WhatsApp now blocks ability to take screenshots of profile pictures

Damien Wilde | Mar 13 2024 - 6:47 am PT

WhatsApp is now rolling out an update that blocks you from taking a screenshot of a contact profile picture.

Initially spotted by Android Police, it appears that recent updates to WhatsApp on Android mean that attempting to take a screenshot of a contact profile picture throws up an error message.

In our testing, there is no warning message when attempting to do so, but attempting to take a screenshot when viewing full-screen contact profile pictures now results in a blank screen. There is no way to prevent this behavior, but this functionality was spotted in development some time ago. A warning message could be added when this does reach the stable version of the app.

However, despite this enhanced privacy change, you can still take a screenshot of the mini-profile or profile preview that can be expanded when viewing all WhatsApp chats. This is a lower-resolution version of your full-screen profile image.

As noted by AP, this seems to be the default behaviour and is not limited to a specific app build. My device runs WhatsApp beta v2.24.6.16 while others are seeing this behavior on older builds. This hints that the functionality is rolling out via a server-side update and not locked to specific builds.

By blocking the ability to take screenshots of WhatsApp profile pictures, Meta is likely aiming to prevent impersonation and other privacy concerns. Other cross-platform messaging services such as Telegram and Signal currently lack this functionality.

For further enhanced privacy you can hide your WhatsApp profile picture by heading to Settings > Privacy > Profile Photo. From here you can adjust who sees your profile poi