website builder cheat sheet

Choose the best website builder for your business

The Cheat Sheet that shows you exactly which website builder to choose based on your needs with bonus on how to get free custom domain, free email hosting, and more.

Get the FREE cheat sheet
website builder cheat sheet

How to show profile picture in other people's inbox (Google Workspace)

By David NgeLast Updated: December 17, 2024

My work is supported by affiliate commissions. Learn More

I have a Google Workspace account, and I was wondering why my profile picture doesn't show when I send emails to another Gmail account.

I didn't have the same issue with my personal Gmail, so this has to be Google Workspace and the way it was configured.

Turns out the default visibility setting for profile picture for any user in Google Workspace was set to "Visible to people that you interact with".

And the way to fix it is to sign in to your admin account and give the user permission to set up their profile picture AND set their visibility status.

Why users do not have the permission to set it by default?

I don't know, but this took the better half of my morning to figure out so I hope you can save some time here.

It's a 2-step process.

Here it goes.

Step 1: Give your user permission to edit profile picture

Sign into your Google Workspace admin console (Workspace.google.com) and head to Directory ➞ Directory Settings ➞ Profile editing.

Head to the Directory settings
Head to the Directory settings
Now head to profile editing
Now head to profile editing

Be sure to check Profile picture (this is to give the permission) and hit Save.

Tick the profile picture checkbox to grant permission to the user to edit their profile picture
Tick the profile picture checkbox to grant permission to the user to edit their profile picture

Step 2: Update Profile picture visibility

Next, head to the personal Google account admin dashboard (Myaccount.google.com) for the same user head to Personal info ➞ Profile Picture.

head to the Profile picture settings
head to the Profile picture settings

Once you see the profile picture settings pop up, change the visibility setting to "Anyone", and hit Save.

Click into the profile picture visibility setting
Click into the profile picture visibility setting
Change it so that anyone can view the profile picture
Change it so that anyone can view the profile picture

That should be it!

David Nge

David is the founder of MakingThatWebsite.com and started making websites for businesses back in 2014. He's a keen learner and wants to share his journey and knowledge with other business owners and freelancers. He launched MakingThatWebsite.com in 2021 to make website building more approachable and scalable for businesses.

Have a tutorial you want to learn? Leave a suggestion here.