How to view Whatsapp photos without letting them automatically download

[bluntc0ncussi0n]

Anytime I someone sends me photos through Whatsapp I see photos downloaded to my phone's storage. I wish to view these photos on Whatsapp without that happening. Likewise, whenever I delete those photos on my phone, I can't view them on Whatsapp. I would also like to prevent this from happening as well as pretty much every other service I use to send messages such as text, email, and even Instagram doesn't do something so obnoxious like this. I'm normally able to view photos without any involvement from anything related to storage.

 

[bluntc0ncussi0n]

If it helps to know I got a Samsung Galaxy Tab SM-T378V running Android 8.1.0.

 

[hallux]

I don't believe Whatsapp is storing those files long-term, your device needs to download them in order for you to view them. Once it's downloaded, an image will appear in your gallery app.

Email and Instagram are generally cloud-based, you see a "live" view of the content and doesn't need to be downloaded to local storage actively (though the app may cache the files while viewing).

 

[bluntc0ncussi0n]

I don't believe Whatsapp is storing those files long-term, your device needs to download them in order for you to view them. Once it's downloaded, an image will appear in your gallery app.

Email and Instagram are generally cloud-based, you see a "live" view of the content and doesn't need to be downloaded to local storage actively (though the app may cache the files while viewing).

Right. I'd like to either find a way to be able to view these attachments without having them stored in the gallery, regardless of how Whatsapp works internally. If I don't delete the images and videos sent, they won't go anywhere and will just crowd up space on my device. I would like to either prevent them from even getting there in the first place, as I said, or perhaps delete them automatically so I never have to personally deal with them.

 

[Javier P]

Right. I'd like to either find a way to be able to view these attachments without having them stored in the gallery, regardless of how Whatsapp works internally. If I don't delete the images and videos sent, they won't go anywhere and will just crowd up space on my device. I would like to either prevent them from even getting there in the first place, as I said, or perhaps delete them automatically so I never have to personally deal with them.

The closest option I know is switching this option off in WhatsApp settings - chats.

 

[ManiacJoe]

Javier has you pointed in a good direction for not seeing the files in your Gallery app.

However, the media files will still be on the phone's storage until you manually delete the files or until you delete the message they are associated with.

 

[B. Diddy]

I moved this to the WhatsApp forum for more specific traffic.