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Instagram is telling users when people screenshot or screen record their Stories

Until now, users have been able to record or copy them secretly, without being caught out

Aatif Sulleyman

Friday 09 February 2018 17:58 GMT

A visitor takes a picture of the Instagram application logo at the Young Entrepreneurs fair in Paris, France, February 7, 2018 (REUTERS/Charles Platiau)

Instagram is going to start telling you when other people take screenshots of your Stories.

That means it will also notify other users when you take screenshots of their Stories.

Stories posts automatically self-destruct after 24 hours, but screenshot and screen-recording functionality essentially allows you to make permanent copies of them if you really want to.

Until now, users have been able to record or screenshot other people’s Stories posts secretly, without being detected. But that’s about to change.

When somebody has taken a screenshot or screen recording of one of your Stories, a sun-shaped symbol will appear alongside their name in the Story Views section.

According to WABetaInfo, the feature is yet to be enabled by Instagram, as it’s still in development.

However, some users appear to have already started receiving screenshot notifications for Stories.

Instagram will warn you before it switches screenshot notifications on, by displaying a popup message reading: “Next time you take a screenshot or screen recording, the person who posted the story will be able to see it.”

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Show all 11

1/1111 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Hide and reorder filters

Filters are a core part of Instagram, but there are so many available it can be easy to get lost. You can change the order in which they appear, and even hide the ones you never use, to speed up your photo-sharing process. On the filters page, scroll to the end, tap Manage, then drag and drop the ones you want to reorder, and un-check the ones you want to hide.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Never miss a post

Instagram controversially ditched its reverse-chronological order feed for a new order determined by an algorithm, making it easy to completely miss some posts. To make sure you never miss a certain somebody’s updates, you can set up notification for them by visiting their profile, tapping the three dots in the top right-hand corner and selecting Turn On Post Notifications.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Eat less data

If you’re worried about how much of your mobile data Instagram saps, you can limit it by sacrificing the speed at which the photos and videos in your feed load. Go to your profile, tap the three dots in the top right corner, open Cellular Data Use and choose Use Less Data.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

See your Likes

It’s easy to lose track of your friends’ old posts on Instagram, but if you know you Liked it, you’ll be able to track it down easily. Just go to your profile, hit the three dots at the top and select Posts You’ve Liked. You can also save posts in a folder only you can see by tapping the bookmark icon underneath it. Take a look at everything you’ve bookmarked by tapping the same icon that sits near the top of your profile.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Find relevant hashtags

Everyone knows you can expand the reach of your posts by using a number of relevant hashtags, but what those are aren’t always glaringly obvious. You can easily find the right ones for you by typing a keyword into Instagram’s search bar, selecting a hashtag from the list and swiping along the Related row that appears at the top of the screen.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Clear your search history

Whatever your reasons are, you can clear your recent searches by going to your profile, hitting the three dots in the top right and selecting Clear Search History. To go a step further and hide your Suggested searches too, go to the search page, tap and hold the account you want to hide, and choose Hide from the pop-up window.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Hide photos you’re tagged in

Tagged photos on Instagram aren’t as prominent as they are on Facebook, but anyone can still browse through other people’s pictures of you by visiting your profile and tapping the photo of you icon. If you’re tagged in a picture you don’t want other people to see, go to your profile, hit the photos of you icon, tap the three dots at the top of the screen and choose Hide Photos.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Secure your account

Make your Instagram account much harder to hack by enabling two-factor authentication, a security feature that protects you even if your login details are stolen. Go to your profile, tap the three dots, open Two-Factor Authentication and toggle it on.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Share lots at once

If you want to upload a bunch of related pictures and videos without flooding everyone else’s feed, you can shared them all as one post. Hit the + icon, select Gallery, choose Select Multiple, pick out up to 10 of the pictures and clips you want, tap Next and reorder them by dragging and dropping.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Record hands-free

Instagram Stories has been a massive hit since it came out last year, but you might not know that you can record Stories clips without having to hold one of your digits on the record key. On the Stores screen, just swipe through the options at the bottom until you get to Hands-Free.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Edit posts after publishing

Most people know you can delete any of the images you’ve already posted, but not everyone is aware that you can also edit them. Instagram unfortunately doesn’t let you tinker with filters and effects, but you can change your original caption, tag people and update the location.

The move, which will come as good news to privacy-conscious users, brings Instagram Stories even more in line with Snapchat, the app it was heavily inspired by.

Snapchat notifies you when people screenshot your Snaps, though you used to be able to get around its system by switching on Airplane Mode before taking a screenshot.

Snapchat has grown wise to this technique but, according to The Next Web, it can be used to trick Instagram’s system.

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