Mark Zuckerberg issues warning against screenshotting Messenger app after new update

Charlie Herbert

Cheers for the heads-up, Mark

Mark Zuckerberg has warned those who love to take a sneaky screenshot of a conversation about a new feature coming to Facebook Messenger.

The Facebook founder and Meta CEO announced that an update to the Messenger app will introduce a feature that notifies users when someone has screenshotted one of their disappearing messages.

In a post on Facebook, he explained: “New update for end-to-end encrypted Messenger chats so you get a notification if someone screenshots a disappearing message.

“We’re also adding GIFs, stickers, and reactions to encrypted chats too.”

He shared a conversation between himself and his wife to show an example of how this will work.

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10114267839666731

Back in November 2020, ‘Vanish Mode’ was introduced to the Messenger app. This allows users to send messages to someone that will disappear after a certain amount of time, a feature similar to those seen in apps such as Snapchat.

The feature was first rolled out in the US and a “handful of other countries” and will be “coming soon to more places.”

In a post from August last year, Facebook explained: “We’ve also updated the expiring message feature within our end-to-end encrypted chats.

“People don’t always want or need their messages to stick around and the timer controls let someone decide when their messages expire in the chat.

“We’ve updated this setting to provide more options for people in the chat to choose the amount of time before all new messages disappear, from as few as 5 seconds to as long as 24 hours.”

So now, if someone has this feature turned on and you screenshot their message for keeps, they will be notified.

The update from Zuckerberg last week was met with some mixed reviews in the comments.

One person wrote: “I really needed this feature in 2009 when I used to drunk message!”

Another commented: “Thanks for the heads up, Mark! Thank you for not letting us make fools out of ourselves by taking screenshots.”

While someone else said: “Pls add this feature on WhatsApp we want to know if someone takes a screenshot of our conversations.”

Others questioned why this feature was necessary though, with one asking what “the benefit” of the feature is.

Another joked that Zuckerberg was “becoming a snitch bro.”

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