How to stop WhatsApp photos showing in your gallery

Turn it off for every chat, or just the one you'd rather keep out of sight.

Short answer

In WhatsApp, open Settings, then Chats, and turn off Media visibility. To do it for one chat only, open the chat, tap its name, then Media visibility, and choose No. Photos already in your gallery stay there until you move or delete them.

By default, WhatsApp on Android saves photos and videos you receive into your phone's gallery. That's how a group chat meme ends up next to your holiday photos, and how a private photo ends up one swipe from anyone you show your camera roll to.

Turn it off for every chat

  1. Open WhatsApp and tap the three-dot menu, then Settings.
  2. Tap Chats.
  3. Turn off Media visibility.

New photos and videos you receive will stay inside WhatsApp and won't appear in your gallery.

Turn it off for one chat

  1. Open the chat or group.
  2. Tap the contact or group name at the top.
  3. Tap Media visibility and choose No.

This is handy for one particular person or group without changing anything else.

Photos that are already in your gallery

The setting only affects new media. Anything already saved stays in your gallery, usually in a WhatsApp Images or WhatsApp Video album. You can delete those copies, or move the ones you want to keep into a vault.

Keep the ones that matter

To keep a photo someone sent you without leaving it in your gallery, open Dobr, tap Add, and pick it from your photos. Dobr encrypts it and offers to delete the original from your gallery. The copy inside WhatsApp's chat stays where it is, so delete it in the chat too if you want it gone from there.

If Google Photos backs up your WhatsApp folder, an online copy may already exist. Our guide on keeping photos out of cloud backup shows how to check.

Last checked 2026-11-01. Phone menus change between Android versions and brands, so labels on your phone may differ slightly.

Keep reading