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Claim: TikTok users recently claimed that a new WhatsApp update notifies users when screenshots or recordings of chats are taken.
Verdict: Misleading! WhatsApp has no such features, as information on the app is end-to-end encrypted.
Full Text
WhatsApp is known for consistently updating its app. Since its launch in 2009, the app has radically evolved into one of the world’s most popular messaging platforms.
Despite facing competition from platforms like Signal and Telegram, the app boasts over 2 billion users worldwide and continues to introduce new features, which it says are designed to “ensure user safety.”
Since its acquisition by Meta in 2014, the app has seen significant improvements in features and security.
Recently, TikTok users created videos expressing their displeasure with WhatsApp’s alleged new update, which alerts a person when a screenshot of their message or media is taken by the other party in a conversation, as seen here.
Other users, such as DeeContentLab, Biggest Chris, Kiara, gin__48, and danielteze3, also made posts alluding to this alleged new update. The comment section showed that many people were interested in knowing whether this feature has now been added to WhatsApp.
Considering the issue’s relevance and the claim’s virality, DUBAWA fact-checked it to ascertain its veracity.
Verification
A keyword search on major search engines revealed no such report from credible news outlets. Instead, numerous results indicated that the feature is not available on WhatsApp.
A recent update by the platform, as reported by Techloy, includes a security feature that would help users avoid being victims of scams. This feature is a pop-up that alerts people when they are added to a group by someone who is not in their contact list.
The feature also allows users to review group information, see who is already in the group, check if they know any members, and choose to view the chat or leave the group immediately.
DUBAWA also checked WhatsApp’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page to verify the claim. The information found there indicates that WhatsApp does not allow users to screenshot another person’s profile picture on specific iOS and Android devices.
Findings showed that when a user attempts to do so, a message appears stating, “Screenshots are blocked for added privacy.”
Screenshot options are also not available for viewing once photos and videos are sent via WhatsApp. Though some people boycott this procedure by using another device’s camera to capture the view-once photo, it doesn’t save in the recipient’s gallery once opened.
Meanwhile, the Advanced chat privacy option on WhatsApp restricts how others interact with a user’s messages and media. It ensures photos and videos shared in a chat do not appear in the recipient’s gallery, blocks others from exporting chats, and uses Meta AI features to summarise messages.
However, recipients can still screenshot the conversation without WhatsApp notifying the sender.
WhatsApp’s latest blog post, posted on June 25, 2025, announced the introduction of a message summary feature that allows users to quickly catch up on unread messages in a chat by using Meta AI to summarise conversations. However, this feature is only available for those in the United States.
Conclusion
The claim that WhatsApp introduced a feature that notifies users when screenshots or recordings of chats are taken is unsubstantiated and misleading.
