WhatsApp’s upcoming feature intends to discourage casual and unauthorised sharing of profile images, reinforcing privacy and user control.

New Delhi: WhatsApp, with over 3 billion active users, has become the go-to messaging platform for most users, if not all. The Meta-owned messaging app comes handy for work, friends, and families, and at times even strangers or acquaintances, leaving users open to stalkers and unwanted attention. In order to enhance privacy, WhatsApp is developing a feature to block screenshots of profile photos. Here are the details of the upcoming update.

WhatsApp Screenshot Blocking Feature

WhatsApp to prevent screenshots of profile pictures. (Image: WABetaInfo)

According to a report by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is working on introducing a new feature to enhance user privacy by providing an additional layer of protection against unauthorised access and sharing of profile photos. With the latest update, a notification informing the user that their attempt to capture a screenshot of their profile photo has been denied will show up. By closing the existing loophole, this new feature provides an additional degree of privacy protection by prohibiting users from taking and distributing profile photographs without the owner’s permission. It is important to remember that users can still snap their profile picture with a camera or secondary device. WhatsApp intends to discourage casual and unauthorised sharing of profile images, reinforcing the notion of user privacy and consent, by restricting the direct screenshot functionality within the programme.

No More Unauthorised Sharing of Profile Pictures

WhatsApp aims to improve privacy for its users and more control with this feature. (Image: Abhijay Singh Rawat/india.com)

By adding an extra degree of security against unauthorised access to and sharing of profile images, WhatsApp intends to implement this feature in order to improve user privacy. Frequently, users’ profile photos are private pictures that they may not want others to keep or distribute without their permission. WhatsApp provides users with greater privacy control by enabling them to prevent screenshots of their profile photos from being shared or saved without authorization. This feature would also stop profile images from being misused or distributed without permission.

Users have occasionally been known to use the profile pictures of others for nefarious activities like harassment or impersonation. WhatsApp can reduce the possibility that profile images will be misused or shared without permission by limiting the ability to snap screenshots of them.

Although some beta testers who downloaded the most recent WhatsApp beta for Android updates from the Google Play Store can already use the functionality to prevent screenshots of profile photographs, more users will be able to use it in the upcoming weeks as it gradually rolls out.