The Instagram Stories are much like their counterparts on Facebook. Zuccuerberg’s company bought Instagram in 2012 and has been incorporating IG in FB in many ways for the past 3-4 years. The Facebook Stories are actually modeled after the Instagram Stories which garnered a lot of attention and praise online when they came out. The Instagram Stories remain an important tool for self-expression and social involvement for many people online.

If you are a regular Instagram user you may have noticed that the focus of the app is the “Feed” and at the top of there is a carousel with photos and short videos that your friends and family published on their account today. The Instagram Stories can feature a video you just made with your camera or a photo you just made and added filters to make it more impactful. Some stories are more engaging than others and you might want to screenshot them or save the video your favorite artist just uploaded. With the busy schedule many of us have, making a screenshot or a screen recording for later viewing is common.

Android and iOS users have a lot of apps and services to choose from when they need to save an interesting media to their device or the cloud. Users running Android can simply do a long press on the power button and the phone automatically makes a screenshot of the screen. iPhone users need to hold the volume up button and the side button together to make a screenshot on their device.

If you wanted to screenshot an Instagram Story or save a video on Instagram recently, you might have questioned yourself if the person sharing the content may receive a notification about your activity.

Instagram tested a system to detect screenshots and screen recording so that the media creators had a way to know who saved their content. The testing was performed between February and June 2018. The system was scrapped and I can answer your question from above with a solid “It Depends”.

There is a case where your screenshots are detected and the other person is notified about that which will be explained below. Generally speaking, if you make a screenshot of someone’s post they will not be notified. The same is valid for cases where you record your screen while someone’s video on Instagram Story is being played on your device and when you are screenshotting a person’s IG profile to send to a friend without following the person of interest. The Instagram Stories are classified as “disappearing video/posts” due to them being available for 24 hours only.

That might not be the case all the time. IG users can take advantage of the Bookmark System and choose to bookmark an interesting post, image and video. The bookmarked content will be kept available in your “Saved” vault on your IG account. In addition, you can copy the link to the content you like and send it via a direct message to your friends and family, and even share the Instagram Stories on your profile page.

Screenshot Notifications Appear Only in DMs

When you send a disappearing video/picture in a direct message your recipient can screenshot it and record what is on their screen. The one sending the content can receive a notification about their disappearing content being recorded. This help page from Instagram explains the case as follow:

"To see disappearing photos and videos you've sent, tap in the top right of Feed and tap the conversation. You can't view disappearing photos or videos after you've sent them, but you can see if they were delivered, opened, replayed or if someone took a screenshot.

After you send a disappearing photo or video to someone, you'll see the status of the message (example: Delivered, Opened, Replayed, Screenshot) as part of your conversation in Direct. For group conversations, tap where it says the status of your message to see its status with each person in the group individually."

In brief, Instagram can let you know if your disappearing photo/video was saved in some way if you sent the photo/video in a direct message to another Instagram user, but you have to manually scroll through your conversation. Please, note that apps in Google Play, the Apple App Store and third-[arty software stores that might claim to provide “screenshot notifications” or the infamous “who saw your account” notifications are malicious in nature and you should not install them.

Do Not Trust Apps That Claim to Notify You When Someone Took a Screenshot of Your Story on Instagram and Facebook

Many people are using their smartphones to keep their banking data at hand, verify logins in their favorite online services and store photos of their family. You can put all your data at risk if you decide to check an unofficial app that suggests it can help you improve your privacy online and let you know who screenshotted your story on Instagram and Facebook. The same can be said for those apps associated with other services like Snapchat. Keep your smartphone safe by being vigilant and using apps from the official app store for your phone.