Not sure if this is the correct place to post, but I just wanna kinda rant a bit.
I’m not the only one that hates this, right?
An app can just do a “This App Does Not Allow Screenshots”? Like… wtf?
Like, its my phone, and some app can just decide to disable a fuction of my phone. It’s my phone and if I wanna take a screenshot, I’m taking a screenshot. I don’t care about whatever “security” the app developer wants.
Imagine if every online shopping app whether fast food or amazon, just used this to block you from taking a screenshot so you can’t save the records in case of a dispute.
Which android developer thought it was a good idea to let an app disable a function on your phone. Even iPhone doesn’t have this stupid concept.
Sorry for the rant.
Anyone wanna share your stories?
(P.S. I have a cheap secondary phone to take photos of the screen. “This App Does Not Allow Screenshots” my ass lmao, I’m taking the screenshot whether the app wants it or not.
Ironically, Google’s new creepy Circle to Search feature gets to override the screenshot denial lockout that Google themselves created.
Doesn’t appear to work in my case. I can a blank screen like I would when trying to screenshot.
Of course. When you run a monopoly, you get to make your own rules.
EU should force Google to open Android back up.
The only apps where this makes any sense are dating apps and similar social apps where a level of social vulnerability is more likely.
Otherwise agree that all others are BS.
Password manager. Bitwarden does this. Signal too but that falls into your social media category.
Yeah that makes sense too but those are also reasonable to have as a protected setting to turn on/off. I think the post is pointed at involuntary blocking.
Man, my banking app recently switched to a different keyboard. One that doesn’t allow integrations like bitwarden. I also cannot copy paste my password into the password field so I have to enter my 32 character password by hand.
Mind you, this is not an app that does ANY banking in the first place it is just to authorize access to my bank account or for transactions.
So it is always a few minutes copying the password, making sure I haven’t miss-typed on the shitty keyboard or because of my sausage fingers and then being logged out of my bank account in the browser because it took so much time copying that password.
This type of dumbass design is the reason we have passwords like password12345.
Wanna know what’s even more fucked up? Few years back, I had exactly this problem. Searched the internet for a solution. Guess what?
Enable Google Voice Assistant and say “Ok Google. Take a screenshot.” Google magically has the rights to make a screenshot on the App that doesn’t let you, the user, take the screenshot.
Next phone I get is gonna be something with a alternate OS, no Android or iOS.
That OS won’t have those banking apps in the first place, so what’s the difference to just not installing them on Android?
android allows programs to prevent screenshots, which is defective by design https://www.defectivebydesign.org/
Cool website!
Good luck with finding an alternative. I tried running a Pinephone Pro with Linux and it was just too buggy to use.
If your current phone lasts 4 more years it might be ok software wise but good god is it bad now.
Don’t a lot of people use GrapheneOS?
People do but it’s Android. They asked for a non iOS non Android system.
it’s for pixel phones only.
Yes, I use GrapheneOS myself, but just know that it doesn’t make any changes to AOSP other than privacy and security enhancements. Apps can still prevent you from taking screenshots on GrapheneOS.
I realistically only need to have mobile data, run Signal, Discord, possibly WhatsApp, and have a working browser… Hm. I hope that works.
If you are ok with a 4-5 hour battery life then this should work. They all have Linux clients. The problem is that there is no notification infrastructure. The phone just runs like a desktop the whole time. If you sleep the phone you don’t get alerts.
This is a hot tip, thank you! Just confirmed in my banking app, no overlay or notification but the screenshot appeared in my photos
So, the very thing the block claims to block, is completely allowed lol genius
Google is working on replacing Assistant with their Gemini AI crap - would not be surprised if it no longer works there.
I just open my tab switcher, then take a screenshot from there =P
You mean the “recent apps”?
What Android version?
In any recent Android versions, anything within the app in the “recent apps” would show as all white or all black in any screenshots or screen recordings.
Yes, ‘recent apps’; I never knew the name. Currently using Android v14, this method still works fine for me.
Doesn’t work on android 15 for me
Ah, might depend on the app then.
i have 6.1 and am fully updated, and this still works for me
Android 6.1? (Not OneUI 6.1 right?)
Its must be an old unpatched bug.
(Btw, how long have you been holding onto the device? Its amazing your phone survived that long.)
If its OneUI 6.1, then thats weird, since I’m also on OneUI 6.1 and it doesn’t work.
