Followers of discreet screenshots, beware: a new Messenger update could send an alert as soon as a screenshot is taken of a private conversation.
“A new update is available for encrypted Messenger conversations so that you receive a notification if someone takes a screenshot of an ephemeral message” explained Mark Zuckerberg himself on his Facebook page.
The update is already in effect in the United States: when a person takes a screenshot of a conversation, the Messenger application automatically sends a notification to his interlocutor. Bad news for users who collect memories (or more or less compromising content) of private conversations discreetly.
The purpose of this new feature would be to protect users, by letting them know if someone tries to save a photo of their message exchange. Even if it would only be valid for the moment in ephemeral conversations, Facebook intends to generalize this alert to all types of conversations.
The update should arrive in France in the coming weeks, and even if it only affects Messenger for now, it could also apply to Instagram later.