Android 14 lets apps detect when you take a screenshot, and tells you when they do

Ben Schoon | Nov 28 2023 - 1:20 pm PT

Most people take a lot of screenshots, and in some cases, that’s just not what the app wants you to do. Some apps, like Snapchat, can detect when you’ve taken a screenshot, but it’s not using tools built into the OS. Now, Android 14 is adding screenshot detection for apps, with the bonus user benefit of Android telling you when an app knows you’ve taken a screenshot.

A known addition for a while now (but left largely under the radar), screenshot detection in Android 14 allows apps to work with the OS to detect when a user has taken a screenshot rather than using hacky methods to accomplish that goal. For developers, this comes with a handful of benefits, first and foremost, just making it significantly easier to detect and perhaps block screenshots for privacy or security reasons. But, arguably, the bigger impact is for end users.

With this new screenshot detection API, Android 14 will show users when a screenshot has been detected by the app in question. Google details this on a developer page, and Android developer Kamran Shahid has a great deep dive into how it all works.

And, already, the new method is in use. As spotted by an Android Police reader, the German shopping app “OTTO” has implemented support for screenshot detection. Taking a screenshot triggers a message saying, “OTTO detected this screenshot.”

So far, it doesn’t seem like all that many apps have actually implemented this functionality. Google Wallet and GPay, for example, don’t utilize it. Snapchat seems like an ideal app to use the new API, but it doesn’t seem to just yet.

Have you noticed support for this API in any of your apps? Let us know in the comments below!