OneUI 6.1 is Android 14 btw, Android Version =/= OneUI Version
i meant OneUI 6.1, sorry for the confusion lol
yeah i have a Galaxy S21, i tend to hang on to my phones as long as possible
I don’t have much to add other than my agreement. They’ve been tightening the noose around our necks little by little for years now. But don’t worry, screenshots and copying and pasting text will return…as a microsubscription! /s
Android Premium! Get it nowow for only
$10$50/month.**Pricing subject to arbitary increases. 🤗
you can bypass this with a rootkit
i think they do it for security reasons. if you can take screenshots of sensitive data, so can malware. however, you should be able to disable it for netflix for example.
Netflix and other streaming apps do it to prevent screen recording their ‘premium’ content. These use DRM too and the region of protected content shows in black in scrcpy. These apps are much hostile to users much beyond screenshot and shouldn’t be used anyway. Most movies and shows can be pirated from torrent, illegal streaming sites or simply telegram in good quality and watched in say vlc for much better experience than these crappy apps provide.
I respect your opinion, but I see it differently.
Paying for entertainment and content like well-made animations makes sense to me. After all, paying for content is some kind of democratic participation, choosing what is produced. I didn’t mind pirating a lot when I was younger and didn’t have the money to pay for something anyways, but now i prefer to do things “the right way”.
I’ve no problem with paying the artists of the great contents I enjoy. I think they deserve the support and praise. What I (and we should IMO) hate is user subjugating behaviour the streaming apps and hollywood studios impose. I’d pay for the content and the bandwidth of the streaming/downloading service. Better yet, pay per download like netflix dvd days.
Digital restriction management has been proven ineffective for piracy. And piracy is the only way I get good quality content in accessible way. For example due to DRM netflix will not run on any of my devices above 720p no matter what I pay. There’s simply no way I can pay the artists directly AFAIK.
i think they do it for security reasons.
Yet, on iOS, the same app can’t. So it is more like, “ooh a button to twiddle, I’ll twiddle it!”
I hate the whole bloody smartphone ecosystem for shit like this. Microsoft Palladium was widely seen as a nightmare scenario when it proposed ceding a bunch of user control to the OS and app developers a couple decades ago, even by the mainstream press. It seems Apple and Google used it as a roadmap, likely because people don’t know how to use computers, and that doesn’t seem to be improving.
The part of the modern mobile OS security model that does have merit is that apps aren’t trusted. The PC model, even in multiuser operating systems with fancy permissions was that apps are user agents which are always doing something the user asked for, and therefore trusted as much as the user. The glut of spyware for Windows in the early 2000s proved that false.
The fact that somebody else doesn’t know how to use a computer shouldn’t force me to cede control over mine to participate in the modern world. Root is a bit of an escape hatch, but it’s a blunt instrument on Android, and Google tries to help app developers stop me from using that as well. I’m starting to feel like Richard Stallman was right about everything and I should go be a digital hermit, only running software I compiled from source.
Wow that blog post is from 2013? I wouldn’t have guessed if not for the references to 3G.
I just read it myself, as a “mature age” student at University in 2024 I have often sarcastically asked some of the 18-21 cohort in the class if they need the old person to show them how to use a computer when they don’t even know that a “program” for a PC/Mac is just another word for “app” even the teachers look shocked when you hear most of the class nod in agreement about not knowing what software actually is and that it can be installed without an “App Store”.
I think the thing is most people just see computers and tech as just another appliance the same as a microwave and to know anything more than “turning it on and off again” is just seen as far too nerdy or a waste of time when they can get on the internet and read their influencers on social media or just watch YouTubers instead….
But they are the first to complain when “the internet doesn’t work!!”
That blog could have been written today!!
I fuckin hate that Playstation 4 and 5 do this for taking screenshots from movies. I just want to get a good screen grab for meme purposes! Do you think I’m going to screen shot every goddamn frame of a movie, one at a time, paste those back together as a video, then somehow rip the audio too, and then share this necromantically-assembled abomination with all my pirate buddies? Fuck you!
Now that is really stupid, especially given how easy it is to just fire up the movie on your PC and take a screenshot from there.
Netflix does this on windows too
I was able to use snipping tool to take screenshots when I had Netflix, but I also used it through my browser.
Udemy blocks this so netflix must. I try to screen shot sometimes for educational purposes and it always ends up as a blank screen.
Surely it blocks snipping tools new recording feature on windows 11 though right?
I wouldn’t doubt it, but I’ve never used Windows 11 and never will >.>
And that’s why you should refuse to pay a penny and just pirate everything by default. If you feel like supporting the creators, donate to their union strike fund.
god bless Digital Restrictions Management
The point of many of android’s “protection” features isn’t to protect the user from apps, but to protect apps from the user. I hate it.
In this case, I think it’s protecting apps from other apps. No secret screen recording going on while you’re looking at bank statements, etc. I find that annoying, too, but I’m less annoyed by the reasoning in this case.
