WhatsApp will soon remove the ability to download profile photos of your saved or unsaved contacts. The Facebook-owned online messaging platform has already removed the option to download the profile photos of other users in the current Android beta version 2.19.319 of the app, as per a WABetaInfo follower on Twitter. Additionally, the feature is also said to be disabled in the latest WhatsApp Business beta for iOS, version 2.19.60.5. One can still save group profile images but won’t be shown the share option to save someone’s profile photo to their device’s gallery. We observed that the save to gallery feature is disabled in Android version 2.19.140 of the app as well.
We note that while there is no option to download the image, one can simply take a screenshot as a workaround. It remains to be known why WhatsApp is disabling the option to save profile photos to a local device. It could have something to do with better privacy but nothing is confirmed yet. While the company seems to be removing some options, it has also added a new feature for its app on iOS. WhatsApp users on iOS will now get to see stickers in full size when they long press a notification. The new option is available with the version 2.19.51 of the app from the App Store.
In other WhatsApp news, the apps’ calling feature was recently patched for a critical vulnerability. Cybercriminals could reportedly inject malware to spy on anyone’s phone that has an older version of WhatsApp installed. The spyware called Pegasus was developed by Israeli company NSO Group, which that licenses its products to governments to fight crime and terrorism. As per a previous report, the spyware worked on both iPhones and Android devices and the attacker simply needed to make a WhatsApp call to the target to install it and take control. WhatsApp fixed the vulnerability server side on Sunday and issued a patch for users on Monday. You can read more about this here but we recommend you to update WhatsApp on your device first.