Does Facebook notify you of story screenshots? Here's what you need to know

Dave Johnson

Dec 4, 2020, 22:52 IST

Does Facebook notify you of story screenshots? Here's what you need to know

Facebook users can take screenshots of your Facebook story without prompting a notification on your end.Tim Robberts/Getty Images

Facebook does not notify you if someone screenshots your story.
While a Facebook story is not a permanent part of your profile or feed, anyone can take a screenshot and keep it forever.
Other prominent social media platforms have similar approaches to screenshots of your story.

Facebook, like most other popular social media services, lets you create short-lived posts called Stories, often a mashup of text, backgrounds, and photos or video. Facebook's intent is to allow you to create posts about moments in time that you don't necessarily want to linger on your profile permanently.

Because they're temporary, you or others who view your story may want to capture part or all of it before it's gone forever. To do that, they'll likely take screenshots. But will Facebook notify you when someone has taken a screenshot of your story?

Facebook does not notify you about story screenshots

While the story expires and disappears after 24 hours, anyone can take a screenshot on their phone or computer, essentially making a record of it they can keep forever. So be aware that you are not notified if someone captures a screenshot of your story.

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This is not surprising. Not only is it technically challenging for Facebook to know if a screenshot is being taken in many situations - such as when Facebook is being run in a browser - it's also similar to the way most other social media platforms deal with stories.

Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn don't notify users if their stories have been screenshotted, for example. (Though Instagram does notify users about screenshots under certain conditions. Only Snapchat notifies an account owner if a story is captured with a screenshot.