WhatsApp to soon stop stalkers from screenshotting profile photos

WhatsApp has added several different privacy-centric features in the past to give users more control over how much others can see in your profile. But none of them targeted one of the most annoying issues with our profile pictures that anyone can take a screenshot of the photo as long as it is visible to them. But that is changing soon. According to a new report, WhatsApp is working on stricter privacy standards that will prevent users, mostly stalkers, from screenshotting your display pictures. Also Read: How To Use WhatsApp On 2 Phones: Quick Steps Here

WABetaInfo has reported that the new functionality is currently in development and available to some beta testers through the Google Play Store. That means a handful of people who use WhatsApp beta for Android will have better privacy because whenever someone would try to take a screenshot of their profile picture, WhatsApp will show a notification saying “Can’t take a screenshot due to app restrictions.” The report includes a screenshot of how this functionality works on supported app builds and we have embedded it below. Also Read: How To Translate Messages On WhatsApp? Steps HERE

WhatsApp’s new functionality that blocks screenshotting profile pictures will work like this. (Image: WABetaInfo)

While the feature is available to a limited number of users currently, it is likely to be rolled out to everyone in the coming days. Since the testing currently is happening on WhatsApp’s Android app, the new restriction for screenshots of profile photos may take some time to become available on iOS. The report said the functionality is currently available in WhatsApp beta for Android v2.24.4.25.

What you can currently do

WhatsApp already allows you to set the privacy level for your profile pictures by making it visible to either nobody or your contacts or everyone. But people who can see your profile picture can also take a screenshot of it, without you getting notified of the same. With the new restriction WhatsApp is limiting the ability to take screenshots of profile pictures without the owner’s consent. However, this will not stop people from clicking a photo of the profile picture from a different phone or a camera.

Several other apps stop users from taking screenshots, but if you talk particularly about chat apps, WhatsApp may be the first one to offer this functionality for display pictures. Apps such as Snapchat instead notify users when the person they are chatting with takes a screenshot of the conversation, while Meta’s Facebook gives users the ability to lock their profile picture so it cannot be saved, shared, or sent in Messenger.