How to send pictures on TikTok? Can you send pictures in TikTok Messages? Why can’t you send pictures on TikTok? How can you send pictures on TikTok DM? If you want to answer any of these questions, this blog post is for you.
TikTok has captured the imagination of hundreds of millions of smartphone users since it debuted in 2017 by giving people a fun, interactive way to create their short videos and watch others’ content, all in an app that’s easy to use and free to download.
However, unlike other social media platforms that include sending pictures with messages as one of their features, TikTok leaves this capability out of its messaging service by default.
That doesn’t mean you can’t send pictures in TikTok messages if you want to – it just means you have to learn how to do it through an extra step.
This guide will show you, in detail, step by step, how to send pictures in TikTok messages using your Android smartphone.
The steps are essentially the same if you’re using iOS, but the user interface may be slightly different depending on the version of the app you have installed.
Let’s dive in.
We also have articles on:
- How Many Reports To Get Banned On TikTok
- How To Save A TikTok Video Without Posting
- How to Get Sponsored on TikTok: Best Guide for Aspiring Influencers
How to Send Pictures on TikTok
Before we dive into today’s tutorial on how to send pictures in TikTok DMs or Messages, there are a few things to note.
TikTok doesn’t allow you to send pictures on TikTok DMs. And the only way around this (sending pictures on TikTok) is to upload the image you want to send as a short video and share it with your friend to whom you wish to send your photo.
When you are sure your friend got the picture, you can go forward to delete the photo from your TikTok videos or change the privacy to “Only me,” so only you can see the picture.
Another way to send a picture on TikTok is to ensure you change the privacy to “Friends,” this will prevent your photo from going viral on TikTok.
The only drawback of this method is that only the people you add as friends on TikTok will see your pictures for as long as you keep them uploaded.
How to Send Pictures on TikTok Message in 6 Easy Steps
The method we will use to send a photo to someone on TikTok is the “image to video method.” Don’t bother to google this method. I just made it up. So it’s not anywhere on the internet.
In this method, we will upload our picture as a video, change the privacy to friends, and share the link with the person we are chatting with on TikTok DMs.
So, let’s begin the tutorial on how to send pictures to someone on TikTok DM.
Step 1: Open your TikTok App and click on the plus (+) icon.
The first step to sending pictures to our friends on TikTok is to open the TikTok application and click on the (+) icon.
Just like the way we do upload our videos on TikTok. See the below screenshot. The plus button is circled out.
Step 2: Click on Upload
The next step is to click on Upload and navigate to the picture you want to send to your friend on your TikTok DMS.
The Upload is at the bottom right of the screen. Clicking on the Upload button will open your phone gallery, and there, you can send the picture(s) you want to send on TikTok.
After selecting the picture or pictures, move to the next step.
Step 3: Remove sound and Edit your privacy setting
The next step on how to send pictures on TikTok after you have selected the image you want to upload is to remove the sound effect and change the privacy setting to “Friends.”
You can remove the sound from the top page of the screen. All you need to do is click on the selected sound or music to deselect it.
Removing the sound will prevent your picture from being featured in the music or sound collection.
Also, from the right page of the screen, you will find a privacy icon represented by a lock. Click on the icon and change the privacy settings of who can watch your video.
You must remove it from “Everyone” and select “Friends.”
By selecting “Friends,” only your followers THAT you follow back will be able to see the picture you upload. But this is only for the duration in which you upload that photo.
Also, it would be best if you unchecked the “Allow comments” so no one will be able to comment on your photo.
Step 4: Finish editing your privacy setting
The next step in sending pictures on TikTok is to finish editing our privacy settings.
In this step, we will uncheck the “allow comments option, allow duet, allow stitch,” and we will prevent people from saving the picture we are about to upload to their device.
This step will reduce the change of making our picture of getting much awareness on TikTok when we hit the “post button.”
Ensure you did not tag anyone in your post, and you did not add any music. When you are done, click on the “Post” button to upload the picture to TikTok.
Step 5: Go to your profile and select the picture you upload
Now that we have uploaded the pictures we want to send on TikTok message, the next step is to go to our profile to find the image we upload.
When you see the photo, click to select it and move to the next step.
Step 6: Send the Picture to your Friend DM
The next step on how to send pictures on TikTok after you upload the photo is actually to send it to your friend DMs.
To send a picture to your friend in the TikTok message, you need to click on the 3 horizontal dots below.
