WhatsApp Now Lets You Hide Received Media From Gallery

Jun. 23, 2018

WhatsApp has been adding several subtle new features, like thelabel on forwarded messagesand the ability torecord longer voice messageswithout holding the record icon. Now, another feature called “Media Visibility”, which was added recently, has been polished in the recent update and is useful for hiding media, but is probably not something many users know about.

With the latest WhatsApp beta update (version 2.18.195), Media Visibility allows you tohide images, videos, or audios received via WhatsAppfrom the phone’s default Gallery app. While the feature was introduced in previous beta builds, the app now gets the ability toshow or hide media for individual contact.

Media Visibility feature can be accessed by opening a contact’s page on WhatsApp. Here, you’ll find the feature and by tapping on it a new window opens up which lets youchoose between “Yes” or “No”for showing the downloaded media in the gallery. You can also set your choice to “Default” which is the setting that applies to all the chats.

The “Default” has been preset to Yes, which means that unless you select “No” for a specific contact, media will be visible in the gallery. Tochange the default setting, you can head over to Settings and then tap on “Chats” where you can check or uncheck the checkbox beside Media Visibility option.

This is a very useful option if you do not wish to neglect media shared in a group or by a jovial friend but do not want it to clutter your gallery either. The feature iscurrently limited to WhatsApp betaand it should make its way to the stable version soon. The feature only applies to media received after the update, so your old photos will still show up in the Gallery app.

Alongside this, WhatsApp recently also rolled outgroup voice and group video calling feature in WhatsApp betawhich you can enjoy even if you’re not in beta. Further, as promised at Facebook’s F8 Conference,WhatsApp will soon be receiving Stickerssimilar to Facebook Messenger or Hike Messenger to make conversations more interesting.