How To Hide Whatsapp picture/videos from your Gallery
Are you tired of your nosy friends, who don’t respect your privacy? Do you want to hide your personal photos on Android? If yes, then look no more.
Now, for many of us, WhatsApp is more than a messaging app. It’s personal. And we don’t want others to invade our privacy. Right? So what do we do, we lock it.
But even if you lock WhatsApp withAppLock, its photos/videos still appear inside the gallery. Off course, you’re able to even lock your entire gallery with apps likeGallery Lockbut that will raise more eyebrows.
So what do we do?
Well Instead of locking your gallery (or Photo app in Lollipop), it’s better to hide WhatsApp media folders instead. And the good news is, you don’t need any 3rd party app for that. All you have to do is rename a folder. Let’s see how.
Hide Whatsapp Picture in Android
- First, you will need a file manager app to access WhatsApp directory in your SD card. If you don’t have one, downloadES File Explorer.
Also See:15 Super cool ES File Explorer Tips & Tricks
Once you have the file manager installed, open it. Navigate to ‘WhatsApp’s media’ folder. Usually it’s found underHome > sd card > WhatsApp > Media.
Under Media folder, you will see a sub-folder called ‘WhatsApp Images‘.
Rename this folder to ‘.Whatsapp Images‘ i.e. add a period in the name. you’re able to do so, by long pressing the folder and select the rename option.
You can do this to any folder, whose content you want to hide from the gallery. Including the WhatsApp video folder.
- Now if you go to your gallery, there will be no WhatsApp images or videos.
How do you bring it back?
To bring back the images in your gallery,removethe period ( . ) from the folder name. And that’s it.
However, if you don’t see the WhatsApp Image folder, then you need to enable ‘show hidden files’ option. To do that, open ES file explorer > swipe the screen from right to left > you will see an option menu > look for show hidden file and turn it on.
So how does it work?
Since Android is based on Linux kernel, if you add the period in front of any folder’s name, the OS thinks this is important system file and hides it.
You can use this trick for any folder, in any Linux-based operating system.
By default, WhatsApp is configured to automatically download images to your device. But if you don’t need these images later then you can disable the auto-downloading by going to WhatsApp > Menu Button > Settings > Chat settings > Media auto-download.
Hide WhatsApp Picture in iPhone
If you are iPhone user then hide WhatsApp images by going to your privacy setting > photos > turn WhatsApp off.
Video Tutorial: (this tip starts at 3.38 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTiKZsyodWU&t=3m38s
No more prying eyes. Happy WhatsApping!
[Alternative]
I suggest you disable the gallery app and installQuickPic– a better alternative to the gallery app. Why? Well, because QuickPic has this hide images option inbuilt. Plus it’s faster and has better UI than then the gallery or photo app.
Better Replacement Apps for Android (Table)
Mrinal Saha
Mrinal is a tech geek who spends half of his day reading and writing about tech. While the nights are spent on shooting or editing YouTube videos. Feel free to geek out with him on-