After you click on the “three dots,” a short window will pop up, and this is where you select the friend you want to send your picture to on TikTok DMS.
If you can’t find the person you want to send the picture to on the “quick friend list” preview at the top of the popup, you will need to click the “TikTok friend.” See the screenshot below
After you click on the “TikTok friends,” you will see a new window that shows the list of friends you follow on TikTok. (see the below screenshot)
Find and select the person you want to send the picture to, and navigate down to “write a message” if you have any to add to the image you are about to send.
You can add this at the end of the message you want: “I’m leaving this picture for just 2-3 minutes, do screenshot them on your phone.”
When you are done, click the send button, and you should have your picture sent to your friend on their DMs.
Step 7: Delete the Picture from your TikTok
The last and final step of this tutorial (how to send pictures on TikTok) is to delete the photo we upload from TikTok.
This last step is optional. This means you can decide whether you want to delete the picture from TikTok, set the privacy settings to Private, or leave it for the public.
Also read: How To See Others Deleted TikTok Videos Easily
If you choose the latter (delete the picture after your friend has seen it), you can continue to the last step.
To delete the picture you upload on TikTok, you need to go back to “Step 6,” where we click on the three-dot.
However, instead of selecting “TikTok friends” from the second roll, we will click “Delete” from the third roll.
If you can’t find it at first, the options are scrollable, which means you will need to navigate to the end of their roll to find the delete option.
When you find the delete icon (usually represented by a waste bin), click on it to delete the picture from TikTok.
However, if you leave the picture on TikTok and instead want to change the privacy to Private, you can read this post on “How to set video privacy on TikTok.”
Why Can’t I send Pictures on TikTok DMs
You cannot send a picture on TikTok direct message to a friend you don’t follow on TikTok. To be able to send images or messages to someone on TikTok, you will need to follow that user first.
You should note that for every TikTok user’s safety, TikTok only allows direct messages to be sent to friends (those who follow you and you follow back on TikTok).
Messages You Send on TikTok Cannot Be Deleted
You cannot undo a message, so be careful what you send. Sent messages are saved in the phone’s memory and are protected with end-to-end encryption.
Unlike other social media services such as Facebook and WhatsApp, where you can delete sent messages, on TikTok, you cannot delete messages.
Why can’t people message me on TikTok?
TikTok has a Direct Messages option in the Privacy settings. Here you can choose who can send you a direct message. You either set this option to allow “Everyone” to send you a message or “followers you follow back and people you send messages to,” or you can set it to “no one.”
If you select everyone, then any person can send you a message. So even if the other person does not follow you or you do not follow them back, you can still send them a message.
Setting it to friends will allow you to message them only if you follow each other. If one of your followers does not follow you, the message will not be sent. They should be your friends on TikTok.
If someone follows you and you follow them back, you can send them a message by opening the DMs tab at the top of the page, finding their name in the list, or opening their profile page directly and tapping the “message” button.
How to enable my TikTok DMs
The first thing to do on how to send pictures on TikTok messages is to enable the direct message option from the privacy settings. To allow TikTok to DM, you have to follow a few steps.
• Click the “profile icon” from the homepage to go to your profile page.
• Navigate to the top right corner of the screen and Tap on the “three lines.”
• Select the “Privacy and Safety” settings
• Navigate and click on the “Who can send me a message” option
• Select the “Everyone” option or “Followers you follow back and people you sent messages to.” You have enabled your TikTok DM, and people can now send you messages directly on TikTok.
How to send a screenshot on TikTok?
A screenshot is also under the picture category, and TikTok doesn’t allow sending pictures. However, this tutorial also works for you if you want to send a screenshot to someone on TikTok.
All you need to do (to send a screenshot on TikTok) is to upload the screenshot as a video and share it with the person you want to send it to, and I recommend you delete the screenshot after the user receives or sees it.
Final Thought
There is a common question on the web about whether it is possible to send a photo to TikTok.
At the moment, TikTok does not support sending pictures from DMs, so you must use alternative options as a user. The first alternative is to follow the guide in this tutorial, and another way is to share the photo through other social media.
To share a photo on TikTok, you need to send it through a different social media, and one way to do this is to get the person’s Facebook or Instagram account, WhatsApp number, or Twitter handle.
When you add them to any of these social media, you can send pictures to each other. Providing it is outside the TikTok application.
When this article was published, TikTok developers had not given any report or explanation for why they didn’t support sending photos or screenshots to TikTok. Still, we hope they will add this feature shortly.
Tags:
