6 ms·

Well, I have not once found a single case where an app reacting to screenshots and controlling the process in any way was anything to me but hostile and annoyin

by 3form 1mo ago

Well, I have not once found a single case where an app reacting to screenshots and controlling the process in any way was anything to me but hostile and annoying. This one does not help. It somehow is perfect example of how modern software engineering feels to go astray for me. A feature in my device working completely in benefit of the one providing said software. I wish, and wish only I can, that this trend goes away at some point.

bigyabai 1mo ago
> I wish, and wish only I can, that this trend goes away at some point. You don't have to wish, in this scenario. Bluesky supports third-party clients, you can use one that has a more minimal featureset if you prefer.
- drdexebtjl 1mo ago
  For Bluesky, sure. I think the comment was aimed at the trend. Android and iOS should not let apps do this, because it can be (ab)used by apps that you can’t really choose not to use. I know there’s a popular bank in my country that completely blocks screenshots and screen recordings on Android somehow.
  - edoceo 1mo ago
    In USA Wells Fargo blocks it, so I can't get a picture of the bugs I'm trying to report.
  - deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]
  - rawling 1mo ago
    https://developer.android.com/security/fraud-prevention/activities#flag_secure https://developer.android.com/security/fraud-prevention/acti...
    - drdexebtjl 1mo ago
      Thanks. It’s been a while since I used Android. This is absolutely hostile to users.
shiandow 1mo ago
It still baffles me that it has become normal for an OS to place the wishes of an app above those of the user. Hijacking the screenshot process is a privilege that you ought to be able to revoke, it's insane to allow software to be given more control. And don't tell me it's anything to do with security when it can be circumvented in any number of ways.
- javier2 1mo ago
  Did you read the post? Nothing is hijacked, but its a trick where they render the normal button in a ui element for secret data, which is blanked by the system on screenshot, revealing the logo underneath. Its a reasonable feature, so its hard for apple to control it better or remove this.
  - Analemma_ 1mo ago
    No, it’s not a reasonable feature. If I take a screenshot, I want the image to include what is displayed on my fucking screen, period. What is so difficult about this?
    - deleted 1mo ago
      [deleted]
    - javier2 1mo ago
      Im saying the feature is reasonable from Apple's UI elements, i wasnt saying the way Bluesky is using it is reasonable...
  - nemomarx 1mo ago
    users should have some way to control if screenshots have secret data in them or not, really. what if I do actually need to preserve it?
    - edoceo 1mo ago
      I like your idea. When the screenshot is taken a user can have an option: Include Secrets? And the Apps can only hint at what to hide.
fer 1mo ago
> hostile and annoying If someone from Google Maps or LinkedIn team is here, please, when I take a screenshot it's because I want to a screenshot, not share the friggin location/post. Not sure who got the idea that it was useful, it isn't.
- Razengan 1mo ago
  Blame Apple for even allowing apps to be aware of the user taking a screenshot. Just like their iCloud Keychain API that lets apps secretly track users across app reinstalls and device resets.
  - bethekidyouwant 1mo ago
    Getting your account back on reinstall is good
    - Razengan 1mo ago
      I can fucking type my username and password, thank you. And I prefer to see and choose the data an app stores on my fucking ICLOUD ACCOUNT. And fucking DELETE it when I want. There's no way to do that from an iOS device.
      - doc_ick 1mo ago
        .
        Dylan16807 1mo ago
        I thought your other comments about writing your own were sarcasm about how that's such a terrible situation if that's the kind of thing it would take. But this one looks like you actually mean it? Yikes.
        deleted 1mo ago
        [deleted]
thepasswordis 1mo ago
It is actually astonishing to me that this is not something which can be turned off at the OS level, or as a permission setting in the app permissions. The app knowing I took a screenshot feels adjacent to me to a keylogger. Imagine how many apps are capturing that information silently. To my mind, a screenshot is something that is happening outside of the app context, the app knowing about it is a security flaw imo.
- dc443 1mo ago
  but you didn't read the part where the mechanism is explained? it doesn't do anything like capturing information. it just marks a button "sensitive" causing it to be hidden in a screenshot, thus revealing an icon that was put there underneath the button.
- araeyn 1mo ago
  Did you read the article? Bluesky doesn't know you're taking a screenshot, iOS just hides the follow button in the screenshot (consequently making the Bluesky logo visible).
  - LPisGood 1mo ago
    iOS does tell the app that a screenshot was taken though
  - verdverm 1mo ago
    > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that". Found in the HN commenting guidelines, linked at the bottom of most pages
    - araeyn 1mo ago
      Noted, I'll keep that in mind when commenting in the future.
- CircuitSeuss 1mo ago
