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When I checked that draft on my computer, the attachment still carried the exact GPS coordinates from my phone.
When I sent it as a proper email, the copy arrived without the coordinates, which means Gmail stripped the location before delivering it.
My recipient was safe, but Gmail had my coordinates first, and Android’s share button gave them away. This bothers me because Android spent the summer telling me my photo locations were getting more private.
The photo picker already keeps my location private
The August update made apps ask for it
Credit:Â Google
Since Android 13, the photo picker has removed location data from photos by default. Any app that requests a photo through the picker gets the image without its GPS coordinates.
The August Google Play system update added a prompt that asks, “Include location info?”
It only appears when an app asks for location through a new API, and Snapseed was the first app to support it. Google built the prompt because developers complained that the picker removed location data their apps needed.
The photo picker still has a location button in the lower-right corner if I choose to share location info. That’s useful for travel journals and photo printers, which need coordinates to work properly.
The picker’s rule is that an app doesn’t get my location unless it asks and I agree.
The share button gives apps the full file
Samsung’s switch starts on and resets every time
Most of the time, when I share photos, I’m not starting from another app. I start in my gallery, pick a photo, tap Share, and choose WhatsApp, Bluetooth, or any other app from the list.
Samsung Gallery has a location switch, but it hides behind a small Options label at the top of the share screen.
The Include location data switch inside was on by default, while a separate switch for other metadata was off. Samsung has offered this control since One UI 3.1, when it was a checkbox on the share screen.
The switch also resets every time, so turning location off for one share doesn’t carry over to the next, and I have to open Options before every photo I send.
A switch hidden behind a small label only protects the people who know it exists. Everyone else is sharing their location with the receiving app without ever seeing the choice.
Google Photos doesn’t have a location switch on its share screen. Its links, shared albums, and conversations strip out location by default, but Google warns that photos shared through other ways can still include it.
Throughout this process, the photo picker never opens because I’ve already chosen the photo. My gallery then sends the file to another app, and there’s no prompt or default that protects my location.
However, Google provides the tool to override that default. Since Android 11, Android’s media storage has offered a method that creates a copy of a photo with its location removed, and any gallery app can use it.
The common advice is to turn off location in my camera, but sometimes I need the map view and location search in my library. I want the coordinates on my phone, just not in someone else’s app.
The receiving app decides what my recipient sees
Gmail and WhatsApp strip location by their own choice
Credit:Â Lucas Gouveia / Android Police
When a photo leaves my gallery, the app that processes it decides what protection it has.
Gmail removed the coordinates from the email I sent, even though its saved draft still kept them. That draft synced to my Google account, so Google stored my coordinates.
WhatsApp stripped the location in my tests, even when I sent a photo as a document through the paper clip menu. Regular photo messages are cleaned as well.
This is good behavior, but it’s a policy each company chose, and any of them can change it. Android offers no guarantee, and the app still receives my location before it decides what to keep.
Until the default changes, I check before I share. Swiping up on a photo in Google Photos or Samsung Gallery shows its location, and if a pin appears, I assume the receiving app gets it too.
If I really need a thorough cleaning, I’ll strip the metadata first. ExifTool in Termux can handle this with one command.
The share button should follow the picker’s rule
Android has decided that apps should ask before they get my photo location, and the picker enforces that rule every time.
The share button ignores it, so my coordinates reach Gmail and other apps when I forget a tiny Options menu.
Until a built-in gallery starts with location off, Aves, an open-source gallery app which can remove metadata, gives me more control than the apps on my phone.
