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.
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Samsung Internet and Iceraven (probably Firefox, Mull, etc. as well) both disable screenshots in their private modes by default. Thankfully, you can disable this functionality in their settings.
Well I don’t want to accidentally screenshot the porn I’m watching.
Oh I didn’t know you could disable it in Firefox!!! Dope
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.
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…
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.
What on earth are those in charge of certification standards thinking they’ll achieve with requirements like this?
Accidentally screenshotting your bank acct and routing number is the only one I can really think of.
Not sure how this is relevant, these numbers are routinely shared with clients and suppliers.
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.
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?
I don’t know.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!”
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 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 like that it’s possible, but I think it should be treated like a permission with a user accessible toggle in settings for each app.
I would like to see the same thing for clipboard read access. In the same way app has to prompt you for location permission it would have to prompt you to read the clipboard and you would actually have the option to allow it all the time which is handy for some apps like clipboard manager, or don’t allow it alltogether which is handy for some random apps you don’t trust.
It’s a really good feature imo and I’d love to see it be more common. This is how iOS does it:
It could be nice, but also annoying in some cases. I would at least want to have an option to allow all the time.
and preferably an option of “ask everytime as yes no”
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I believe Bitwarden has a setting to “wipe” the clipboard after some time.
Not perfect, but better
You can install Shizuku and AppOps to set default permissions for new apps and limit clipboard permission for installed apps.
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It uses wireless or local ADB. No root required.
Does it have a virtual keyboard?
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I’ve seen public transportation apps doing that to curb sharing the ticket/barcode with someone else.
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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!
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
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.
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 >.>
Udemy blocks this so netflix must. I try to screen shot sometimes for educational purposes and it always ends up as a blank screen.
Like, its my phone, and some app can just decide to disable a fuction of my phone.
Is it your phone though?
Your physical phone hardware belongs to you.
The Android operating system is licensed for your use as Free and Open Source Software.
All the other Google bits and blobs are licensed to you by Google.
Some days I’m not even sure if I own the shoes on my feet or if they’re just licensed to me.
Yes, and we should not give app developers a free pass because “everybody is doing it”.
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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.
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.
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.
Don’t a lot of people use GrapheneOS?
People do but it’s Android. They asked for a non iOS non Android system.
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.
it’s for pixel phones only.
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.
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!
fucking scrcpy
If only that didn’t require a PC - like an Android version that could run on your tablet to copy your phone’s screen.
Many phones can work in usb host mode. I’ll see if such a rooted phone can be used to capture screen over adb with perhaps a modified scrcpy. Or run normal scrcpy in a freedesktop rootfs container. Sounds like a fun side project.
When I first was researching scrcpy, I found a thread (probably under “issues” on the GitHub repository for scrcpy) where someone else requested the same. They then went on to create a prototype using Java that the author of scrcpy seemed impressed with, but that was as far as it went. The prototype was based on a very old version (1.x) of scrcpy, so I never bothered trying it. Might be usable for this purpose, however.
Thanks, good to know.
I agree that it’s infuriating! I downloaded an LSPosed module called CaptureSposed that overrides it.
It shouldn’t take a specific module hack on a rooted phone with a custom OS with an unlocked bootloader to get this functionality back.
This thing is super annoying. Maybe there is some xposed module to bypass this . i don’t known my phone isn’t rooted.