  > The app knowing I took a screenshot feels adjacent to me to a keylogger. To my knowledge, this is a misunderstanding. The app does not know that you are taking a screenshot, rather iOS knows you are taking a screenshot (as it must) and is excluding an element on display that has been designated by the developer as sensitive information. This is the same technology that prevents you from accidentally screenshotting your password manager; the developer has simply performed a nifty trick to display a small icon behind where the “follow” button would otherwise be displayed. There are plenty of instances where this sort of thing can be annoying, such as when you try to screenshot a streaming service app and DRM enforcement leaves you with a blank screenshot, but IMO this particular instance is actually very tasteful; seeing “follow” on every screenshotted post is just useless noise, but a small unobtrusive platform icon is a useful reminder that the post came from Bluesky and not another very visually similar service like X(cancel) or Mastodon.
tchalla 1mo ago
Side note- The Screenshot culture itself needs to die, sorry. Many a time, a share button simply works. I don’t know why people would share a screenshot or a map instead of pin and share their location. Yes there are cases where a screenshot helps but majority cases simply is “come to this place” a which turns out to make more difficult because people apparently don’t know how to share locations with pin and share!
- dhruvrrp 1mo ago
  Screenshots are much better for archival. So many times you go back to a url/link you shared, and poof it's gone or the content has changed from when you sent it. Screenshots allows you to get a point in time reference to what you are sharing.
- jasonjayr 1mo ago
  The ideal "World Wide Web" envisioned by it's original design, was that a URI was a durable pointer to an immutable piece of information. In 2026, we now know that the information can be edited, or completely removed for many reasons, some legitimate, and some nefarious. Taking a screenshot is the easiest way to ensure the original is kept for folks to see. Frankly, it'd be even better if (a) the app can signal to the OS information about the url to the page for the screenshot, (b) timestamps were captured in the image and not cropped, and (c) the OS can authenticate the screen shot and digitally sign that it came from an unaltered device.
- -0_0- 1mo ago
  In the case of sharing a link I have to remember/find where it is in each app, likely scroll through a long list of messaging (and for some reason non-messaging apps) to find the correct app, select the contact, and then pray that the link sent actually works for them and contains the correct information I'm seeing (very often the link will actually direct them to a web version of the app I'm using, then put a modal popup in front of the information asking them to use the app, then either send them to the app store, or send them to the app but strip out the actual information I linked and send them to a blank map). Screenshots are clunky and unideal, but at least they're fast and I know that they don't fail or break or send the wrong info to my contact. If it were a one off message, this wouldn't be an issue, but if you zoom out on the issue and see you're sending up to a hundred messages a day, points of failure become major life frictions and you're trained out of using things like links in messaging apps.
andai 1mo ago
When I take a screenshot in ChatGPT, it shows a "share this chat?" toast at the top. The toast shows up after the screenshot, but my phones's long screenshot feature captures the top part a second time, so the top part of the chat becomes unreadable.
- KennyBlanken 1mo ago
  Yup, that's by design. They want to force you to "share" so they can both track who you interact with, and also try to convert the other person into a paying customer.
qurren 1mo ago
I also despise this "screenshot blocking" stuff. A device listens is supposed to me, not to the apps. I want a screenshot to be a copy of the raw pixels, and an app should not know about it or have a right to know about it. Of course this is doable on open source OSes like GrapheneOS, it just sucks that you have to keep modifying the OS every time they release a new version
- hod6654 1mo ago
  GrapheneOS doesn't allow for it. You'd need a rooted device to bypass screenshot blocking
  - qurren 1mo ago
    Well damn, I would have thought rooting would have been a basic feature of GrapheneOS. At least it's open source, so maybe one can add root access and screenshot blocking to it.
    - broodbucket 1mo ago
      GrapheneOS is concerned with security more than anything else, to which rooting is completely counterproductive
      - summm 1mo ago
        Correction: GrapheneOS is concerned with their so called "Android security model" more than anything else, and where that security model gives guarantees to app developers and service providers that harms the user's security, they merrily side with the developer's security against the user, at best give some more or less questionable reasons why that unfortunately currently cannot be changed, and at worst insult you for suggesting anything else.
      - qurren 1mo ago
        I would think that rooting is not counterproductive. In fact my personal security model requires root access. 1. I need to be able to monitor what's inside the memory and communications of every process running if I want to 2. I need to be able to pin a different root certificate, install a MITM SSL proxy and see what every app is sending about me, if I want to
alasano 1mo ago
I hate the ChatGPT app and Spotify the most for their screenshot behavior.
deleted 1mo ago
[deleted]
jambalaya8 1mo ago
agree with you.
dev1ycan 1mo ago
This is what made me avoid chrome since release, I tried to right click a youtube channel background as a teen wanting to use it as a template to make my own channel background on photoshop... turns out they had disabled it, while I could on firefox.
xnx 1mo ago
There should be a layer of user control where the user can make the OS lie to the app. The app has no need to know when a screenshot or recording is happening, what the real location is, what file system contents are, etc.

