To protect user privacy, WhatsApp prevents you from downloading – or even taking – screenshots of someone else’s profile photo. However, if you still need to save a contact’s profile picture, here are a few workarounds.
Note: saving profile pictures of others isn’t illegal or against WhatsApp TOS. However, using the photo for illegal purposes – like identity theft or blackmailing – is illegal. To stay on the safe side, it’s best to get the person’s consent and let them know why you want to save it.
Take a Screenshot of the Smaller Preview
If the quality of the photo doesn’t matter to you, this method is more than enough. WhatsApp blocks screenshots of the full photo preview inside the contact info section. However, it still allows you to take a screenshot of the small preview.
In the Chats section, tap on the contact’s profile photo to enlarge it. It will open a small preview with other contents of chats still showing. Just take a screenshot of it.
Edit the screenshot using the native photo editor to crop the extra content on the sides of the photo. The image will be low quality but good enough to identify what’s in it.
Use an Online WhatsApp Profile Photo Downloader
You can also use a WhatsApp profile picture downloader tool that will make the photo available on its interface. However, these tools depend on having the profile photo privacy set to Everyone instead of just contacts. Therefore, it will not work if the user has not made their profile photo publicly available.
We recommend the WhatsApp DP Downloader web app for this, as it’s free and fast. Access it from desktop or mobile browsers by following the steps below:
Select the phone number’s origin country to add the country code, enter the phone number, and click/tap on the Download Now button.
If the profile photo is publicly available, it will show a preview, and you can click/tap on Save DP to download the photo.
Download the Profile Picture From the WhatsApp Web App
WhatsApp’s limitation to take screenshots or download the photo is limited to the mobile app. The WhatsApp web version doesn’t have these restrictions. You can take a screenshot or use the browser’s built-in image save function to save the profile photo.
It’s easier to do it on a PC, but you can also use your phone’s browser to do it by enabling desktop mode. On both Android and iOS, go to Settings -> Site settings -> Desktop site, and enable the Desktop site option.
The below instructions can be followed on both desktops and mobile browsers with desktop mode enabled:
Go to web.whatsapp.com, and log in by either scanning the QR code or using the Link with phone number option. If you are doing this on a mobile browser, use the phone number login, as the QR code will require another phone to scan.
Open the chat window of the person in question. Click on the three-dot menu in the top-right corner, and select Contact info.
Click on the profile pic to open the full-size preview, then right-click on it, and select Save image as.
It will download as an ENC file that your operating system can’t open. Convert it to a .jpg file using a free online image converter like Online Convert or another image converter you may have on your computer or mobile device. On Windows, change the .enc extension to .jpg while saving. Mac users can also edit the file name and change the extension to .jpg.
Keep in mind that WhatsApp compresses images, including profile photos, to save bandwidth and storage space. Therefore, you won’t get the original high-resolution image the user uploaded. However, these methods will give you the exact image you see when you open the user profile.
Image credit: Freepik. All screenshots by Karrar Haider.
