Instagram stories are great for sharing snippets with your friends and followers. And since they stay up for just 24 hours, you can post pretty much anything you want without worrying about it being around forever. Some folks, however, can’t help but take screenshots of other people’s stories instead of just enjoying it for the brief time it’s available for. So can you see who has screenshotted your Instagram story?
Unfortunately, there’s no surefire way to tell if someone has screenshotted your Instagram story. Instagram doesn’t send any notifications, and there’s no way to tell from within the app. The most you can do is look at who has viewed your story and see if anyone suspicious is on the list.
If you’re really worried about people screenshotting your stories, your best bet is to set your account to private so only people you approve can see your stuff. Alternatively, you can ‘Hide Story From’ certain people. That way, you’ll have control over the people you don’t want to see your stuff.
Since there’s no foolproof way to look out for screenshotters, we’ll go over two methods to give you a general idea of who might have saved your story.
Method #1: Check Who Has Viewed Your Story
While this may not be a definitive way to tell if someone has screenshotted your story, it’s a decent place to start. To check who has viewed your story:
- Open your Instagram app and tap on your story thumbnail to open up your stories.
- Swipe up, and you’ll see a list of everyone who has viewed your story in the order they watched it.
Instagram stories last for 24 hours, but you can still go back in the next 24 hours and check the viewer’s list. To do this:
- Tap on your ‘Profile picture.’
- Click on the three lines in the top right corner and select ‘Archive’ from the menu.
- Your archived stories will appear here. Find the story you want to check and tap on it.
- Swipe up, and you’ll see the list of people who have viewed it.
Method #2: Limit Who Can View Your Story
If you are posting something sensitive or just want to make sure only certain people see your story, you can limit who views it. This won’t stop someone from screenshotting if they really want to, but at least you’ll have a better idea of who did it if it happens.
To hide your stories from certain people:
- Tap on your ‘Profile picture.’
- Click on the three lines in the top right corner and select ‘Settings’ from the menu.
- Scroll down and select ‘Privacy.’
- Under the ‘Interactions’ section, tap on ‘Story.’
- Tap on the number next to ‘Hide Story From.’
- Select the people you want to hide your story from and tap ‘Done’ in the top right corner.
Going forward, those people will no longer be able to see your stories.
Conclusion
It is not against the rules to take screengrabs on Instagram, and most of the time, people are just curious and don’t mean any harm. However, if you’re concerned about people saving your stories, your best bet is to limit those who can see them or set your account to private. Just remember that screenshotting is pretty much part of the internet culture, so there’s not much you can do to stop it from happening.
Frequently Asked Questions
Probably not. In fact, in 2018, Instagram had this feature and showed a star next to the user’s name who took a screenshot. However, they eventually removed it after a public outcry. So, it doesn’t seem like Instagram will bring it back any time soon.
No. Instagram doesn’t share your story metrics with any third-party apps. So, any app that claims so is probably a scam. Plus, using these apps is unsafe and discouraged by Instagram.
Instagram only notifies users when someone takes a screenshot of your pictures or videos in direct messages.
If you’re worried about intellectual property rights, you should be fine since the rights belong to you, even if someone saves your story. However, if you’re worried about people saving embarrassing moments or private photos, then you might want to limit who can see your stories or set your account to private.
No. When you hide your story from someone, they won’t be able to see your stories anymore but still be able to see your posts, pictures, and videos.