by 3form 1mo ago

bigyabai 1mo ago

> I wish, and wish only I can, that this trend goes away at some point. You don't have to wish, in this scenario. Bluesky supports third-party clients, you can use one that has a more minimal featureset if you prefer.

drdexebtjl 1mo ago
For Bluesky, sure. I think the comment was aimed at the trend. Android and iOS should not let apps do this, because it can be (ab)used by apps that you can’t really choose not to use. I know there’s a popular bank in my country that completely blocks screenshots and screen recordings on Android somehow.
- edoceo 1mo ago
  In USA Wells Fargo blocks it, so I can't get a picture of the bugs I'm trying to report.
- deleted 1mo ago
  [deleted]
- rawling 1mo ago
  https://developer.android.com/security/fraud-prevention/activities#flag_secure https://developer.android.com/security/fraud-prevention/acti...
  - drdexebtjl 1mo ago
    Thanks. It’s been a while since I used Android. This is absolutely hostile to users.

shiandow 1mo ago

It still baffles me that it has become normal for an OS to place the wishes of an app above those of the user. Hijacking the screenshot process is a privilege that you ought to be able to revoke, it's insane to allow software to be given more control. And don't tell me it's anything to do with security when it can be circumvented in any number of ways.

javier2 1mo ago
Did you read the post? Nothing is hijacked, but its a trick where they render the normal button in a ui element for secret data, which is blanked by the system on screenshot, revealing the logo underneath. Its a reasonable feature, so its hard for apple to control it better or remove this.
- Analemma_ 1mo ago
  No, it’s not a reasonable feature. If I take a screenshot, I want the image to include what is displayed on my fucking screen, period. What is so difficult about this?
  - deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]
  - javier2 1mo ago
    Im saying the feature is reasonable from Apple's UI elements, i wasnt saying the way Bluesky is using it is reasonable...
- nemomarx 1mo ago
  users should have some way to control if screenshots have secret data in them or not, really. what if I do actually need to preserve it?
  - edoceo 1mo ago
    I like your idea. When the screenshot is taken a user can have an option: Include Secrets? And the Apps can only hint at what to hide.

fer 1mo ago

> hostile and annoying If someone from Google Maps or LinkedIn team is here, please, when I take a screenshot it's because I want to a screenshot, not share the friggin location/post. Not sure who got the idea that it was useful, it isn't.

Razengan 1mo ago
Blame Apple for even allowing apps to be aware of the user taking a screenshot. Just like their iCloud Keychain API that lets apps secretly track users across app reinstalls and device resets.
- bethekidyouwant 1mo ago
  Getting your account back on reinstall is good
  - Razengan 1mo ago
    I can fucking type my username and password, thank you. And I prefer to see and choose the data an app stores on my fucking ICLOUD ACCOUNT. And fucking DELETE it when I want. There's no way to do that from an iOS device.
    - doc_ick 1mo ago
      .
      - Dylan16807 1mo ago
        I thought your other comments about writing your own were sarcasm about how that's such a terrible situation if that's the kind of thing it would take. But this one looks like you actually mean it? Yikes.
        deleted 1mo ago
        [deleted]

thepasswordis 1mo ago

It is actually astonishing to me that this is not something which can be turned off at the OS level, or as a permission setting in the app permissions. The app knowing I took a screenshot feels adjacent to me to a keylogger. Imagine how many apps are capturing that information silently. To my mind, a screenshot is something that is happening outside of the app context, the app knowing about it is a security flaw imo.

dc443 1mo ago
but you didn't read the part where the mechanism is explained? it doesn't do anything like capturing information. it just marks a button "sensitive" causing it to be hidden in a screenshot, thus revealing an icon that was put there underneath the button.
araeyn 1mo ago
Did you read the article? Bluesky doesn't know you're taking a screenshot, iOS just hides the follow button in the screenshot (consequently making the Bluesky logo visible).
- LPisGood 1mo ago
  iOS does tell the app that a screenshot was taken though
- verdverm 1mo ago
  > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that". Found in the HN commenting guidelines, linked at the bottom of most pages
  - araeyn 1mo ago
    Noted, I'll keep that in mind when commenting in the future.
CircuitSeuss 1mo ago
> The app knowing I took a screenshot feels adjacent to me to a keylogger. To my knowledge, this is a misunderstanding. The app does not know that you are taking a screenshot, rather iOS knows you are taking a screenshot (as it must) and is excluding an element on display that has been designated by the developer as sensitive information. This is the same technology that prevents you from accidentally screenshotting your password manager; the developer has simply performed a nifty trick to display a small icon behind where the “follow” button would otherwise be displayed. There are plenty of instances where this sort of thing can be annoying, such as when you try to screenshot a streaming service app and DRM enforcement leaves you with a blank screenshot, but IMO this particular instance is actually very tasteful; seeing “follow” on every screenshotted post is just useless noise, but a small unobtrusive platform icon is a useful reminder that the post came from Bluesky and not another very visually similar service like X(cancel) or Mastodon.

