Your profile is your photo, your name and a short About line. You change all three from Settings by tapping your own name at the top.
On Android
- Open WhatsApp and tap ⋮ (three dots, top right) › Settings.
- Tap your name and photo at the top.
- Photo: tap the camera icon on your picture. Choose Camera or Gallery, adjust the circle and tap Done. To remove it, choose the bin / Remove photo.
- Name: tap Name, type the new name and tap Save.
- About: tap About, pick a ready line such as "Busy" or tap the pencil to write your own, then save.
On iPhone
- Open WhatsApp and tap Settings at the bottom.
- Tap your name at the top.
- Photo: tap Edit under the picture, then Take photo, Choose photo or Delete photo. Move and scale it and tap Choose.
- Name: tap the name line, type, then tap Save or Done.
- About: tap the About line and choose or type a new one.
What other people see
- Your contacts see the name they saved for you in their phone. Your WhatsApp name shows to people who have not saved your number, for example in groups.
- The name can be up to 25 characters. Emojis are allowed.
- Changing your photo does not send any message to anyone. People simply see the new one next time.
Choose who sees your photo and About
Go to Settings › Privacy › Profile photo (and About) and pick Everyone, My contacts, My contacts except... or Nobody. For most people, My contacts is a good choice: strangers from big groups then cannot see or save your photo. More in privacy settings.
If it doesn't work
- Photo will not upload: check your internet, then allow WhatsApp to use Photos/Storage and Camera in your phone's Settings › Apps › WhatsApp › Permissions (Android) or Settings › WhatsApp (iPhone).
- Friends still see the old photo: it can take a little time, or they may be blocked from seeing it by your privacy setting.
- Someone else's photo shows for your contact: that person changed their own photo; you cannot change other people's pictures.
Safety tip
Scammers copy profile photos to pretend to be someone you know. Keep your photo for My contacts, and if a "friend" with a new number asks for money, call their old number first to check.
This is GroupChatOn’s own easy guide. We are not WhatsApp and are not linked with WhatsApp or Meta. WhatsApp sometimes changes its menus: if a button looks different on your phone, update WhatsApp from the Play Store or App Store.
Still stuck?
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Questions, or an error not listed here?
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