How to Save Profile Pictures of Your Friends on WhatsApp

Have you ever wanted to save a profile picture you saw on WhatsApp? Below I have put together a short guide to help you download any profile pictures you encounter on the service, regardless of what type of device that you use.

Hello everyone, it is Frankie here again. Today, I want to talk to you about another cool trick I learned about saving WhatsApp profile pictures of your contacts.

There are many reasons why you might want to save a profile picture on WhatsApp. This could be the person that you love, the person who is currently stalking you, or someone you might want to share with someone else. Maybe they just have a really nice picture.

Whatever your reason, the process could not be simpler to achieve.

The only real drawback here is the amount of storage available on your phone. But nowadays, cloud storage takes care of this problem as well.

In the next few paragraphs, I want to show you how you can download WhatsApp profile pictures from the app itself using your Android device, iPhone, or your computer. This includes services like WhatsApp Web, the official client for Windows and macOS.

So let’s take a look at how to save contact pictures without wasting any more time.

How to Download a Profile Photo on WhatsApp

Before we get into how to actually accomplish this task, I should provide you with some information that might help you carry out this process with a little more ease.

First, I must inform you, that at the time of writing there is no feature within WhatsApp that allows you to download someone else’s profile photo. This is not a stock function that the service has.

Or, you can avoid this problem by tapping on a user’s profile photo, or choosing the information section of the profile you are interested in, and taking a screenshot.

Let’s see how to download a WhatsApp profile photo of a friend or one of the contacts in your list. Below you will find this process explained for Android devices, iPhones, and PCs.

Frankie’s Take:

I might suggest that you ask for permission to download a profile photo from this particular contact, which might avoid any later problems if they are personal. With that clear, you are free to proceed.

Saving WhatsApp Profile Pictures on Android

To do this on Android devices, you must start by launching WhatsApp and tap on the profile picture of the contact you wish to download the image from.

Then, you will take a screenshot by simultaneously pressing the key combination provided for this.

Here is what this looks like on an Android:

1. Launch WhatsApp on your device, tap the Chat tab on the top left.
2. Click on the cloud icon located in the lower right corner and scroll through your contacts on the screen until you see the profile photo you want to save.
3. App on the profile picture thumbnail with the relevant person tapping on the picture to view it full screen. Alternatively, after reaching the window containing your contact list, can tap on the name of the person whose profile photo you wish to save. Tap again on their name at the top, and in the Info screen shown, tab their profile picture to view it in full screen.
4. Saving the picture is not complicated, all you need to do is take a screenshot now. You must either press power + home or power + volume down at the same time. This changes based on the model and brand of your phone. The screenshot is marked by a sound have a shutter like a camera, and a flash effect will be displayed on the screen momentarily to indicate that the picture has been taken before a preview appears.

Once you take the screenshot, you have the option of cropping it too remove any other aspects of the screen beyond the image you wish to save. This makes the download look more professional.

Frankie’s Take:

The screen capture you grabbed will be within a folder labeled Screenshots on your device. In order to access this, you must open up your gallery app and then click on the (≡) symbol in the top left corner to access an option called Device Folders. You can then choose Screenshots when this option appears.

Saving a WhatsApp Profile Picture On an iPhone

To accomplish this with an iPhone, you have the same type of instructions that I revealed in the Android chapter.

After launching WhatsApp and choosing the profile picture that you are interested in, you will still need to take the screenshot using a key combination designated for this purpose.

Let’s see how that works on an iPhone:

1. Start by opening up WhatsApp on your phone, and tap on Chat located at the bottom. Tap the pencil at the top right (or one of the chats opened) and then choose the that has grabbed your interest.
2. Next, in the screen that appears, you can tap the profile associated with the picture you wish to download. In the Contact Info screen that appears, tap the user’s profile picture.
3. To save this profile picture, you will need to take a screenshot. If you have an iPhone X or later model, this involves pressing volume up + side button on the right edge at the same time.

After taking this picture, you can tap the thumbnail appearing in the lower left corner of your screen to modify the image as you see fit. You can crop the image to only show the profile picture without other less attractive portions of the screen.

You now have the option of where your image gets saved, either the Photos app or Files app. Then you are done.

Download a WhatsApp Picture on PC or Mac

If you wish to do this from your PC, you have to access WhatsApp through the brower client WhatsApp Web. Then you will open up the chat of the person who has the profile photo you like and wish to download.

Let’s take a look at what to do from a PC:

1. First you must access WhatsApp through the WhatsApp Web client for Windows or macOS. If you have not already done so, connect your Web account to your phone by scanning the QR code shown on the screen. If you are having trouble with this, you can look at our article WhatsApp for PC to get some more detailed instructions.
2. You will need to choose the pencil or the cloud on the top left. Click the name of the contact who has the photo you want to download and choose their name from the screen that opens.
3. When a box appears on the right, click the photo for the profile and the image will go to full screen.

Now, you will want to take a screenshot of this in the same manner as you might have with a phone. Here is what you do:

Windows – Open the Capture Tool by pressing Win+Shift+S on your keyboard. Choose New and hold down the left mouse button to choose the portion of the screen you wish to capture. In this case, it would just be the parameters of the picture. Release your hold on the left button to take the screen shot. Click the floppy disk icon to save the image.

macOS – Macs will require users to push a sequence of buttons as well. Press cmd+shift+4, and while you hold down the left mouse button, choose the portion of the screen worth capturing. Release the button to grab the image of the screen and it will get saved to a designated folder or the desktop.

Conclusion

We have now reached the end of the guide and I hope that my information has helped. Unfortunately, the development team of WhatsApp determined that having a feature allowing you to directly save a profile picture was not a good thing and so it has been scrapped. But now you have a better idea of how to still achieve this goal anyway.

Want to learn some more interesting and unique tricks just for WhatsApp?

I wrote an entire article dedicated to showing you more than 40 tricks for WhatsApp. This is not a set of skills and tricks that you can find anywhere online. Have a read and see what you can learn.

As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or doubts, you always have the option of leaving a comment below so that I can help. I will be sure to get back with you as soon as I can.

Cheers,