Hoax alert: WhatsApp won't notify you when someone takes a snapshot of your chat

On January 23, an online report claimed that WhatsApp will notify users when someone takes a screenshot of their chat messages. According to a satire website 8shit, WhatsApp announced the roll out of the new feature, which will mimic Snapchat.

The website also posted a fake quote of the CEO Jan Koum that reads “The functioning is simple, just like the blue tick: You will have the option activated by default. If it’s checked, you’ll be notified if someone screenshots your conversation, and others will be notified if you screenshot theirs. If it’s unchecked, no one gets notified”,

The news has since gone viral on social media and people have been left puzzled as many of them take snapshots of their chats and share it with others.

Unfortunately, many other websites shared the same satirical report from the website, without confirming any legitimacy. Do note, neither the WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum had given such statement nor it was said officially on WhatsApp's blog. The message about WhatsApp alerting about screenshots is nothing, but simply a hoax circulating online.

The disclaimer on 8shit reads “8Shit is a satire news and humor website. All its content is fiction (except those under the “serious” category) and shouldn’t be taken as real. All references, names and marks or institutions in this web are used as contextual elements, like in any novel or science-fiction story.”

A similar kind of article was circulated few months ago claiming that Instagram will send notifications for taking a screenshot of a user’s picture. However, later it was confirmed that the service only notified the user when a screeshot of a personal message was taken.

All these evidence proves that the story is nothing more than a hoax and users should not believe it until there is any official announcement from the WhatsApp itself.