Millions of people around the world use WhatsApp as the easy-to-use messaging application comes with a host of features including the ability to send and receive photos, videos, GIFs and now money through WhatsApp UPI. However, this abundance of media sharing often results in unnecessary files piling up on users’ devices, especially when the auto-download feature is activated. But many users are not aware that the auto-download feature in WhatsApp can be disabled manually.
Two options are available: to en masse disable auto-download for all WhatsApp chats and groups, or selectively disable it for specific chats or groups using the ‘Media Visibility’ feature. On by default, this feature only affects new media and does not apply to older media.
Steps to disable auto-download in chat/group on WhatsApp:
1. First, you need to go to the particular chat or chats where you want to disable auto-download.
2. Go to the Profile section of the chat and scroll down to find the ‘Media Visibility’ feature.
3. On selecting the tab you will get three options (Default Yes), (Yes), and (No).
4. Select the ‘No’ option to disable the media auto-download option.
Note: You can follow the same process and select ‘Yes’ instead of ‘No’ to enable the feature.
Once this feature is disabled, you will need to manually download all types of media that you receive in a particular chat or group. This will not only save your mobile data but will also free up a lot of storage space on your device.
If you want to disable the auto-download option for all chats and groups at once, follow the steps given:
1. Go to Settings and find the ‘Storage & Data’ tab.
2. Click to open it and find ‘Media Auto-Download’.
3. You will get three options to download when ‘using mobile data’, ‘connected on Wi-Fi’ and ‘roaming’.
4. Select ‘No Media’ from all these options and save.
Similar to media visibility, this also requires you to manually download the photo, video or GIF.