WhatsApp trick: Don’t kill your phone space! Stop app from downloading photos automatically

Spending more time at home would have certainly increased your social media presence. WhatsApp has always been the platform to stay connected with friends, family and colleagues. And with the lockdown in place, you would be exchanging more messages than ever. When Jan Koum and Brian Acton co-founded WhatsApp, they would have not imagined that the app would garner more than 1 billion users in over 180 countries.

The app is free, offers simple, secure, reliable messaging and calling, available on phones all over the world - what else do you want! And yes, the name WhatsApp is a pun on the phrase What's Up. The app supports text, photos, videos, documents, and location, as well as voice calls. What's better? The instant messaging platform is consistently bringing new updates to enhance user experience. 

Despite this, there are a certain things that annoy you at times. Imagine, your smartphone is running out of storage and WhatsApp automatically downloads random photos and videos sent by your friends. This is probably the last thing you would want. We are sure that you would be receiving more images than ever right now. But, there is a way to stop this. This WhatsApp trick can help you save on phone storage when needed.

Here is how to stop WhatsApp from downloading photos automatically:

On iOS devices:

- Go the settings of your Apple phone.

- Click on data and head towards Storage Usage. 

- Click on Photos.

- Select the opṭion to stop downloading photos automatically.

- You can do the same for other media like videos and audio.

On Android:

- Go the settings of your phone.

- Click on media auto-download.

- Choose when using mobile data. 

- Uncheck the box. 

This would mean that your phone will not download media when on mobile data. Repeat the same process if you don't images and videos to be downloaded while on WiFi too. That's it! WhatsApp won't download photos automatically and you can save both data as well as storage on phone.