Instagram will no longer let users screenshot images, videos sent in DMs

Instagram update: Meta-owned photo and video sharing app, Instagram, has announced a new feature that will prevent users from capturing a screenshot or screen record ephemeral images or videos sent in private messages. This means that users will no longer be able to capture a screenshot or a screen recording of an image or a video shared in Instagram DMs. The company also announced that it will also prevent users from opening ‘View Once’ or ‘Allow Replay’ images and videos pm Instagram web.

It is worth noting that as of now, Instagram users can save a screenshot or a screen recording of images and videos shared in DMs, including View Once posts. However, the platform sends a notification to the sender informing them that their post has been saved. But when this feature rolls out, users will no longer be able to capture a copy of the image or video shared in a DM.

Instagram's gets new features for tackling sextortion scams

This feature is among the host of other features that the company announced today in a bid to protect its teenage users from sextortion scams on the platform. The company also announced that it has started testing new safety notices in Instagram DM and Messenger to inform teenagers when they are chatting with someone who may be in a different country.

The company also announced that it is making it difficult for accounts with scammy behaviour to follow teenagers. “Now, we’re also making it harder for accounts showing signals of potentially scammy behavior to request to follow teens. Depending on the strength of these signals – which include how new an account is – we’ll either block the follow request completely, or send it to a teen’s spam folder,” the company wrote in a post announcing the features.

Lastly, the company announced that the accounts showing scammy behaviour will not be able to see people’s follower or following list, which will make it difficult for them to target users. “These potential sextorters also won’t be able to see lists of accounts that have liked someone’s posts, photos they’ve been tagged in, or other accounts that have been tagged in their photos,” the company added.