Instagram to notify users when someone screenshots their stories

Instagram, the widely used photo sharing platform will soon be notifying its users when someone takes a screenshot of their stories. Instagram Stories automatically vanishes after 24 hours, but screenshots and screen-recording features allowed users to make permanent copies of them.

Until now, the platform allowed users to secretly take screenshots or screen-record Stories without being detected. But not anymore. Whenever somebody takes a screenshot or screen recording of any of your Stories, the Views section will show a sun-shaped symbol with their name.

According to WABetaInfo, the feature is still in development and might take some time to roll out for everyone. However, some users appear to have already started receiving the screenshot notification for Stories.

Instagram also warns users before switching the screenshot notifications on, by showing a message that reads: Next time you take a screenshot or screen recording, the person who posted the story will be able to see it."

The new feature brings Instagram Stories even more in line with Snapchat, the app it was heavily inspired by. Also, this will be a welcomed feature by the privacy-conscious users.

Snapchat also notifies the users when people take screenshots of their Snaps, however, there was a workaround that allowed users to take screenshots discreetly by switching to Airplane Mode before taking a screenshot. According to a report by The Next Web, the trick can be used to breach Instagram's system as well.

Instagram is also said to be testing another feature that will reportedly let users share others' posts in their Stories.

According to TechCrunch, the feature will work with accounts which are public. However, there is no guarantee that users would see a full rollout but "since people tend to screenshot others' content and add it to their Stories anyway, this seems like a useful tool that Instagram users would take advantage of."

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"We are always testing ways to make it easier to share any moment with friends on Instagram," the company was quoted as saying. But again as mentioned above, the feature would only work with accounts that are public. The new feature during the testing was present as a tab underneath a post when users tapped the share icon. It was labeled as "Add post to your story".