WhatsApp's Default Profile Picture - Overview

Whenever we create a new account on WhatsApp, we are assigned a default WhatsApp profile picture icon. To change the default icon to something else or to tweak privacy, continue reading below.

Table of Contents

When Is Default Whatsapp Profile Picture Icon Shown?

The default picture icon is a grayscale image of a humanoid shape, mainly assigned whenever a new account is created, or when you remove your profile picture. It is also shown to others (or yourself) based on the privacy settings you (or the other person) have chosen, dictating who can see their profile picture and who cannot.

How Can I Remove The Default Profile Picture On My Account?

To remove the default icon, you must choose a new picture that would replace the default icon and act as your new display picture.

To set a new profile picture, perform the following steps:

Open your WhatsApp application.
Tap on the three dots on the top right corner; a menu will pop up; choose “Settings.”
In the settings menu, click on the default WhatsApp profile picture icon.
A new window will pop up with the icon enlarged and a camera icon.
Tap on the camera icon, choose “Camera” to capture a fresh image, or “Gallery” to choose from already available images from your phone.
Choose or capture your image and confirm the selection.
A new editing window will be shown, which requires you to crop the image to fit inside the display picture frame.
Crop the image accordingly and confirm your selection.
After confirming, your new profile picture will be set, with the original default icon removed.

How Can I Bring Back The Default Profile Picture On My Account?

Got bored of your profile picture and want to remove it? You can do so by performing the following steps:

Open your WhatsApp application.
Tap on the three dots in the top right corner. A menu will pop up. Choose “Settings.”
In the settings menu, click on the default WhatsApp profile picture icon.
A new window will pop up with the icon enlarged and a camera icon.
Tap on the camera icon, and instead of clicking on “Camera” or “Gallery,” choose the small “Trash Bin” icon located at the top right corner of the newly opened dialog.
After confirming, your profile picture will be removed, with the default icon restored.

Can You Change The Default Whatsapp Profile Picture Icon?

Unfortunately, no, Whatsapp does not provide its users any feature which would allow them to change the default profile picture to something else. That means that whenever you remove your profile picture or apply privacy to its visibility, the default icon will show up, and there is no known way to change that.

How Can I Hide My Profile Picture?

Sometimes you may not want to share your profile picture with everyone. In that case, WhatsApp has got you covered. Whatsapp provides its users the ability to apply privacy to their profiles, giving them freedom as to who can view their profile pictures and who cannot.

To apply such privacy on your WhatsApp profile, follow these steps:

Open your WhatsApp application.
Tap on the three dots in the top right corner. A menu will pop up. Choose “Settings.”
In the Settings menu, tap on accounts.
In the newly opened window, several options will pop up. Choose “Privacy.”
In the privacy window, different elements can be tweaked to your preference, such as Last Seen, About, Status, and so on.
From the options, choose Profile Photo.
In the newly opened list, WhatsApp gives you a variety of options to tweak privacy based on preference.
You can either set it so that only your saved contacts can see your image, only selected contacts, or nobody at all.
Choose your desired option and click on “Done.”
Your privacy is now updated, and the changes will be reflected on your profile picture based on the chosen option.

What Should Be My Profile Image Size?

Your profile picture should at least be 192px by 192px. The ideal size for a WhatsApp image should be around 500px by 500px, with an aspect ratio of 1:1. Should your photo not meet these standards, you are forced to crop your photo in a square shape to fit the required size and aspect ratio. The size is fixed so as not to face any problems when viewing your photo in different locations, such as in chats, statuses, and profiles where the size of your profile picture can vary greatly.

Why Is My Friend’s Profile Picture The Default Icon?

There can be multiple possibilities as to why that is happening. It can be that the person has decided to remove their previous profile picture and has not decided which picture to set as a new profile picture yet.

It can also be possible that the other person has updated their privacy setting, which does not allow others (or a specific few) to view their profile picture.

One more occurrence that rarely occurs is that there is some glitch in the profile picture panel, which is failing to update itself with the latest instance of the profile picture. Normally this can be fixed by just closing and restarting WhatsApp. If that does not work, force-stopping and launching WhatsApp mostly fixes the glitches that might have occurred.

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Conclusion:

Whenever we create a new account, a default WhatsApp profile picture icon is assigned to our account. It acts as a placeholder up until we decide to change our picture with something else. Other than being a default icon, it also serves as a placeholder for displaying the picture in case a user has applied privacy and limits the number of people who can view their profile picture.

Removing the default icon is easy. One just needs to set another picture as a display picture, and the default icon is replaced with the chosen image. Same as removing the icon, it can also be brought by simply removing our display picture.