Does Instagram Notify When You Screenshot a Story?

updated February 7, 2023
Reading time5 minutes
Jaqueline Corradi
Jaqueline Corradi
Content Manager

A question that many Instagram users make is: does Instagram notify when you screenshot a story? Sometimes, you pass through your friends’ stories and see something interesting, like a nice picture, a recipe, or a helpful tip, and want to screenshot to save it later.

But, do you feel worried if the person will see that you took a screenshot? Mainly when it's a screenshot from a profile that you don't follow, that concern is typical for thousands of users. But, today, you are going to discover if people know when you save their stories. Check out the article.

Does Instagram Notify When You Screenshot a Story?

The image shows a person holdin a smarphone where it appears the Instagram icon.

You want to screenshot a story to share with a friend, for instance, and then comes the doubt, will the profile owner know that I did this? No, they won't know, as you don't get notified when someone screenshots one of your stories. 

Does Instagram Notify When You Screenshot a Feed Post?

What about posts in the feed like reels, other videos, and pictures? Do people know when a screenshot of their post is taken? No, they don't, that isn't information that Instagram shares with users whether they have a professional or business account.

Does Instagram Notify When You Screenshot a DM?

The only time when you and other Instagram users can know if a piece of content sent was screenshotted is on the DMs. If someone sends you a photo or video that will disappear after it's open for the first time through Direct Messages, Instagram inserts a hatched circle on the side of the message to notify the user a screenshot was taken. 

The image shows an Instagram DM

Source: Android Authority

Besides, when the person opens the main Instagram direct message section, they will see the word "screenshot" written in front of the user's profile picture, in the conversation summary. 

How to Save Posts Without Screenshotting Them?

There isn't a way to save stories from other users without taking screenshots or using a video recorder app, as the idea is for the content to disappear within 24 hours, except if the profile owner saves it in the highlights

But, Instagram does enable you to save the posts published in the feed through the bookmark icon. You can even create different folders to save inspiration posts about multiple topics, a function similar to how  Pinterest works. 

The image shows a JivoChat post on instagram, and on the right side of the image it's possible to see the bookmark feature

How to Avoid People From Knowing You Took a Screenshot of a DM

If you want to save a disappearing private video or picture, but you don't wish the other person to know, there are some hacks to help you with that. 

Put Your Smartphone on Airplane Mode

When your smartphone is in airplane mode, the other person isn't notified that you took a screenshot of the disappearing video or photo they have sent. 

iPhone screen showing the airplane mode and other icons

Open Instagram in a Web Browser

Instagram doesn't notify when screenshots are taken from a desktop computer or laptop. So you can open the DMs through it and save what you wish. 

Take a Photo From Another Device

Another alternative is to take a camera or another smartphone and use this device to take a picture of the disappearing picture or video message opened on your smartphone. The problem here is that the quality of the image may not be very good. 

How to Prevent Strangers from Taking Screenshots of My Stories?

If you are worried about preserving your privacy, but you still want to share more about your life in the stories, there are two options to avoid strangers from seeing the content and screenshotting them. 

You can turn your Instagram profile into a private one, this way people will have to send you a friend request and follow you to see your stories and feed posts.  

The other alternative is to use the close friends feature, where you select a group of people who will have access to some specific stories, which you don't want everyone to see. 

Respecting People's Privacy Is Important

Even though the answer to the question "does Instagram notify when you screenshot a story?"  is no, it's important to consider the users' privacy. Before taking a screenshot, put yourself in the person's shoes, would you like to have someone doing this to you?

When it's content with personal information and not tips or other general types of information, it's always important to mind if you should take the screenshot or not.

Now, if you are worried about how to create great stories for your Instagram, there are multiple Lightroom Instagram presets that can help you with that.

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