iOS 11 won’t be unveiled until this summer, and it will released to the public in September when the iPhone 8 and iPhone 7s handsets hit stores. So there’s really no point about freaking out about any feature that may or may not ship in the final version of iOS 11. Right now, there’s a whole lot of drama on Twitter about iOS 11 supposedly having a “screenshot alert” feature that would send alerts to your contacts when you take a screenshot of a text message conversation. Seriously?
Even if such a feature does end up existing, it’s really no big deal. So what if someone takes a screenshot of a text message exchange that happens over iMessage, or any other medium that can be shared with others?
If iOS 11 notifies ppl when you screenshot messages I'm getting a Samsung
— Av (@av_lund) March 16, 2017
As long as it’s not an app that features self-deleting content, then everything is fair game. Taking a screenshot of a message shouldn’t be a bigger deal than sending the actual message to someone. Or forwarding that message to a third party. Should iOS 11 also issue notifications if something is copied or forwarded?
So, if you’re worried that someone will take a screenshot of something you said during an iMessage conversation, you should reconsider what you say or share in your messages, and who you’re doing it with. Also, you could consider Snapchat and other apps to share sensitive content that you don’t want to be distributed to anyone other than the recipient.
What caused the outrage? Business Insider identified the source as a vlogger named Jay Way who said in December that he told Apple about the idea of screenshot alerts.
IOS 11 coming with iMessage screenshot alerts
— Jay🍊🌴🍋 (@jaywayx) December 14, 2016
it has not been officially confirmed yet. But it was a idea my team and I brought to the engineers of apple – J.W
— Jay🍊🌴🍋 (@jaywayx) December 14, 2016
So, the most important thing to consider here is that this is a source with absolutely no track record, so the odds are against this being a legitimate leak. Even if the rumor is true, you still probably shouldn’t freak out about it.
