Creepy followers? Instagram tells you if someone takes a screenshot of your Stories

Instagram is the place to be if you want to follow your favorite celebrity, influencer, mentor or even your crush. Stories are a crucial part of this photo-based social media platform, which allows users to share their moments for just 24 hours after which they disappear.

But there's a downside to that as well. Even though the idea behind Instagram Stories is to share a sequence of photos and videos like a slideshow that disappear at the end of the day, some users could screenshot or screen record those stories to preserve them for longer without the knowledge of the user.

But it looks like the days of those secretly storing someone's Stories are soon going to be over. Instagram is testing a new feature that would notify users when someone takes a screenshot or screen record their Story posts. According to WABetaInfo, the feature is yet to be enabled as it's still in early development. Some users are getting this feature as a part of beta testing.

How will I know if someone takes a screenshot of my Stories?

When rolled out, Instagram users will see a sun-shaped symbol appear alongside the names of people who viewed your Story. But Instagram is also cutting some slack for first-time offenders as a warning will appear saying, "Next time you take a screenshot or do screen recording, the person who posted the story will be able to see it."

With over 300 million active users on the platform, it remains to be seen how Instagram's new feature will be received. Stories is one of the most popular features of Instagram, which mimics Snapchat. But this feature will boost privacy of posts for users.

But there's already a loophole in the new privacy setting even before it's rolled out. According to reports, users will still be able to take screenshots in flight mode without being detected.

Besides this new feature, Instagram is also testing another feature called Regram, which would allow users to share public feed posts from other users to their Story. This feature is also available to a small number of users, but a wider rollout is expected soon.

"We're always testing ways to make it easier to share any moment with friends on Instagram," Instagram was quoted as saying, according to TechCrunch.