How to Save WhatsApp Photos to Gallery on Android/iPhone

This guide will show you how to save WhatsApp photos to gallery. You can choose to manually save selected photos or have it automatically save all received photos.

Lena by Lena Updated March 5, 2024
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Can you transfer photos from WhatsApp to gallery?

WhatsApp is probably the most popular messaging app that we all use. It not only lets us send text messages but also images, videos, documents, etc. When you receive important or funny images, you may want to save them to gallery so you can view them later. After all, it’s kind of inconvenient to view images or videos in WhatsApp.

Transfer WhatsApp photos to gallery

Can you transfer photos from WhatsApp to gallery? Fortunately, the answer is YES! We can take the help of Gallery/Photos app to enjoy them in their full glory. Here in this guide, I’ll show you how to save WhatsApp photos to gallery on Android phone and iPhone. You can choose to manually save photos or let it automatically save all photos. Just keep reading to get all the details.

How to save WhatsApp photos to gallery on Android

Usually, the automatic photo download feature will be enabled when you first install WhatsApp. Maybe you have turned it off for some reason. In this case, how to transfer photos from WhatsaApp to gallery automatically or how to save selected photos? Here’s the answer.

Way 1. How to manually save WhatsApp photos to gallery

To manually save WhatsApp photos to gallery, you can take advantage of Google Photos, file explorer app or email.

1. Go to the chat with the photos you want to save.

2. Choose the photo and tap the three-dots icon > Tap Share.

3. Choose to save the image via file explorer app, upload the image Google Photos, or choose one mail application.

  • File explorer app can help you save the images to the “pictures” location on your phone.
  • You can go to Google Photos app to download the image and you can find it the the “download” folder on your phone.
  • Enter your email address and send it to yourself > After that, you can check the email and save the image on your phone.

Way 2. How to automatically save WhatsApp photos to gallery

If you want to know how to automatically save WhatsApp photos to gallery on Android, follow the steps to turn on the auto-save function.

1. Open your WhatsApp > Tap the three-dots icon.

2. Choose Settings > Select Chats > Turn on Media Visibility to allow the downloaded pictures to be shown in your gallery.

3. After that, go to Data and storage usage > Find Media-auto download> Choose to use mobile data or Wi-Fi to download images.

Auto download

In this way, a folder called “WhatsApp Images” will appear in the gallery. You can open that folder to view all the images and videos download from WhatsApp. If you do not want to save images from some chats to gallery, you can go to the chat to turn off the Media Visibility feature.

How to save WhatsApp photos to gallery on iPhone

Let’s start to see how to save WhatsApp to gallery on iPhone. Whether you want to save selected all images, you first need to give WhatsApp permission to access the Photos App.

Go to Settings app > Tap Privacy > Choose Photos >Select WhatsApp > Tap Read and Write. In iOS 14 and later, you should choose All Photos.

All Photos

Way 1. How to manually save WhatsApp photos to gallery

If you want to save one or two images in WhatsApp, follow the steps below to make it.

Open WhatsApp > Go to the chat with the images you want to save > Tap and hold on the image > Tap Save option. Or you can open the image > Tap the Share button in the lower left corner > Tap Save option.

Manually save WhatsApp photos

Way 2. How to automatically save WhatsApp photos to gallery

You can also have it automatically save photos and videos you receive to your camera roll. Open WhatsApp > Go to Settings > Tap Chats > Turn on Save to Camera Roll. The downloaded images can be found in My Albums category of the Photos app.

Save to camera roll

Can’t find download images on your phone? You can go to this WhatsApp images not showing in gallery guide to get solutions.

Bonus: how to save WhatsApp photos to PC

Now you know how to save WhatsApp images to gallery. What if you also want to save WhatsApp photos to PC as a backup? Well, there are two ways for you to choose from:

  • Use WhatsApp transfer tool to export photos from iPhone to PC
  • First save WhatsApp images to gallery and then transfer them to PC

To export WhatsApp chat from iPhone to PC, you can use FoneTool, one of the best freeware phone tools that lets you transfer WhatsApp messages, images, videos, or other files.

Backup WhatsApp

To export photos from iPhone to PC, you can try iPhone Transfer of FoneTool. It can help you transfer all downloaded WhatsApp images in one click. Related guide: How to transfer photo albums from iPhone to PC.

Transfer WhatsApp photos from iPhone to PC

To export photos from Android phone to PC, you can simply connect it to computer > go to File Explorer > open the phone > find the images and copy them to PC.

WhatsApp Images foder

Final words

This is all about how to save WhatsApp photos to gallery. When the auto-save function is enabled, all photos and videos can be automatically saved to gallery. If you do not like this feature, you can choose to manually save the images you need.

PS: If you care about cellular data usage, you can set it to use WiFi to download images.

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