Disabling automatic playback of photos and other multimedia files in WhatsApp is one of the most basic precautions for properly managing the storage space of your smartphone. Not to do so is to condemn yourself to having to clean up regularly, a task much more demanding than it seems.
Started as a basic messaging application, WhatsApp has become a real Swiss army knife in communication. Over the updates, many features have enriched the user experience and it does not stop. The field of possibility still seems far from having finished widening. The application has also become the natural channel for exchanging photos, videos and other multimedia content.
If you are a member of several newsgroups, it is likely that dozens of more or less large items are housed daily in the storage memory of your smartphone if the automatic downloading of photos and other files has not been disabled. This has a double impact: on the one hand, it’s a lot of megabytes, even gigabytes less on your monthly Internet plan. And if the data envelope is comfortable enough to protect you from any concerns, it is certainly not the same for the storage space which has an easily passable limit.
How to disable automatic downloading of photos on WhatsApp
To prevent automatic media downloads, open WhastApp and tap the three vertical dots in the upper right corner:
- Go to ” Use of storage data “
- Under the section ” Automatic media download ” configure the option for the three connection modes (using mobile data, Wi-Fi connection and roaming).
- Tap each of them and uncheck the fields (Photos, Audio, Videos and Documents) to disable automatic downloading for the corresponding option.
Regarding voice messages, WhatsApp does not prevent their download, whether you are on 3G / 4G, WiFi or roaming. Finally, it is possible to compress the flows during exchanges in voice or video call in order to reduce the amount of data used when you are not on WiFi. Check the corresponding option at the bottom of the data usage and storage configuration screen.