Now if Google could explain why toggling wifi through Tasker requires root, I would LOVE to hear the reasoning…
Or changing or just adding a system font.
Or setting a charge capacity limit.
Or adding separate quick access tikes for wifi and cellular.
The first two don’t bug me but dam, give me my 6 buttons back!! I hate these fat notification tray icons. And yes, fuck Google for making it take MORE clicks to toggle wifi/cellular than before.
Unless they changed something in Android 15, which I haven’t been able to try yet, I don’t think the separate WiFi / Mobile Data tiles were ever removed. At least they still exist on LineageOS 21 (Android 14), just hidden in the tile editor. You might want to check if you still have them there.
I just have “Internet”
That’s probably your mobile connection? Are you translating or does an English android say “Internet”?
What’s the symbol?
There’s also an option you can turn on that allows you pulling the menu down from the right side of the top of the screen, and you get the whole menu. I tried linking but for some reason I haven’t been able to upload images with my new phones for some reason. And then pulling down from the left side will just bring down the normal menu.
You can also reorganise the tiles so you have your most used in the quick bar.
It literally says “Internet” and is for both wifi and cellular data. You click it and the popup shows toggles for both along with available wifi networks and while I have organized the tiles so Internet is the first option, there is no option to separate the two. Airplane Mode is a separate tile
Pixel 7 Pro with Android 15
In this case, I think it’s protecting apps from other apps. No secret screen recording going on while you’re looking at bank statements, etc.
I think with all the engineers at Google developing Android they could come up with a solution of how to discern whether the act of screenshot was triggered solely by the user, or an app on the phone. They are the ones in power of all the APIs that allow other apps to capture the screen content in the first place. Maybe I am simplifying it too much, but this seems as a bad excuse to me.
Maybe it would be too hard of a solution since there’s so many ways third party apps could capture screen content (including for example the Android accessibility service which also allows apps to read content of the screen and even simulate screen touches and gestures which many automation apps make use of) that blocking the screenshot alltogether is by far the most feasible solution.
There is already a solution:
Third-party apps, unless a user specifically go to settings and find that option, don’t have the permission known as “Draw Over Top” that’s required to do screen recordings/screenshots.
So by default, a user is already safe from a malicious app trying to steal info. (That is, unless they just be an idiot and give the app “Draw Over Top” permission)
the permission known as “Draw Over Top” that’s required to do screen recordings/screenshots.
That’s not exactly intuitive. I had no idea that permission would allow an app to take screenshots. The warnings given on the permission screen mention other risks, but not that one.
Some password managers want draw over top.
Bitwarden required it, iirc
Well you are gonna be trusting the password manager anyways, since its literally storing all your passwords. If you trust Bitwarden to store all your passwords, then you can trust it to not abuse the “Draw Over Top” permission.
I just looked at my bitwarden permissions and that’s not listed there…
For me and my family, I think the best solution would be to leave it as-is but with a way to lift the restrictions for power users that doesn’t involve root access. Something akin to enabling developer mode without having to buy a specific rootable phone
Now if Google could explain why toggling wifi through Tasker requires root, I would LOVE to hear the reasoning…
tbf all hardware-functions require root permission by default.
Linux does the same thing. If you want to access /dev/sda, it requires root.
I could guess one of the ways it could interfere with security is that it would probably also allow the app to disable WiFi. If the app does that, it could incur costs as now data is being transmitted over mobile connectivity. Also, it would maybe allow the app to find your mobile-IP address, which could be used to geotrack you. But i don’t know, i’m just talking out of my ass here.
But it didn’t used to. Every phone I had before the S22 could do it
interesting
They changed it the other day where airplane mode doesn’t require root. That one’s nice for me.
Never mind that shortcuts on iOS has been able to do that simple task from its inception.
When did airplane mode ever require root?
He means just for “tasker”. Not for manually selecting airplane mode.
Up until Android 14 I think. Android 13 for sure does not support it.
Unless an ADB trick counts https://tasker.joaoapps.com/userguide/en/help/ah_secure_setting_grant.html
You used to be able to do everything I wanted through tasker without root but Google has been stripping away functionality for years
Third-party apps, unless a user specifically go to settings and find that option, don’t have the permission known as “Draw Over Top” that’s required to do screen recordings/screenshots.
Fair enough, though experience with my unsavvy family makes me think a lot of people will do whatever an app tells them to do
Ok but why is my browser doing this in incognito mode? Incognito mode isn’t a banking app. It’s me not wanting my browser to save my Facebook login info or history.
