Mark Zuckerberg has a message for Facebook Messenger users: stop taking screenshots of your chats.
The Facebook co-founder, who started the platform with his college roommates, now serves as the chairman, CEO, and controlling shareholder of its parent company, Meta.
His rise to fame, legal battles, and Facebook’s early days were even dramatized in the movie The Social Network.
Now, Zuckerberg is issuing a clear warning to users—don’t screenshot your conversations.
Back in 2020, Facebook introduced a feature called Vanish Mode on both Facebook and Instagram, allowing messages to disappear automatically.
With Vanish Mode enabled, messages would be erased as soon as the recipient had seen them and exited the chat.
At the time, Facebook explained: “Sometimes a message is just spontaneous – something you want to say in the moment without worrying about it sticking around. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Vanish Mode on Messenger, which lets you send messages that disappear automatically.”
To activate this feature, users simply had to swipe up in an existing chat on their mobile device. Swiping up again would return the conversation to its normal mode.
Bridget Pujals, Messenger Product Manager, and Manik Singh, Instagram Product Manager, explained in a statement (via USA Today), “We designed Vanish Mode with safety and choice in mind, so you control your experience.”
Initially launched in the US, Vanish Mode later became available in several EU countries.
However, the Facebook Help Center now states that the feature is “no longer supported.” Instead, Facebook has introduced disappearing messages.
“Disappearing messages are gradually being introduced and may not be available to you yet,” the platform notes.
To access this feature, open a conversation in Messenger, tap on the person’s name, and scroll down to Privacy and Support, where you’ll find the Disappearing Messages option.
The warning message states: “If someone takes a screenshot or screen recording, a notification will appear in the chat.”
Mark Zuckerberg recently alerted Facebook Messenger users about screenshotting private conversations through a post on the platform.
In his announcement, he wrote: *“New update for end-to-end encrypted Messenger chats so you get a notification if someone screenshots a disappearing message.
“We’re also adding GIFs, stickers, and reactions to encrypted chats too.”
To illustrate the feature, the Facebook founder shared a chat between himself and his wife, Priscilla Chan. After making a corny joke about a supercomputer, Priscilla took a screenshot—prompting the notification to appear in the chat.