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12th Feb 2018

Instagram has launched a new feature that ends ‘creeping’ on accounts

James Dawson

This is definitely a good thing.

It appears that Instagram Stories is following the lead of Snapchat and will begin notifying users when you screenshot one of their posts.

TechCrunch report that the feature is currently being rolled out to testers and given the widespread public appetite for the change, you can imagine it’ll be implemented fairly soon.

In a statement to TechCrunch, a spokesperson from Instagram said: “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.”

See what happens when you screenshot someone’s profile after you’re a recipient of the update, here:

https://twitter.com/__cajb/status/961481844981157888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2018%2F02%2F11%2Finstagram-is-testing-screenshot-alerts-for-stories%2F

https://twitter.com/readbyher/status/962606574060490752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ladbible.com%2Fcommunity%2Ftechnology-instagram-will-tell-people-if-you-screenshot-their-stories-20180212

The only sticking point to stop the feature getting a wider rollout may be if Instagram notice the feature has a noticeable impact on user engagement. If so it could look at another way of stopping creeps.

Prior to the test the only screenshot notifications on Instagram happened when someone took a screenshot of a private direct message.

And users can still rewatch stories as many times as they want within 24 hours, without anybody being any the wiser.