WhatsApp blocking Android users from taking screenshots but not iPhone users: How it works

WhatsApp now restricts users from taking a screenshot of profile photos of other users on the app. This is a new layer of privacy that will benefit users from strangers or even contacts taking a screenshot of your display picture. Interestingly, this feature is only available for Android users as of now, but not iPhone users. 

This feature has not officially been announced by Meta but has been spotted by Business Today. This is not something that the users can enable or disable in the app settings, like Last Seen status or Online Status, but it is more like a default setting. WhatsApp’s rivals Signal and Telegram do not have this feature yet.

Whenever you try taking a screenshot of anyone’s profile picture on the app, you will see: “Can’t take a screenshot due to app restrictions.” Notably, the app won’t alert you with a notification, if someone is trying to take a screenshot of your display picture.

This is similar to the app’s ‘View Once’ feature. The messaging platform does not let anyone take a screenshot of any image or video, sent 'view once' format.

In other news, WhatsApp is also expected to soon let users pin up to 5 chats in the app. As per a report by WABetaInfo, this feature is like a shortcut to anyone’s chat. You don’t have to waste time looking for an individual or group chat. As of now, WhatsApp allows users to pin up to three chats.

Just last week, WABetaInfo reported, that WhatsApp users might soon be able to send messages to third-party apps like Signal, and Telegram. This WhatsApp chat interoperability feature is developed in response to Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations that give large companies or ‘gatekeepers’ six months to facilitate communication between different messaging apps.

The report further adds that the messaging platform will also allow users to decide which third-party apps they can share messages with. This will allow users to control the sharing of their data with external services.

Notably, once you disable the chat interoperability service, you will lose the ability to send or receive messages in third-party apps. 

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