WhatsApp is testing a new, more user-friendly feature. Through this feature, if someone hasn't set a profile picture, WhatsApp will automatically display the picture available in the user's iPhone contacts settings.
In other words, the app will use the picture you've saved for that contact and make it the profile display on your screen. However, this picture only appears on your device and doesn't change the contact's actual profile for other contacts or people to see. For now, this feature is only offered to a handful of beta users on iOS devices.
WhatsApp also gave some examples of how this new feature could be used. First, for your own profile, where if you don't set a profile picture, WhatsApp will display the contact's picture saved in the app settings. The picture will only be visible on your device and not shown to others. If no picture is saved, other contacts will still see the default icon as usual.
Second, for other people's profiles. If your privacy settings prevent someone from seeing your profile picture, WhatsApp will display the picture they've saved for you in their contacts if they have one. For example, if your privacy settings are set to “No one” or “My contacts except…”, they can still see the photos they’ve saved of you.
This way, they can identify you in conversations even if your privacy settings don’t allow your official profile picture to be displayed. For now, this feature is still in testing and is only being offered to a select few users first to get feedback before it’s rolled out broadly to everyone.
