WhatsApp launched single display images, more colloquially known as ‘see once’ in August 2021. Initially, the function supported images and video and voice messages were later added. As the name indicates, it consists of sending files that They can only be played once and cannot be captured natively on the mobile. This feature gives the user a false sense of security for several reasons. The first, that it is as easy to get around the limitation as taking a screenshot using a second mobile phone. The second, which a bug of WhatsApp allows you to recover those images and also take screenshots of them.
The method, which circulates on social media, has been explained in detail by the well-known hacker, security expert and member of the executive committee of Telefónica Chema Alonso on his blog. Alonso explains that it is a flaw in the design of the application, a bug, so Meta will likely fix it in the future, but for now it’s operational.
It should be noted that the security expert performs the demonstration with WhatsApp Business in iOS. On Android, it is not possible to use this method.
How to Capture ‘View Once’ Images on an iPhone
In order to view and save the ‘view once’ images you must go to the Storage Manager from WhatsApp. You can do it by following the route Settings > Storage & data > Manage storage.
In the section Storage detailsyou will see your chats ordered from largest to smallest according to the size of the sum of the files that have been sent in that conversation. You have to select the chat in which the single display image appears.
Here you can see a gallery with the files sent in the chat. Those with single display will appear with a question mark where the thumbnail image corresponds, without displaying it.. Clicking on it will indicate that it cannot be viewed.
In order to do this it is necessary Make it the first one that appears, so you must delete the images that precede it. Once it is positioned as the first, yes you will be able to view it. As many times as you want, but you won’t be able to capture it.
As Alonso explains, In order to save it you will need to receive an image configured in a standard way in that chatwithout limit of views. This you must delete it from the Storage Manager using the trash option that appears when you open it. WhatsApp will then open the next one, which in this case is the single view one, and show it. It will do so without protection to prevent captures, so you can make a copy and save it. If the following image is a ‘view once’ image and you also want to see it, you must delete the one you have already saved to view it and capture it.