The target use case for incognito mode is to prevent the device from saving your activity during the browsing session through things like cookies and history. To that end, incognito also blocks it to prevent other apps from saving your activity through screen recordings or screenshots.
“Protections” are fine, as long as there’s an override for it.
User doesn’t like potential malware from “sideloading”? Then don’t enable “Install from Unknown Sources”.
Same thing with everything else, there should be an override switch.
yeah just like with mounting EFI vars on linux…
it should be possible because “root can do anything, really”, but also, it’s dangerous and should be disabled by default.
Being able to block screenshots is “supposed” to protect users from having malware take screenshots of banking apps and other such information.
If app developers were good, this could have been a good feature.
But I agree with OP. It still should be the user’s choice.
My Banking App does have the option to disable this feature.
It’s all fine if it’s a user choice, very annoying if it’s not.
I work for a company that builds an app /sdk that handles credit cards / payments. It’s one of the (many) requirements for getting an industry standard certification (like PCIDSS / MPOC). The app Must block screenshots, and Must disable the camera while using it…
What on earth are those in charge of certification standards thinking they’ll achieve with requirements like this?
It’s probably to stop third party apps from screenshoting the banking app.
Why is this only a problem on mobile? Why doesn’t desktop have similar requirements?
tbh the security settings on desktop devices tend to be more lax in general; for example almost any desktop pc has an open bootloader, means you can sideload an operating system from usb. The consequence is that no password-at-login will protect your private data; only full disk encryption can.
Smartphones on the other hand often have a fully-locked bootloader, which means it’s totally non-trivial to install an alternative operating system. especially, it often contains wiping any data on the smartphone, so an attacker with access to the device can’t simply install their own OS and read the internal storage.
I don’t know.
The same functionality that you use to take screenshots can be hijacked by bad actors to get access to your stuff. It’s especially bad if they can see your MFA apps or other sensitive info.
Not saying the functionality is always used for the best of intentions, but there are many situations where I see it as necessary.
Accidentally screenshotting your bank acct and routing number is the only one I can really think of.
Or your “time clock earth sounds” app from the not so well policed appstore takes silent background screenshots, grayscales them and sends them to their host for OCR.
I agree this permission is annoying. But I differ in I feel it should be system controlled and can be invoked by apps that identify specific fields to be blocked, instead ofnjusy disabling it outright.
Not sure how this is relevant, these numbers are routinely shared with clients and suppliers.
Why did you capitalize “must”?
Probably a nod to the written style of RFC definitions, which have the word entirely in capital letters, as in… the implementation MUST do such and such, and SHOULD do this other thing. In this case, the relevant security standard(s)
We have italics and bold characters for that.
RFCs were being written back when line printers couldn’t do either.
I misread your comment and thought you said “RFK”. I have no idea what an “RFC” is. Some sort of teletype thing?
RFCs are Requests For Comment, published technical documents describing proposed standards.
The security argument is a lie, I think. I think websites like Netflix like these features so it’s difficult to approach copying a video.
If security were an issue I don’t think you’d be able to copy text to the clipboard in situations where you can’t screenshot.
Microsoft teams limits your clipboard to 500 characters when you try to copy on the app. Of course blocks screenshots too. If I’m on a meeting that isn’t being recorded, I now have no way of saving any pertinent information, and the ones that ARE recorded get automatically deleted after 30 days. 🤷🏽♀️
30 days is set by your company. Ours is set to 90 days. Stupid, on my opinion. If I recorded it, I obviously want to keep it. For this reason, I user OBS on my computer and record meetings through that. Bypass teams’s recording framework altogether.
OBS?
Sorry. Open broadcaster software. While not really intended for this use case, it works great for it.
I can confirm, OBS Studio is perfect for recording Microsoft Teams sessions. Other parties are not aware of the recording unlike Teams built-on recording.
Probably works for every similar application as well.
Oh, it does lol. If it’s images on the screen and audio through the output, OBS can record it. It’s awesome!
Open Broadcast Software
Open-Source screen recording and streaming software
Ah, ty.
In litigation, if one side destroys evidence beforehand, or goes to great lengths to deliberately not collect it, courts instruct juries to presume against the side that destroyed the evidence. Companies that think they’re being clever by using apps that auto-delete records aren’t as clever as they think they are. This Teams feature is obviously meant to make it difficult to assist in corporate malfeasance. Using Teams is now a liability risk to companies.
using a secondary phone to take pictures of the screen intensifies
I hate this “feature” of the Dexcom GCM app. They seem to believe that HIPPA law prevents me from sharing my glucose readings with anyone I choose to.
