Instagram is Now Alerting Users When People Screenshot Stories

Instagram is testing out a new feature that Snapchat helped make famous: users are being notified when other people shoot screenshots of photos and videos in Instagram Stories.

Some users have begun seeing advance notices from Instagram saying that the next time they shoot a screenshot or screen recording of a story, the owner of the story will be notified:

Good bye freedom to screenshot IG stories. 💔 Thank you, Instagram for the warning. pic.twitter.com/y0pEaVR0Jq

— mulan (@__cajb) February 8, 2018

The small percentage of users who have the warning feature activated during this test can see everyone who screenshotted their story by opening up the list of story viewers and looking for the new camera shutter icon next to usernames.

PSA: How you get notified on Instagram when someone took a screenshot of your Stories pic.twitter.com/Iua2QeyskF

— iz reading On the Edge of Scandal 🍑 (@readbyher) February 11, 2018

TechCrunch confirmed the existence of this new feature being tested with Instagram, which stated that, “we are always testing ways to improve the experience on Instagram and make it easier to share any moment with the people who matter to you.”

“To be clear, creators won’t get a specific notification when someone takes a screenshot of their story, it will only show up in their list of story viewers,” TechCrunch writes. “Instagram is likely using this test to see if the feature has any noticeable impact on engagement, before deciding whether or not they’ll roll it out to all users.”

Instagram also currently notifies all users when someone snaps a screenshot of a private direct message.