Can Snapchat Detect a Screen Recorder?

Snapchat is one of the best social media platforms for privacy-minded users, thanks to its privacy and security features. Your conversations disappear as soon as you leave the chat or close the app. Moreover, the snaps you send to others on Snapchat disappear after they are viewed. Even better, if someone takes a screenshot of the chat or a snap, you are immediately informed about this. Both parties involved in the chat will see a message in the conversation that the content was captured.

While Snapchat informs you when someone takes a screenshot, what about screen recording? Can Snapchat detect a screen recorder too? Let’s find out.

Does Snapchat Know When You Screen Record?

The short answer is Yes. The whole idea behind Snapchat is to be able to send disappearing messages, photos, and videos. It won’t be disappearing content if people can screenshot or screen record messages or snaps.

Therefore, Snapchat implemented an alert feature that sends a notification when it detects the use of screen-capturing programs by people using the app. When this happens, Snapchat places a notification message in the chat to alert the other member(s) of the conversation that someone took a screenshot of the Snap.

There are three icons that Snapchat uses to display this information:

The notification in the Friends list will have one of these icons and the word Screenshotted.

This could serve as a pretty effective deterrent to taking screenshots if it were completely reliable, and the same is the case with screen recording as well.

When someone screen records the messages or a snap, there will be an alert in the chat that says Name Screen Recorded Chat and a message Screen recording under that person’s name in the chat list.

Snapchat Screen Recording on iPhone

Apple released the screen recording feature for the iPhone with the release of iOS 11 in September 2017. At that time, Snapchat was unable to detect this built-in screen recording feature of the iPhone. People could simply press the record button and automatically capture anything that is happening on their iPhone’s screen.

However, after Snapchat version 10.17.5 on iOS, the platform can detect the built-in screen recorder of the iPhone. Since then, there have been many screen recorder apps for iPhone that claims Snapchat won’t be able to detect them.

You will have to pay for some, but there are some free ones, and some require you to connect your iPhone to a computer to screen record Snapchat content without getting detected. However, the legitimacy of these apps and whether they work or not is an open question.

Snapchat Screen Recording on Android

Screen recording on Android, on the other hand, is a different story, as Android smartphones are far more open than iPhones. While Snapchat can detect the built-in screen recorder of Android phones, there is an ocean of third-party screen recorder apps available on the Play Store.

Pretty much any software developer can release a new Android screen recorder app, and many have. Many of these apps claim they can hide from Snapchat detection. Snapchat undoubtedly makes a lot of effort to stay on top when it comes to privacy and security to avoid any breaches, but they can’t catch every single of them, making them a great loophole. Still, there is a good chance that Snapchat detect them eventually.

Therefore, there is no way to list out the apps that you can use to screen record Snapchat content without getting detected. The apps that do work now might stop working after a while. Although, with a little effort to find a working app, you can easily get away with capturing anything on Snapchat without being detected.

You can always clear the conversation, including all the saved messages on Snapchat before the other person saves it. If you don’t want someone to record your snaps, you can delete your Snapchat account.

Can I Screen Record on Snapchat Without Them Knowing?

If for whatever reason you would like to take a screenshot or screen record to save a Snapchat conversation/video without being detected, there are a few ways you can do it.

1. Using another phone: The simplest and safest way is to use another phone to record the Snapchat content on your main phone. Quality won’t be perfect, but you can get a usable image/clip by taking a picture/video of the content being displayed on the screen.
2. QuickTime: This one is for iPhone users. Install QuickTime on the computer and connect your iPhone to it. You can use this application to capture Snapchat content being displayed on your iPhone without getting detected.
3. Android emulator: You can use an Android emulator like BlueStacks or Nox to install Snapchat on your computer, then use the built-in screenshot and screen recording tools to capture any content you want to save.
4. Third-party app: This one is a bit tricky. While there are many third-party screenshots and screen recorder apps, not all are immune from Snapchat’s detection. With a little effort and patience, you might find a working app. However, before performing this method on the target, you might want to talk with a friend and test it on them to see if Snapchat detects the screen capture.

We have tried other methods as well, such as going offline while capturing the content on Snapchat and asking Google Assistant to take a screenshot while viewing a snap. While these tricks worked in the past, they are now detectable by Snapchat.

Save Snaps on Your Phone

Despite the fact that Snapchat alerts you when someone screenshots or screen records your Snaps, it’s crucial to remember that there are third-party apps and other ways out there that can bypass this.

It’s difficult to control what happens with the content you send once it’s out there, as it might end up on the dark web. So, be careful with the content that you send to someone on Snapchat, just as you should while using any social networking platform.

Have you found another way to take a Snapchat screenshot undetected?  Let us know in the comments below. If you find this article helpful, consider checking out our guide about how to view old snaps on Snapchat.

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