Huawei promises it isn't deleting photos downloaded from Twitter

Huawei has released a statement after multiple users have been shown a notification telling them that Twitter has been deleting their photos.

The original story came from the Taiwanese version of Apple Daily showing the notification in Chinese, but was widely replicated and in English over on Reddit

The prompt, which appears to only be seen on recently-updated Chinese Honor and Huawei smartphones, reads 'Twitter has deleted a photo from your gallery'.

One user took a recording of the process happening, and does indeed show the image is instantly deleted,  and can't be found in the deleted items folder either.

This prompted instant accusations of spying and the brands deciding what content you can and can't have on your phone (although spying isn't that effective when you tell people about it) - so Huawei has moved to clear up the matter.

Calm down, it's over there...

In a statement sent to TechRadar, a Huawei spokesperson said that it was just a glitch in a new update causing the notification to appear:

"Huawei has recently received user reports that alleges the Twitter app automatically deletes images on Huawei devices.

"Having investigated the issue, Huawei has discovered that whenever users of certain devices download an image using specific builds of the Twitter app (version 7.78.0 and 7.77.0), the app will automatically create a folder of the same name as the image and promptly delete it in the background. 

"This action triggers Huawei’s built-in image protection alert, causing the system to notify the user of the deletion. However, the images are not affected. Users may find their images at the following location: File Manager/picture/Twitter.

"Huawei is currently in conversation with Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible."

This all seems plausible, given it could easily be a compatibility issue between the two apps - although the statement doesn't confirm whether this is limited to Chinese models or not.

So if you have encountered the issue, it's worth checking through your file manager to see if the images have appeared in the right place - although it doesn't look as though this issue will be progressing throughout the wider world.

  • A good thing too, as Huawei does well in our ranking of the best phones
Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.