To send readings to people, I can’t screenshot the app but I can screenshot the notification which contains the same info 🤷🏼
Just move to xdrip+, its better in every way than that steaming pile of garbage dexcom puts out. If your endo DEMANDS you use clarity and refuses ti use tidepool, you can generate a version of the dexcom app that outputs locally, and xdrip+ functions normally, and you can relegate the dexcom app to being opened every 3 months.
I love all the work people have put into the open source tools for this, because the first party apps are all garbage for “Fda approval reasons”
I’ve used a patched version of Dexcom before to get around the os version check and screenshot block but I never actually used xdrip+. Why do you like it so much and where do I get more info?
Yep, same with the-shitty ass Kaiser Permanente app, which itself is just a webview wrapper around the crappy kp.org website. I cannot screenshot my test results, or any other screen within the app, but I can go to the same-ass page in my browser and take my screenshot from the website.
Aaaah! I’m so frustrated by this BS. Its MY phone. It should be MY choice.
Switching to GrapheneOS soon, and if the bank app(s) don’t work, too bad. I’ll use a (Linux) computer.
I just switched to GraoheneOS and love it! All my financial apps worked out of the box.
GOS does allow taking screenshots, but they come out to be an empty black image.
Ah, same with E/OS, I’m just seeing now. Never thought to test that!
GOS allows that to be bypassed?
Well fuck me, I wanna use Samsung Tags to track my cat, so can’t really get a Pixel to use GOS.
I believe you just need the smartThings app to track the tags, which is available to all Android devices. You could use GrapheneOS on a pixel and still use your trackers if you want.
I recently bought Samsung tags to track my cat, too. The app is available on Pixel but it doesn’t allow me to pair with the tag, so no, it’s a bit more complicated
Um no, it doesn’t work like that. Its not just an “app”, the app is just the interface, it require some deeper code that runs in the background to make the network work. Everyone who participates in the network needs their phone to be constantly scanning for other tags, and ig it were just the app, it would get easily killed by the OS, so they made it part of samsung’s OneUI, and require OneUI
Also: The second reason it quire Samsung Phone is, I speculate, that its also to incentive people buying Samsung Phone over other brands, which in this case, they succeeded. Having access to such a huge network is very powerful, tile doesn’t have such a large network like Samsung or Apple, and since I dislike iOS, my only other option is Samsung, or I’d have to pay a monthly subscription for a cat tracker which would be terrible and very heavy for my cat to wear (and also you need to charge those batteries every 2 weeks, unlike a bluetooth tag that can last months). Samsung is very clever at getting more phone sales.
Google has find my device tags as well just FYI that utilize all modern android devices, so probably a larger network than Samsung’s but smaller than apples
I read about it and sounds cool, but inferior to Samsung’s smart tags (or Apple’s airtags, for that matter).
If you didn’t know already, let me explain:
Smart tags that are powered by Google’s Find My network doesn’t work as well because Google’s Find My Network settings default to a setting that requires Multiple devices to scan the tag before the server reveals the tag’s location to you.
Sure you might say its for “privacy” and I understand Google is trying to be very noble here. But when my cat goes missing (god-forbid, hopefully never happens) I don’t need this fake “nobelness” and “privacy-concious” mindset, I need for my tags to work and for me to find my cat. Google be selling all your info then suddenly wanna pretend like they’re some saint when it comes to these tags, bruh the location of the tag is already reported to Google servers, they’re just hiding it from your view until they decide enough devices has scanned it. Wtf Google, what’ the point of that?
Both Samsung and Apple tags show the location after one device scanning it and reporting the location, Google’s however, requires Multiple. Yea just find some youtube video comparison and you see the difference. Google’s shit is junk.
Also on top of the issue mentioned above the Samsung Tags have been out for years, Google’s have only been recently releases, and is buggy and essentially in beta-testing.
Good info to have, thanks
Removed by mod
My cat is an indoor cat. Please stop making assumptions. Indoor cats can still escape. Its in case the cat gets out.
I didn’t assume you had an outdoor cat I provided information in case you did.
How about you stop making assumptions?
Yes, it’s simple, if you don’t want me to screenshot your software then don’t display it on my screen.
they don’t want malware to screenshot your banking info, but go off I guess
A better way to handle that would be for “taking screenshots when other apps have focus” to be a special permission that needs to be explicitly granted. Could even make it app specific (ie, “I allow app x to take screenshots or record the display/audio of apps y and z”).
Just like arbitrary apps shouldn’t have access to look at the clipboard or full file system whenever they want.
Good idea for a finance app (which could helpfully ask me for a confirmation) - but sloppy as a general justification for dictating what a user can or can’t do. (But go off I guess)
I can log into the account on a browser with no such restriction, so it’s not protecting much.
