WhatsApp has finally figured out a way to tackle something that has been bugging a lot of users—those blank profile icons when a contact has not set a photo (DP). Currently, you see a generic silhouette when someone has not updated a photo in their profile. But, honestly, it is pretty annoying if you have a big list of contacts or if people share the same name.
How the new feature will work?
As per the WABetaInfo report, WhatsApp has been working on a feature that will pull out the photo that you have saved in your contact and display it in the chat if there is no official profile picture.
Instead of staring at that blank icon, you will get a familiar face (or whatever image you have saved) right there in your conversations.
Who all can see your contact images?
Only the owner will be able to see these changes. Your contacts are not affected, and their privacy settings will stay the same. Nobody’s image will get shared beyond their own phone.
Even if someone deletes their profile picture or hides it, you will still see it, whatever picture you have attached to their name.
Easy to recognise the contact person
This new feature has been designed to make chatting way easier, to scan and less confusing, especially if you are juggling lots of contacts.
If you have not set a personal profile picture, WhatsApp might even pull the image from your own contact card, but — again — just on your own device.
Rollout timeline and availability
It keeps things personalised without messing with privacy. WhatsApp is not grabbing photos from anyone else’s account, just using what’s already on your phone.
Right now, they are testing this in the beta version for iOS. A few people are already trying it out, but there is no word on when everyone else will get it. To use it, you will have to let WhatsApp access your contacts, so that means granting permission in your phone settings.