Instagram is one of the most popular social media apps. Its vivid interface and ease of navigation have made it a top application to post content online. Posting stories is one of its features which stays for about 24 hours and then vanishes. But what if you take a screenshot of that story before it vanishes? Does Instagram notify when you screenshot a story?
The answer is no. Instagram will not notify you if someone decides to take a screenshot of your story. And vice versa, others will not be notified if you decide to take a screenshot of their story.
While posting content online may not seem like a big deal to some, to others, it’s a way of expressing themselves and showing a part of their life they want the world (or just their Instagram followers) to see. Even though taking a screenshot of a story will not be notified, that doesn’t mean Instagram has the same policy for all its other features.
Instagram Stories
The stories feature was first launched in 2016. Instagram was not the first to launch this feature but took inspiration from Snapchat. The Instagram stories feature allows users to upload an image or a video that lasts for about a day. This 24-hour feature is very popular and remains at the top of its features list.
The reason why this feature is so popular is because it doesn’t have to fit any theme. For instance, many users want their Instagram accounts to be filled with the most perfect pictures or videos of themselves or their loved ones. That in turn puts a restriction on what they can post daily. They wouldn’t want their feed to look messy with too many pictures.
That is when the stories feature came to the rescue. With this, they no longer have to worry about uploading too much content. Because, at the end of the day, it will disappear. And the day after will be a brand-new day to upload even more content.
It’s one of the primary ways for Instagram users to update their friends, families, and all their followers about their daily life, what they’re doing, where they’ve been, and whatnot. Thus, it’s not a big surprise that someone might find the need to screenshot your story because they know it will disappear after 24 hours. You might feel the same too.
Does Instagram Notify When You Screenshot Story?
No, for the current time, Instagram will not give a notification if you or anyone else screenshot a story. When you post a story, it will remain in the app for 24 hours. And during that time, your followers have the liberty to take a screenshot of the story as much as they please.
This is only for the Instagram stories features. If you screenshot story, that’s completely fine. But if you screenshot anything while you’re in the Vanish Mode, the other person will immediately get notified. And that will put you in a sticky situation. So, you need to be very careful about what you’re screenshotting in this app.
What’s more, to add is that Instagram did launch a test feature back in 2018. It allowed Instagram users to take a look at those individuals who had screenshotted your story. But it was immediately chucked and no further information was revealed. So, we’re not sure whether they’re planning to relaunch that feature or not.
Instagram Screenshot Notification
Now Instagram does not have any current features which let its users know whether someone has screenshotted their story. But the same cannot be said about its direct messaging feature. Moreso, if you’re using the Vanish Mode. The Vanish Mode works a bit differently. When you access this feature, you’re allowed to send and receive messages as you normally do.
But in normal messaging, you can take as many screenshots of your messages and send them to other people. That is not the case for the messages that you send and receive in Vanish Mode. If you decide to take a screenshot of the messages while in Vanish Mode, the other person will get a notification which will imply that you just took a screenshot.
But this only applies to the disappearing content on Instagram. For the reels, posts, and other videos on the feed, it will not send any notification to the user. So, let’s say you’re scrolling through Instagram and you see a very pretty bag that you want to purchase.
Now, if you decide to take a screenshot of it, the person who uploads the content will not get a notification that you just took a screenshot of their product. So, you’re good to go!
Instagram Used to Notify When Screenshotting Stories
As we previously discussed, back in 2018, Instagram did launch an update where users were notified when their stories got screenshotted. Thank heavens that they decided to get rid of that feature.
After the launch of that feature, it caught the attention of all its users. As it meant that they could no longer creep around their friends’ and families’ stories and take screenshots without them knowing.
But this feature was immediately removed after a few months. Goes to show that its users didn’t like the fact that people were screenshotting their stories without their consent. At the same time, they also wished to screenshot others’ stories without them knowing.
The most important takeaway from this is the fact that due to this feature once being available, users still worry about taking screenshots of others’ stories. At the end of the day, no one wants to get caught acting like a creep on the internet. But, at the moment there is nothing to worry about as this feature is currently disabled.
Conclusion
Now that we’re finally at the end, you know whether does Instagram notify when you screenshot a story. That feature is not available yet even though it did go for a test run back in 2018. But the chances of it returning are quite slim. So, you won’t have to worry about anyone getting notified if you decide to take a screenshot of someone else’s story.
That also means that you won’t get notified if someone screenshots your story as well. And that will be it for today. Thank you for giving this a read. Hope you have a great day ahead!