14 DAY TRIAL // WhatsApp will soon get a new feature that will allow users to block conversation screenshots on their devices.
An early implementation is available in the latest WhatsApp beta for Android, and the feature is tied to the authentication lock within the app.
Basically, this means that if you enable fingerprint or face recognition security (you won’t be able to launch WhatsApp without scanning your finger or face), screenshots are blocked as well on your device.
More awkward is that this feature does not block screenshots at conversation level, but only on the local device. In other words, you are the only one restricted from taking screenshots, and not the person you’re chatting to.
Similar feature in Telegram secret chats
A similar feature is also available in WhatsApp’s rival Telegram as part of secret chats, only that in this case all participants in a conversation are blocked from taking a screen capture.
For now, the only real purpose such a feature would have is blocking malware from capturing your conversations, as others would otherwise find it rather unhandy to set such restrictions on their devices.
As WABetaInfo discovered, WhatsApp is also working on adding animated stickers to all supported platforms, including even WhatsApp for the Web.
Stickers are already available, but WhatsApp wants to enhance conversations by adding animated versions that play continuously in a loop. Unlike GIFs, which only play for a limited time, the new stickers would animate continuously in the conversation window.
Right now, these features are still being tested by WhatsApp, and there’s no ETA as to when they could be pushed to users. However, it shouldn’t take too long before they go live, especially in the case of the animated stickers, which just seem to be a natural evolution of the existing sticker implementation on Android and iOS.