You have been asking for this for a long time, and it seems Instagram has heard you. Some users have already come across a notice on the social network explaining that stories now have “screenshot prevention.”
And what does that mean, marketer? That is a very good question, because since we have not received that notice (yet), we do not know for sure. However, there are likely two possibilities.
Perhaps this “screenshot prevention” means that the platform will not allow screenshots to be taken, as happens when you send a view-once image via direct message or WhatsApp. After all, Instagram wants anything designed to be seen only once or only for 24 hours to stay that way.
The other option is that the platform will notify the user that you took a screenshot, which, in millennial terms, we would classify as “the floor, please swallow me up” if we were sending this story to teen magazines like SuperPop or Bravo. If that is what is going to happen, you are probably wondering how to stop the other user from finding out that you took a screenshot of their story.
The easy option is not to do it; the hard one is never to update the Instagram app again. Your call.
After all, in the notice, the platform washes its hands of the matter by saying that “people with older versions of the Instagram app or other devices may still be able to take screenshots.” That suggests that maybe from the web version… Well, I am not going to encourage that behavior in you, marketer. I will keep that trick to myself.
In the meantime, we will have to wait and see whether this is an update they plan to roll out to all users.
