Hi Dave, I have an Android phone and I would like to know how I can save pictures from Facebook to my phone. Thanks!
While the tested and true way to save any image from any app onto your Android phone might be to take a screenshot and crop it, the results are often a bit disappointing. Fortunately, Facebook actually has a built-in “Save to phone” feature that works on just about every image you encounter on the popular social network. I think their logic is if you can see it, you can save it, which is surprisingly user friendly for a social media site that’s rather infamous for being what used to be called a “walled garden”.
Shortcuts: Save Other People’s Photos | Save Your Own Pictures | Where They’re Saved
The trick is that you aren’t going to find this feature by tapping on “•••” links or on the images themselves, as you have probably already figured out. In very specific spots, the necessary gesture is a tap and hold for a few seconds, until what’s known as a contextual menu appears. That then has the option you seek. Let’s have a look, first with an image that someone else posted on my own Facebook feed, then with one of my own. In all cases, I’m using a Google Pixel 6 Pro running the latest version of Android and the Facebook app.
SAVING SOMEONE ELSE’S PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK
Most of the images I imagine you’re interested in are those that other people post. Since there’s always the chance of screen capture, it’s no surprise that there aren’t really very many protections on posted images, so it’s not too difficult to save an image either. You just have to know the sequence. Here’s an example, a post from my friend Gail about her beautiful pups:
It’s a really pretty photo, and I’m sure the two Japanese Spitz are delightful in person. This is the closest I’ll get for a while though, so I’d like to save this photo. From this view, the newsfeed (notice the post just below it) you can’t save images. Tap on it, however, and it’ll be shown with a darker background…
Now we’re in the right place. Tap and hold on the photo and after a few seconds, the lower portion will be replaced with a menu of optional actions:
You can share it directly with “Share external” or you can tap on the option that we seek: “Save to phone“. The third option should be utilized if someone posts an image that you feel violates the terms of Facebook but realize that odds are that it won’t be removed due to the enormous scale of the Facebook universe (over a billion daily users).
A few seconds after you tap on “Save to phone” you’ll see a brief confirmation that it worked:
Done. Mission accomplished. Now, what about if it’s your own photo?
HOW TO SAVE YOUR OWN PHOTOS FROM FACEBOOK
Why would you want to save your own photo? Perhaps you’ve moved phones or have otherwise lost or deleted an image. With Facebook’s display of ancient posts in the Memories area, that’s another reason you might want to grab one that’s actually your own photo or image. The process is similar, but the options are different.
This time I’ll look at my own Profile rather than the newsfeed, finding this post:
This was a post I made for Kwanzaa and I really like the (AI-generated) image. I’d like to save it. This can be done by me again simply tapping on the photo, bringing up the black-edged window:
Again, simply tap and hold on the image for a few seconds. This time, however, the menu of options is quite a bit longer than when it’s someone else’s image:
I would bet that most people don’t realize you can easily change your profile or cover picture through this menu, but as you can see, there are a lot more options. Perhaps the most important to remember is that this is how you can Edit post privacy, which lets you pull it back from “public” to “friends”, for example, or even to “me only”, one of the more curious privacy options on Facebook.
Again, though, I’m going to choose “Save to photos” and proceed.
WHERE ARE THE SAVED FACEBOOK PHOTOS?
Now that they’re saved, the most important question is where the heck they were actually saved. Unusually, it’s exactly where you would think; Google Photos in the Current Images area:
And that’s it. Now you know exactly how to save photos and pictures from Facebook onto your Android device, whether it’s a phone or tablet.
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about Facebook since it first came online. Please check out my extensive Facebook help library for hundreds of useful tutorials and insider tips and tricks. And why not follow AskDaveTaylor on Facebook for even more great content? Thanks!