Now WhatsApp will BLOCK screenshots of View Once messages - All you need to know

WhatsApp update: In a major update for WhatsApp users, the Meta-owned messaging application is reportedly planning to rollout a new privacy feature. WhatsApp is releasing screenshot blocking for view once images and videos to some beta testers. The ability is available for some beta testers that install the latest beta from the Play Store.

According to WaBetaInfo, a website that tracks WhatsApp, the messaging platform is releasing a new version of view once images and videos in order to prevent people from taking a screenshot, or a screen recording, to them and it is available for some beta testers that install the latest beta from the Play Store.

As per the screenshots shared by the WaBetaInfo in a report, some beta testers are no longer able to take a screenshot to view once images, and screen recordings to view once videos. Normally, you cannot take a screenshot due to security policy and a toast will show up but even if some people would use third-party extensions to be able to bypass the security policy, the image will always be black. 

If the feature is enabled for your WhatsApp account, you should know that:

- When someone takes a screenshot, it is never notified to the recipient but the attempt to take a screenshot is immediately blocked for added privacy.

- The attempt to record the screen when opening a view once image or video is also blocked by default.

- You can still take screenshots of conversations even if they contain some disappearing messages since the new feature is only limited to view once images and videos.

- You cannot forward, export, or save, view once images and videos as always.

- The recipient may still take a photo by using a secondary mobile device so you should always be careful when sending view once messages.

WhatsApp keeps working on improving the detection of those attempts to silently take screenshots, and more improvements may be available in the future. At the moment, the new version of view once images and videos is released to some beta testers and will be released to more people over the coming weeks.