Does Telegram Remove EXIF Data From Photos?

What Telegram does with a photo

Telegram has three ways to send an image. Its own announcement of 3 June 2025 describes them like this: regular photos are optimized, and use 90% less mobile data. The new HD option has four times the pixels. Full-resolution images can be sent in the original file size, and Telegram says this has been possible since 2014.

The announcement says nothing about EXIF data. What follows comes from outside tests.

The Soni study, published in June 2025 in Perspectives in Legal and Forensic Sciences, also tested WhatsApp and Signal. The two sources for files disagree. The bug report is older and covers one Android version, so check your own app before you trust either.

What Telegram removes from a photo

In the Narqo test, the photo came back without GPS location, camera make and model, author and copyright. Narqo also found that Telegram removed the Content Credentials (C2PA) record and the "made with AI" label from the image. Telegram makes a smaller copy, and the new copy does not carry over the old metadata.

This looks like a side effect of the recompression. Telegram does not call it a privacy feature. Your original photo on your phone does not change.

When Telegram can keep the EXIF data

Choose File in the attachment menu and Telegram sends the original, in its original size. That is why people use it. The original also holds its metadata. The recipient can then read the GPS location, the time taken, the camera model and any author or copyright text.

These things stay no matter how you send:

• The file name. A name such as PXL_20261108_101500.jpg shows a date. Rename the file if the date matters.
• The picture itself. Signs, house numbers, maps and views from a window can show a place.
• Secret Chats do not clean files. The encryption protects the message in transit, not the data inside the file.

How to check what Telegram delivers

1. Open a test photo in the WipePic EXIF viewer and note its GPS, date and camera fields.
2. Send it to Saved Messages or to a friend, once as a photo and once as a file.
3. Download both copies from the chat. Do not use a screenshot.
4. Open each downloaded copy in the EXIF viewer.

The viewer runs in your browser and your photos are not uploaded. Test the way you actually send, and on the device you actually use. A result for the iPhone app does not tell you what the Android app does.

How to remove the metadata before you send

Clean the photo first, then send it as a file at full quality:

1. Open WipePic and add your photos.
2. Select Remove Metadata. WipePic shows the metadata it found in each photo.
3. Save the cleaned photos. Several photos come as one ZIP file.
4. Send the cleaned photos with File in Telegram.

WipePic does not re-encode the photo, so the pixels stay the same. It keeps the orientation and the color profile. See also how to remove the location from a photo.

Sources

Narqo, "Which platforms strip image metadata? We tested 11", tested 2026-10-20 (narqo.com). Soni, "Forensic Value of Exif Data", Perspectives in Legal and Forensic Sciences, 2025 (journal.hep.com.cn). Telegram blog, 2025-06-03 (telegram.org). Telegram bug tracker, "GPS coordinates (EXIF) erased when images sent as file", 2022 (bugs.telegram.org). Checked on 2026-11-08. Each test covers one app version, and Telegram can change its behavior without notice.