WhatsApp will block screenshots for photos set to “View Once”

One of the features of WhatsApp is that it allows users to send photos that can only be viewed once. This is useful for privacy reasons and if you don’t want the other user saving the photo you sent them, but it has a flaw – users can still capture a screenshot of the photo anyway.

Thankfully, that will change soon because according to WABetaInfo, they have discovered an upcoming update to the “View Once” feature that will basically block users from taking screenshots of photos that have been set to “View Once”. This means that you can expect better privacy moving forwards.

📝 WhatsApp beta for iOS 22.21.0.71: what's new?

WhatsApp is releasing screenshot blocking for view once images and videos to some beta testers!https://t.co/fXvDQIlSxi pic.twitter.com/tIiR3FpBNs

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) October 4, 2022

It also appears that this change will block screen recordings, so if the user tries to find a workaround using screen recording instead of screenshot, it won’t work either. Keep in mind that this was found in the iOS version of the app so we’re not sure if it will work the same for Android and if it will also be able to detect third-party screen recording apps.

That being said, there are other ways of saving the photo, like taking an actual photo of the photo using another phone or camera. That would be quite unavoidable regardless of the app that is being used, but we suppose it’s still better than nothing. The feature isn’t live yet as it was spotted in the beta, so we’ll have to wait for a bit before it eventually makes its way to the public.