In the world of image-sharing apps, there are undoubtedly two leaders, Snapchat and Instagram. While Snapchat is more suited towards the younger crowd, Instagram has usually held a reputation for being the more level-headed of the two, treating its users like normal people and not giving them ridiculous restrictions. Now, it seems as though The ‘Gram is set to take a leaf out of its younger rival’s book.
One of Snapchat’s trademark features has always been the fact that it notifies the sender of an image if the recipient has taken a screenshot of your image. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why the app became so popular, with users enjoying the fact that they know whether or not their images are being saved and kept for purposes other than originally intended.
Of course, as the years have gone by, both Snapchat and Instagram have appropriated the other’s features, with Instagram adopting Snapchat’s ‘stories’ features a while back now Now, as Techchrunch reports, it seems that Instagram is jumping on the ‘screenshot notification’ bandwagon too.
Yes, it appears that Instagram users have begun receiving notifications that the app is implenting new security measures, namely the fact that any screenshot taken of a user’s ‘story’ will send a notification to that user, alerting them to your action.
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An Instagram spokesperson told Techcrunch 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.”
While not all users currently have this feature, there’s no saying whether or not it will even reach the majority of its users. Tests like this are usually done to see how users react to a feature such as this, so if the overwhelming response to this rollout is negative, the chances are good that Instagram will probably backpedal on this decision.
Of course, Instagram have previously notified users if anyone takes a screenshot of a direct message, so that is highly unlikely to change regardless of the response to this new test.
