Did you receive a self-destruct photo on Telegram and want to save it on your phone, but you just couldn’t figure out how to do this?
In this article, we’ll explain saving this type of photo on your phone and what steps you can take to disable this feature for individuals and secret chat.
Why does Telegram self-destruct photos?
Telegram has a self-destruct feature that lets you send or receive sensitive content to others, including photos.
Therefore, if the sender has enabled it while sending the photo, it will self-destruct or disappear from the Telegram chat after the specified time limit, such as:
- 3 seconds.
- 10 seconds.
- 30 seconds.
INFO: Unlike regular media files, the Telegram self-destruct photo won’t get saved to your phone’s gallery.
How to save Telegram self-destruct photos?
Due to privacy and security reasons, Telegram does not allow you to take screenshots or record a self-destructing photo to save it on your device’s gallery.
However, after thorough research, we’ve found a few workarounds that have helped many users save the self-destructing photo on Telegram.
Screen Mirror the Phone To Computer
The first solution is to mirror the screen of your Android phone on your computer. This will allow you to take a screenshot of the photo and save it on any drive of your computer.
Here’s what you need to do first:
- Open “Settings.”
- Tap “About Phone” or “About Device.”
- Select “Software Information.”
- Tap “Build Number” 7 times.
Now, go back to “Settings,” tap the “Developer Options,” and enable “USB Debugging.” Afterward, connect your phone to your computer via a USB cable and do these steps to download the Scrcpy tool on your system:
- Go to the Scrcpy GitHub page using a browser on your PC.
- Download the setup file according to your computer system, i.e., Windows, Mac, or Linux.
- Extract the file to a desired folder and open it.
- Look for the “scrcpy.noconsole.vbs” file and click it.
- Click “Allow” in the prompt message.
Your mobile phone screen will appear on your PC. Open Telegram, access the chat, and take screenshots of the self-destruct photo on the computer by pressing the “Win+Shift+S” on the keyboard. Now, save the photo to a desired location.
NOTE: You can also use the AirDroid Cast app to mirror your device screen to a PC and take a screenshot of the Telegram self-destruct photo to save it.
Use Telegram Web
Another way is to pair your account with Telegram Web and record the self-destruct photo to save it on your computer. Here’s how:
- Go to “Telegram Web” using a browser on your computer.
- Open “Telegram” (on mobile).
- Go to “Settings.”
- Tap “Devices.”
- Tap “Link Desktop” or “Link Desktop Device.”
- Scan the QR code on the Telegram Web screen.
Once you link your account, open the self-destruct photo on Telegram Web and press “Win+Alt+R” to record it.
If you use a Mac, press “Command+Shift+5,” choose “Record Entire Screen,” and click “Record.”
After recording the self-destruct photo, stop the recording and open the recorded video. Now, take a screenshot at the desired timestamp from the clip to save the photo on your PC.
Capture the Photo Through Another Phone Camera
If you have another phone, simply use its camera to capture the self-destruct photo on Telegram.
To do this, open Telegram and open the picture. Now, open “Camera” on the other phone, point it to the self-destruct photo, and tap the “Capture” icon.
The photo will be saved to your second phone’s gallery, and you can transfer it to you via Bluetooth or any social app.
NOTE: To take a screenshot or record the self-destruct photo on Telegram, you’ll need to root your Android phone.
Use Google Assistant
Some users suggest that taking an automated screenshot through the Google Assistant app also helped them save the image. Here’s how:
- Open “Google Assistant.”
- Tap your profile.
- Tap “General.”
- Toggle on “Google Assistant.”
- Tap “Use Screen Content.”
- Toggle on “Access Onscreen Text” and “Use Screenshot.”
After configuring these settings, open the self-destruct photo on Telegram and say, “Hey, Google” or “OK, Google.” Now, ask the assistant to take a screenshot of the self-destruct photo.
Google Assistant will take a screenshot of the self-destruct photo, and you can share it with anyone directly.
IMPORTANT NOTE: For all these workarounds to work, you have to be very quick because the self-destruct photos on Telegram usually disappear after 3, 10, or 30 seconds.
How to remove self-destruct on Telegram?
If you’ve enabled the self-destruct timer on your individual or secret chats, it also causes the Telegram messages and photos to disappear or auto-delete once the time limit is over.
Therefore, turn off the self-destruct timer on your individual or secret chats in the following way to prevent these photos from getting deleted.
Individual Chats (Within the Chats)
- Open “Telegram.”
- Open the chat where you want to disable the self-destruct timer.
- Tap the chat info section.
- Tap the three dots.
- Select “Auto-Delete” or “Enable Auto-Delete.”
- Tap “Disable.”
Individual Chats (From Telegram Settings)
- Open “Telegram.”
- Tap “Settings” (For Android, tap the three lines and choose “Settings”).
- Tap “Privacy and Security.”
- Select “Auto Delete Messages. “
- Select “Off.”
Secret Chats:
- Open “Telegram.”
- Open the secret chat where you want to disable self-delete.
- Tap the three dots or group info.
- Select “Set Self-Destruct Timer” or “Self-Destruct Timer.”
- Choose the duration.
- Tap “Done.”
Once you disable the self-destruct timer on your chats, the photos will not disappear anymore and stay in your phone gallery as long as you want.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve explored 4 solutions to save the Telegram self-destruct photos to your gallery. We’ve also explained how to disable the self-destruct feature on individual and secret chats.
Hopefully, with these workarounds, you can now save your important photos and prevent them from disappearing on Telegram.
