How to change the WhatsApp profile picture for your friends

If you want to change your WhatsApp friends' profile picture on your phone to play a little prank on them, then read on. It may be a little bit juvenile, I'll admit, but nothing beats the look on your friend's face when you pull one over on them. I certainly thought it was wortth it!

It's actually really easy to do. Whenever you open someone's profile picture full screen, the app actually saves the image. These images then get saved with your contact's phone number as the file name in your WhatsApp folder. So all you need to do is go into your file manager and replace the existing profile picture wihth one of your choosing.

How to change profile pictures on WhatsApp

1. Assuming you want to revert to the original profile picture, you want to save a copy of it first. I'm using ES File Explorer for this tutorial, but the process is pretty much the same no matter what app you're using. If you don't have one already, ES is a good choice.

ES File Explorer File ManagerINSTALL

2. Navigate to the following folder: /device/sdcard/WhatsApp/Profile Pictures. Here you will see the profile pictures that the app has saved. If you don't see your friend's picture in here, go back to WhatsApp and open it. All you have to do is tap their name at the top of a chat and then on their profile picture icon in the screenshot below. Once it has loaded full-screen it will appear in the Profile Pictures folder.

Once you've viewed a friend's profile picture it will be saved by WhatsApp.

3. In the Profile Pictures folder, find your friend's image and long press it, then choose Copy from the menu. You can paste it anywhere you like, but you're going to want to copy the file name (your friend's phone number) before we go on.

In a file manager, go to /device/sdcard/WhatsApp/Profile Pictures to see your profile pics.

4. Now, find a picture you want to replace your friend's profile picture with and resize it to be 640 x 640 pixels: the standard size for WhatsApp profile pics.

5. Move the new profile picture to the Profile Picture folder and rename it with your friend's phone number. To rename the picture, just long press the picture and select Rename from the menu.

Once you've pasted your new picture into the folder, rename it with your friend's phone number.

6. Now, when you go into WhatsApp and tap your friend's name and then their profile picture, the full screen image will be the one you saved.

The look on Loie's face when I showed her this was proceless!

I don't yet know of a way to change the small profile icon as well, but this is still a great way to freak your friend's out. Just go up to them and say ''I think your WhatsApp account got hacked...'' or ''What's up with your WhatsApp profile picture?'' and show them your phone. If it works like it did for me with Loie, it's well worth the five minute investment to make it happen!