.
Meta is thought to aim to prevent spoofing and other privacy concerns by blocking screenshots of WhatsApp profile pictures. Other cross-platform messaging services such as Telegram and Signal do not currently have this functionality.
Hide profile photo for more privacy on WhatsApp
If users want to further increase the privacy of their WhatsApp profile pictures, Settings > Privacy > Profile Photo They can set who can see their profile pictures from the section. Through these settings, you can customize who can see your profile picture.