Why Mark Zuckerberg warned users about screenshotting certain messenger chats

A disappearing message is supposed to vanish after it’s been viewed. But a screenshot can keep that message around indefinitely.

That was the issue behind a privacy update announced by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in January 2022. The feature alerts users when someone takes a screenshot of a disappearing message in an end-to-end encrypted Messenger conversation.

“New update for end-to-end encrypted Messenger chats so you get a notification if someone screenshots a disappearing message,” Zuckerberg wrote when announcing the feature on Facebook.

To demonstrate how it worked, Zuckerberg shared a screenshot of a conversation with his wife, Priscilla Chan. He also said Meta was adding GIFs, stickers and reactions to encrypted chats.

The update arrived as Meta continued expanding privacy features across Messenger. At the time, the company had been rolling out disappearing messages, which automatically vanish after being viewed, along with broader end-to-end encryption protections.

The screenshot notification applies specifically to disappearing messages in encrypted chats. It does not mean Messenger alerts users every time a screenshot is taken in a regular conversation.

The announcement quickly drew reactions from social media users, many of whom questioned how effective the feature would be in preventing people from saving messages.

Comments reported by several news outlets pointed to potential alternatives, including screen recordings or taking a photograph of a conversation with a second device. Others suggested users would simply find new ways to preserve messages without triggering a screenshot alert.

Those reactions highlighted a limitation that exists across most messaging platforms: while disappearing messages can reduce how long content remains visible inside an app, they cannot completely prevent someone from recording or photographing what appears on a screen.

For Messenger users, the update serves as a notification tool rather than a guarantee that disappearing messages cannot be saved. If a participant takes a screenshot of a disappearing message in an end-to-end encrypted chat, the other person may receive an alert. Outside of that specific setting, screenshot notifications generally do not apply.

More than four years after Zuckerberg’s announcement, the feature remains one of Messenger’s lesser-known privacy tools, and one that many users only discover after receiving a notification themselves.