tchalla 1mo ago

Side note- The Screenshot culture itself needs to die, sorry. Many a time, a share button simply works. I don’t know why people would share a screenshot or a map instead of pin and share their location. Yes there are cases where a screenshot helps but majority cases simply is “come to this place” a which turns out to make more difficult because people apparently don’t know how to share locations with pin and share!

dhruvrrp 1mo ago
Screenshots are much better for archival. So many times you go back to a url/link you shared, and poof it's gone or the content has changed from when you sent it. Screenshots allows you to get a point in time reference to what you are sharing.
jasonjayr 1mo ago
The ideal "World Wide Web" envisioned by it's original design, was that a URI was a durable pointer to an immutable piece of information. In 2026, we now know that the information can be edited, or completely removed for many reasons, some legitimate, and some nefarious. Taking a screenshot is the easiest way to ensure the original is kept for folks to see. Frankly, it'd be even better if (a) the app can signal to the OS information about the url to the page for the screenshot, (b) timestamps were captured in the image and not cropped, and (c) the OS can authenticate the screen shot and digitally sign that it came from an unaltered device.
-0_0- 1mo ago
In the case of sharing a link I have to remember/find where it is in each app, likely scroll through a long list of messaging (and for some reason non-messaging apps) to find the correct app, select the contact, and then pray that the link sent actually works for them and contains the correct information I'm seeing (very often the link will actually direct them to a web version of the app I'm using, then put a modal popup in front of the information asking them to use the app, then either send them to the app store, or send them to the app but strip out the actual information I linked and send them to a blank map). Screenshots are clunky and unideal, but at least they're fast and I know that they don't fail or break or send the wrong info to my contact. If it were a one off message, this wouldn't be an issue, but if you zoom out on the issue and see you're sending up to a hundred messages a day, points of failure become major life frictions and you're trained out of using things like links in messaging apps.

andai 1mo ago

When I take a screenshot in ChatGPT, it shows a "share this chat?" toast at the top. The toast shows up after the screenshot, but my phones's long screenshot feature captures the top part a second time, so the top part of the chat becomes unreadable.

KennyBlanken 1mo ago
Yup, that's by design. They want to force you to "share" so they can both track who you interact with, and also try to convert the other person into a paying customer.

qurren 1mo ago

I also despise this "screenshot blocking" stuff. A device listens is supposed to me, not to the apps. I want a screenshot to be a copy of the raw pixels, and an app should not know about it or have a right to know about it. Of course this is doable on open source OSes like GrapheneOS, it just sucks that you have to keep modifying the OS every time they release a new version

hod6654 1mo ago
GrapheneOS doesn't allow for it. You'd need a rooted device to bypass screenshot blocking
- qurren 1mo ago
  Well damn, I would have thought rooting would have been a basic feature of GrapheneOS. At least it's open source, so maybe one can add root access and screenshot blocking to it.
  - broodbucket 1mo ago
    GrapheneOS is concerned with security more than anything else, to which rooting is completely counterproductive
    - summm 1mo ago
      Correction: GrapheneOS is concerned with their so called "Android security model" more than anything else, and where that security model gives guarantees to app developers and service providers that harms the user's security, they merrily side with the developer's security against the user, at best give some more or less questionable reasons why that unfortunately currently cannot be changed, and at worst insult you for suggesting anything else.
    - qurren 1mo ago
      I would think that rooting is not counterproductive. In fact my personal security model requires root access. 1. I need to be able to monitor what's inside the memory and communications of every process running if I want to 2. I need to be able to pin a different root certificate, install a MITM SSL proxy and see what every app is sending about me, if I want to

alasano 1mo ago

I hate the ChatGPT app and Spotify the most for their screenshot behavior.

deleted 1mo ago

[deleted]

jambalaya8 1mo ago

agree with you.

dev1ycan 1mo ago

This is what made me avoid chrome since release, I tried to right click a youtube channel background as a teen wanting to use it as a template to make my own channel background on photoshop... turns out they had disabled it, while I could on firefox.

xnx 1mo ago

There should be a layer of user control where the user can make the OS lie to the app. The app has no need to know when a screenshot or recording is happening, what the real location is, what file system contents are, etc.