When you receive a photo or video from a contact on WhatsApp , once downloaded the content will automatically be saved to the phone’s internal storage. This means that all content received from WhatsApp can be viewed by anyone who gets access to your photo gallery.
WhatsApp photos or videos will automatically be saved in the WhatsApp media folder. You can search for it in file manager open, Internal Storage > WhatsApp > Media. Inside there are special folders for images, documents, WhatsApp profiles, and so on. Sometimes, this data may be confidential, and you don’t want others to see it through Gallery.
There is no need to delete or back up downloaded WhatsApp content to hide it. You can use WhatsApp’s built-in features or special tricks to hide photos and videos from the Android gallery.
In the WhatsApp application, tap the three-dot menu icon at the top right, then tap Settings. Go to ‘Chats’, and uncheck the box next to ‘Show media in gallery.’ After setting this, any WhatsApp photos and videos will not appear in the phone gallery. However, photos and videos before you set this setting can still be visible.
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Hide WhatsApp Media Groups or certain chats
In the WhatsApp application, open the chat or group chat where you want to hide photos and videos. Then, tap the contact or group name. Here, tap on ‘Media Visibility’ and select ‘No.’ Tap ‘OK’ and you’re done.
Even though there is a built-in feature to hide WhatsApp media from the gallery, this feature is still not perfect. Photos and videos before you set these default settings can still be seen. Don’t be sad, there are special tricks you can do.
To completely hide all media files from Gallery, a quick solution is to go to Android File Manager and navigate to the WhatsApp folder. Once you are in the WhatsApp Folder, long press on the Media folder. Now you can rename the Media folder to ‘.Media’ by adding a dot in front of the ‘media’ folder name.
This solution will completely hide all data inside the Media folder from appearing in Gallery. This will also hide the Document from document reader applications. You have more granular control over this trick. Just in case, if you want to hide images only, rename the ‘WhatsApp’ folder to ‘.WhatsApp Images’.
This does not apply only to WhatsApp. You can hide folders that appear directly on Android by adding a dot followed by the folder name. Be careful when you change any system files, as they may cause Android dOS failure.
Nomedia to Hide WhatsApp Media
The second solution to hide WhatsApp images from Android is the “Nomedia” solution. This is also a quick solution to hide Photos and videos from Gallery, by adding .nomedia’ files inside a specific folder.
To do this, navigate to WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Images with Android File manager. Here, create a new file using file manager and name it as .nomedia’. If hidden folder mode is still active, you may need to turn it off before continuing.
This method is useful to hide multimedia files from Gallery. You can put .nomedia’ files into other folders like Videos, Gifs, etc. to make them hidden from Gallery. Sometimes, the file manager may not have the option to create a new file in that folder.
In this case, you can copy and paste the .nomedia file from the ‘Sent’ folder inside ‘WhatsApp Images’ to another location.
Android App to Hide WhatsApp Media Files
One more method is available to hide media from appearing in gallery. For people, who want to hide Photos or Videos from gallery directly without making file changes, there is a handy and free Android app to download from Google PlayStore.
A free Android app called “Hide Chat Images, Videos & Audios” provides a clean user interface. This application makes it easy and hides various media. This media hiding app offers deeper control over images and video files.
In fact, you can select images or videos to hide. The app is PIN protected which ensures security and keeps other users away by changing settings.
There are similar types of apps available to lock WhatsApp and Facebook or hide WhatsApp media files. Media Gallery for WhatsApp, is another Android app that hides images and videos by moving them to a hidden folder. WhatsApp image hider completely hides images and videos when enabled to do so is available from PlayStore for free.