Stop auto download of photos and videos on WhatsApp

The big problem with whatsapp is that it auto-downloads all the videos and photos and even the audio clips forwarded by people to the group. Even if you are not interested in watching the video or photo, you must waste all your data in downloading it. If you are a heavy user of whatsapp on 3G or 4G networks, then you already know that you are paying unnecessarily for the junk forwarded by people in the WhatsApp group you are a part of.

Thankfully, there's a setting in whatsapp that many of us are not aware of, but let's you quickly prevent auto downloading of photos, videos or any media content shared in group or in direct chats.

Follow these steps to turn off the auto-download feature:-

• Launch WhatsApp on your mobile
• Head over to Settings
• tap on 'Chats and Calls' option
• Look for a label that says "Media auto-download"
• Tap on that option and then look for three new options: When using mobile data, when connected on Wi-Fi and When roaming.
• Select the most appropriate option. In my case, I chose when connected on 'Wi-Fi'
• An overlay will open showing options 'Images', 'Audio' and 'Videos' with checkboxes.
• Uncheck the most appropriate boxes.
• You may repeat this for mobile data and when roaming options.

This will now stop the videos from automatically downloading on your phone. You will have to tap on each of the videos that you wish to download and save.