How to remove EXIF data from a photo on Android

The short answer

Android has no universal button to erase metadata: behaviour depends on the manufacturer and the gallery app installed. The most reliable route on any phone is to upload the photo to AnonShot, which strips EXIF data on upload.

What Google Photos can do

Open the photo, swipe up to show details, then tap the location entry. Depending on the version, a menu lets you remove the stored place.

One subtlety matters: removing the location in Google Photos changes what the app displays, but the original file kept on the device may still contain the coordinates. The removal only holds if you then reshare from Google Photos itself.

Turn off camera geotagging

The setting lives inside the Camera app rather than in system settings, and its name varies by brand.

• Camera, settings icon, look for "Location", "Location tags" or "Save location".
• On Samsung: Camera, Settings, "Location tags".
• On Pixel: Camera, Settings, More settings, "Save location".

The messaging app trap

Some messaging apps recompress images and drop part of the metadata along the way, others do not. Relying on that behaviour is risky: it differs between apps and between updates.

If the content is sensitive, don't bet on the carrier — clean the file before sending it.

The method that works everywhere

From Chrome, drop the photo onto AnonShot. The file is re-encoded without sensitive metadata and you get a short link, with optional password and self-destruct. Nothing to install, and the result depends on neither the phone brand nor the gallery app.

This matters more on Android than on any other platform, precisely because the built-in behaviour is so inconsistent. A method that produces the same result on a Samsung, a Pixel and a Xiaomi saves you from re-learning the steps every time you change phone or the manufacturer reshuffles its settings menu.

If you would rather stay entirely offline, a dedicated metadata app from a reputable source does the job too. Check what permissions it asks for: an app that wants network access to strip local metadata is asking for more than the task requires.