Mark Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook with his college roommates, now serves as the chairman, CEO, and majority shareholder of Meta Platforms, its parent company. His rise to fame, legal battles, and early success with Facebook were famously depicted in the film The Social Network. Today, Zuckerberg is drawing attention with a reminder to Messenger users: be cautious about screenshotting chats.
In 2020, Facebook introduced Vanish Mode, a feature for Messenger and Instagram that allowed messages to disappear after being viewed and the chat closed. At the time, the company stated, “Vanish Mode is perfect for spontaneous messages you don’t want lingering. It lets you send texts that vanish automatically.” Users could activate it by swiping up in a chat and revert to normal mode by swiping again.
Zuckerberg highlights risks of screenshotting chats.
Bridget Pujals, Messenger Product Manager, and Manik Singh, Instagram Product Manager, emphasized safety, saying, “Vanish Mode was built to give users control over their experience” (USA Today). Initially launched in the U.S., it later expanded to the EU. However, the Facebook Help Center now notes that Vanish Mode is “no longer supported,” though a similar feature, disappearing messages, is being gradually rolled out.
To use disappearing messages, users can navigate to a contact’s name in Messenger, select “Privacy and Support,” and find “Disappearing Messages.” The feature warns: “A notification will appear in the chat if someone takes a screenshot or screen recording.”
Disappearing messages replace Vanish Mode in Messenger.
Zuckerberg addressed this in a Facebook post, stating, “New update for end-to-end encrypted Messenger chats: you’ll get a notification if someone screenshots a disappearing message. We’re also adding GIFs, stickers, and reactions to encrypted chats.” He illustrated the feature with a chat exchange with his wife, Priscilla Chan, where she screenshotted his playful supercomputer joke, triggering a notification.
