How can I show/hide my contacts’ profile pictures?
Should you prefer to use your own contact pictures (or if you wish to not display contact pictures at all) instead of the profile pictures your contacts have set for themselves, navigate to “Settings > Appearance,” and deactivate “Show profile pictures”.
If “Show profile pictures” is enabled, your contacts’ profile pictures are displayed no matter if you have set contact pictures for them in Threema or in your operating system’s address book.
If a contact picture is set for a contact in Threema or in your operating system’s address book, this picture will only be displayed in Threema if “Show profile pictures” is deactivated or if the contact in question hasn’t set a profile picture (or doesn’t share it with you).
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In Threema, you can set a profile picture that represents you in your chat partners’ contact lists. You can fully control who is allowed to see your profile picture. Set a profile picture as follows:
- Android
- Open the “My Profile” tab
- Tap the camera icon in the white circle (or in the current profile picture) below “Profile picture and nickname”
- Choose between “Take photo” and “Select from gallery”
- Crop the image, and confirm by tapping “Crop”
- To define who can see your profile picture, tap the option below “Who can see your profile picture?”
- iOS
- Navigate to the “Profile” tab, select “Edit” in the upper left corner, and tap on the avatar icon (or the current profile picture if one is already set)
- Choose between “Take Photo” or “Choose Existing
- Crop the image, and confirm by tapping “Choose”
- To choose who is allowed to see your profile picture, tap “Release Profile Picture to”
For privacy reasons, profile pictures are not stored on a server, they are transmitted between users upon message exchange and are end-to-end encrypted.
The next time you send someone a message, your profile picture will be transmitted automatically (provided your settings allow it). Alternatively, you can transmit your profile picture manually to a contact by tapping “Send profile picture now” in the contact’s detail view.
If a contact has disabled profile pictures, your profile picture will not be displayed in their contact list and chat overview.
To remove your profile picture, proceed as follows:
- Android
- Open the “My Profile” tab
- Tap on the camera icon in the current profile picture
- Select “Remove image”
- iOS
- Navigate to the “Profile” tab, select “Edit” in the top left corner, and tap on your current profile picture
- Select “Delete Photo”
For privacy reasons, profile pictures are not stored on a server. The next time you send someone a message, your profile picture will be removed automatically on the recipient’s end. Alternatively, you can immediately remove your profile picture from someone’s contact list by tapping “Send profile picture now” in the contact’s detail view.
If (for some contacts) no profile pictures are displayed in the chat overview and in the contact list, this might be due to one or more of the following reasons:
- Profile pictures are disabled (in “Settings > Appearance”).
- The contacts in question haven’t set a profile picture, or they don’t share it with you.
- The contacts in question hasn’t sent you a message since setting their profile picture (profile pictures are transmitted upon message exchange).
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