When you share photos through iMessage, email or any other app in on your phone, you also send details of that image, including the location where it was clicked. While it isn’t a very big deal if you are sharing the information with family and friends but it could be a problem if you are putting up an ad to sell something on OLX or generally sharing with unknown people.
Unlike on Macs, where a setting is available to remove location data from any image that you share, in iPhones you have to do it manually. It seems a bit illogical since we mostly use the iPhone to click and share photos with the great camera that it has. But that’s how Apple has chosen to keep it.
Worry not! There are multiple workarounds to remove details of the pictures that you are sharing from an iPhone. Let’s look at the best ones:
Take pictures using the Message App
If you want to avoid sending your location while sharing a picture on iMessage, the trick is to use the Messages app to click the picture instead of the Camera app. Just use the thumbnail viewfinder in the Messages app to click and send the photos and the metadata gets stripped before sending. You can confirm it with the help of tools like Metapho.
Turn off the photo location data
One comprehensive solution is to switch off the location services. All you have to do is go to Settings>Privacy>Location Services>Camera and you will be able to turn off data for every single photo that you take. However, this will also mean that you won’t be able to view your own photos on a map.
This can be helpful if you don’t want to ever accidentally share the location of the photo, say a secured facility. The restriction can also be set across your iPad or iPhone.
Use Third Party Apps
The best idea for most people is to use an app that strips all the photos of the metadata before you share them. Metapho is one such effective app that works as a share extension. It will show up when you tap the share arrow to view a photo on Photos app or elsewhere in iOS. All you have to do is tap on the Metapho icon and there’ll be a popover where you can choose the ‘Share without metadata’ option.
Deleting Photo Metadata on Mac
It is much simpler to get rid of the extra information from photos on Mac than iPhone. In the Photos app, you’ll find a setting that will allow you to automatically remove the location data whenever you share a photo, even when you drag a picture out of the app to save it on your desktop.
So, the next time you have to share a picture from your iPhone, you know how to hide the location details before pressing the send button.