Instagram Won’t Knock If You Take a Screenshot (for the Most Part)
Oh, you’re here because you took a screenshot of someone’s Instagram story and want to know if they’ll get a notification about it like they do on Snapchat? First, know that you are safe, baby. Take a deep breath. We’ve all been there. They won’t know if you took a screenshot of their grid post or story, at least not through a notification. Secondly, there are several cases where an Instagram user may be notified that you are sharing their content or at least snoozing it for later. Here’s everything you need to know about screenshotting, saving, sharing, and Instagram so you can lurk in relative peace.
Does Instagram share screenshot notifications?
Let’s be clear: if you take a screenshot of someone’s grid or story post, they won’t receive a notification. Same for video post screen recording. It just doesn’t happen. It never happened. Please trust me, a person who, for better or worse, is very good at tinkering with the app : I do it all the time. If any of the people whose content I screenshotted had received a notification about this, I would have known by now. And I would tell you.
However, there is one way to find out if you are taking screenshots on Instagram. It’s a small thing, but that’s what makes it insidious. If someone sends you a photo directly via DM using the camera feature in DM and you take a screenshot, they will receive a notification. It looks like this:
To demonstrate what this looks like, I asked the recipient to take a screenshot of the first picture I sent and open and view, but not screenshot, the second. These photos were submitted in real time using the camera icon in the bottom left corner, next to the input field. As you can see, a small circle (similar to a camera shutter) appeared next to the first one, indicating that it was a screenshot. If you send a photo from your camera roll (by selecting it by clicking the icon between the microphone and the three-dot conversation bubble) and the recipient takes a screenshot, you won’t receive a notification. You’ll only get it if they take a screenshot of something that was captured and sent using the app’s camera.
Other ways to see if people are sharing your content on Instagram
In most cases, taking screenshots on Instagram is safe, but there are other ways a person can find out whether you are sharing their content or saving it for future viewing.
If you have a business account rather than a personal account, you have access to some additional features that may come in handy here. Below your posts in the grid, you will see a button that says “View Statistics.” Clicking on it will take you to a page that shows how many accounts have been reached, how many have been engaged, how many people have clicked on your profile, how many have already followed you, and all sorts of other interesting data. You’ll also see a four-number line right at the top: how many accounts have liked it, how many comments has it received, how many shares has it received, and how many saves has it received.
Promotions and conservation are important here. The arrow to the right, which looks like a paper airplane, is your stock. A rectangle with a triangular cutout similar to a bookmark is your saves. If you check this box, you won’t see who is sharing or saving it, but you can get an idea of how many opponents (or fans) you have. Above you can see that nine people shared my post and six saved it. What were their intentions? These are the questions that keep me up at night, but, alas, I will never find the culprits. Keep in mind that if you save or share a post if the person has a business profile, they will at least know that someone else had one. Depending on the content of the post and the number of followers, they may narrow it down to you. (To check if someone has a business account, tap their profile. If they have a handle under their name such as Journalist, Blogger, Community Leader, or buttons like Contact, they have there is a business profile.)
Then there’s the Instagram story. Anyone with a business profile can also see data associated with their Stories posts, both when publishing posts and in the Stories archive. Next to the eye-shaped icon representing viewers will be an icon with three rectangles, similar to a histogram. It shows how many accounts were reached, how many users were interested in the post, how many replies were received, etc. It also shows the number of shares . Below is an example of a time when one of my stories received 11 shares. I was able to figure out who shared it by looking at views and paying attention to viewers who weren’t my followers. Sensing bad intentions, I blocked the original participant. If you share someone’s story on the app, the people you share it with will appear in the story’s viewer list, which can easily point them back to you.
Does it matter? No, we should all throw our phones in the nearest trash can like Sabrina van der Woodsen and go touch some grass. But there are ways people can tell if you’re sharing or saving their messages, even if they won’t get a notification if you take a screenshot.