How to hide media from individual chats in the Gallery on WhatsApp

The latest best version of WhatsApp messenger for Android has a new feature that gives users more control over the visibility of media on their devices.

The new version adds an option to the chat application to hide media from specific chats in the gallery of the device.

WhatsApp users could hide all media from the gallery only up until now and the new feature adds more control to it as you can now select media from specific contacts that you want to hide.

You may also block automatic media downloads altogether.

You can manage the general setting with taps on Menu > Settings > Chats, and there Show media in gallery. When you disable that option, all media that WhatsApp downloads is not shown in the gallery of the device.

The media is still on the device and users who know what they are doing can still display it on the Android device. The feature is useful if you want to keep your gallery clean.

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The new feature to hide media from individual contacts can be configured in the following way:

1. Open the chat that you want to change media visibility for.
2. Select Menu > View Contact. If you get "add to contacts" instead, you need to create a new contact first before you can use the feature.
3. Tap on media visibility.
4. Select no when the "Do you want to show newly downloaded media from this chat in your phone's gallery" prompt is displayed.
5. Select ok to complete the process.

New media that is sent to you by the contact that gets downloaded by WhatsApp is not displayed in the phone's Gallery application anymore.

The feature landed in the most recent beta version of WhatsApp for Android. It will land in stable versions of the application eventually.

Closing Words

Hiding downloaded media in the Gallery application can be useful in some situations; maybe you want to keep the gallery clean and don't want animated gifs and photos sent by some contacts to appear in the gallery.

It is not really a feature for people who are unfaithful as it is necessary to add the contact to the phone before the option becomes available.