Snapchat: iPhone users can't secretly record Snaps anymore

There has been a lot of confusion around the feature

Aatif Sulleyman
Monday 16 October 2017 11:39 BST
Comments
The logo of messaging app Snapchat is seen at a booth at TechFair LA, a technology job fair, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 26, 2017
The logo of messaging app Snapchat is seen at a booth at TechFair LA, a technology job fair, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 26, 2017 (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Snapchat notifies you when someone uses iOS 11’s new Screen Recording feature to save your Snaps.

The latest version of Apple’s mobile software rolled out to iPhone users last month, and there has been a lot of confusion and concern around the new tool.

At first, Snapchat allowed iOS 11 users to record other people’s Snaps secretly, without the person who posted them realising.

That’s different to the way the app handles regular screenshots, which you always get a warning notification about.

Snapchat confirmed that was the case to Mashable.

However, the company added that it would change this with a Snapchat update, though the person doing the recording would need to have downloaded it.

The update has since been released, meaning Snapchat now informs users every time their updates are recorded using Screen Recording on iOS 11.

That’s good news for users, but it doesn’t mean they’re safe to post anything they want.

As has always been the case, everything can still be saved by someone else.

The only difference now is that Snapchat will tell you when this happens, regardless of whether it is done using Screen Recording on iOS 11 or a phone's regular screenshot feature.

As the company states on its support page: “Snapchatters who see your messages can always potentially save them, whether by taking a screenshot or by using some other image-capture technology (whether that be a separate piece of software, or even simply taking a photo of their screen with a second camera).”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in