Back in August 2021, WhatsApp rolled out a feature dubbed ‘View Once,’ as the name of the tool suggests, the option was supposed to let users send videos and photos that can be viewed only once.
The feature was borrowed from a similar feature on the popular messaging app Snapchat, however, unlike on Snapchat, View Once media was not that secure.
The Facebook-owned company made a major oversight in how it implemented the feature: you could take screenshots of view once media, thereby defeating their entire purpose. This is even on the official app, modded WhatsApp apps are even worse. Snapchat informs the sender of the media that the recipient tried to take a screenshot.
A year later, it seems WhatsApp is now addressing the issue, WABetaInfo reports that WhatsApp has released a new version of its view once media viewer with built-in screenshot blocking for selected beta users. Like on Google Pay and other apps, when you try to take a screenshot of a self-destructing media on the latest WhatsApp beta, a toast message will appear saying, “Can’t take screenshot due to security policy.”
Will you be notified when a screenshot or screen recording is initiated?
Using a third-party app or extension to bypass this security limitation won’t work either. You will end up with a black screenshot. Similarly, you cannot record the screen while opening a view once media. Unlike Snapchat though, WhatsApp still does not inform the sender of the media that the recipient tried to take a screenshot.
