New Instagram Feature Alerts Users If You Screenshot Their Story
We've ALL screenshot something on social media and sent it to our friends. If you're anything like me, your camera roll is full of them. This is all meant to be covert and private between close friends. Most social media applications don't notify anyone if a screenshot is taken and it makes social media creeping or sharing something juicy with a pal just a little bit easier. For Instagram lovers, this may all be over soon.
The popular picture-sharing application has started testing a screenshot notification feature. A few users are currently testing out the change. TechCrunch.com reported the news Monday morning.
Here's how it works: when someone first takes a screenshot of another user's story, they get a pop-up. This warns the user that next time they screenshot someone's story, it will notify them. One Twitter user shared a photo of what the notification looks like. You can see it below:
If you don't heed the warning and screenshot something following the pop-up notification, a spinning wheel icon will show up next to your username on their story. This is similar to the "eye" icon on Snapchat. Another tester shared a picture of it. It looks like this:
Instagram is a hugely popular picture sharing application. Users can post and share photos with their followers and follow others as well. In one of their more recent changes, the app also allows you to post and share stories that last 24 hours. If your account is private, only your followers will be able to see. This story function is what the change centers around. If you screenshot part of a story, it will notify the user.
Instagram hasn't commented on the changes. There is no word on whether this will remain a test or be rolled out to all users in the future.
So for now, creep on!