Bluesky draws its logo on screenshots

(timmarinin.net)

74 points | by gavide 47 minutes ago

17 comments

  • 3form 39 minutes ago
    Well, I have not once found a single case where an app reacting to screenshots and controlling the process in any way was anything to me but hostile and annoying. This one does not help.

    It somehow is perfect example of how modern software engineering feels to go astray for me. A feature in my device working completely in benefit of the one providing said software. I wish, and wish only I can, that this trend goes away at some point.

    • thepasswordis 10 minutes ago
      It is actually astonishing to me that this is not something which can be turned off at the OS level, or as a permission setting in the app permissions.

      The app knowing I took a screenshot feels adjacent to me to a keylogger. Imagine how many apps are capturing that information silently. To my mind, a screenshot is something that is happening outside of the app context, the app knowing about it is a security flaw imo.

    • fer 28 minutes ago
      > hostile and annoying

      If someone from Google Maps or LinkedIn team is here, please, when I take a screenshot it's because I want to a screenshot, not share the friggin location/post.

      Not sure who got the idea that it was useful, it isn't.

      • mikepurvis 19 minutes ago
        I would happily use the Google Maps "share" feature, but I've yet to encounter any but the simplest of scenarios where it actually preserves the entire context of what I'm trying to share: the viewport, the start and destination, stops along the way, route choice, the time of day, all of it.

        If I'm sending a screenshot it's because I want to send exactly what I see on my screen and not have my recipient's gmaps instance happily recompute a route it thinks is better or leave out the routing information I included, or switch from biking to driving directions, or whatever else.

        • Waterluvian 9 minutes ago
          It's of course about lock-in. In the early Web-GIS era there were a few competing but popular notation standards for sharing lat/lon/zoom/<sometimes more> that was meant to be human readable and compatible with any WMS or similar.

          Ah... to imagine a world where you could just share a coordinate string and people could open it in whatever map app/page they wanted. Geo URI is probably the closest we have today but I don't think much of anything outside the OS Geo community accepts it.

      • umeshunni 18 minutes ago
        Today I noticed that Amazon Pharmacy decided to blank out my prescription info that I was screenshotting to send to my doctor. WTF.
      • Razengan 19 minutes ago
        Blame Apple for even allowing apps to be aware of the user taking a screenshot.

        Just like their iCloud Keychain API that lets apps secretly track users across app reinstalls and device resets.

        • bethekidyouwant 1 minute ago
          Getting your account back on reinstall is good
    • shiandow 29 minutes ago
      It still baffles me that it has become normal for an OS to place the wishes of an app above those of the user.

      Hijacking the screenshot process is a privilege that you ought to be able to revoke, it's insane to allow software to be given more control.

      And don't tell me it's anything to do with security when it can be circumvented in any number of ways.

      • javier2 14 minutes ago
        Did you read the post? Nothing is hijacked, but its a trick where they render the normal button in a ui element for secret data, which is blanked by the system on screenshot, revealing the logo underneath. Its a reasonable feature, so its hard for apple to control it better or remove this.
        • xorcist 1 minute ago
          That is a lot of words just to make it sound reasonable that a page can be exempt from the underlying screenshot functionality. It isn't. Not without asking the user.
        • nemomarx 4 minutes ago
          users should have some way to control if screenshots have secret data in them or not, really. what if I do actually need to preserve it?
        • Analemma_ 11 minutes ago
          No, it’s not a reasonable feature. If I take a screenshot, I want the image to include what is displayed on my fucking screen, period. What is so difficult about this?
    • bigyabai 33 minutes ago
      > I wish, and wish only I can, that this trend goes away at some point.

      You don't have to wish, in this scenario. Bluesky supports third-party clients, you can use one that has a more minimal featureset if you prefer.

  • skiing_crawling 18 minutes ago
    This is phone OS developer's fault for even allowing it. When I take a screenshot, I expect to have an image of exactly whatever was displayed on the screen at the time. Its not a picture of your app, its a picture of my screen. Some banking apps used to (or still) prevent this and now some apps get a hook to insert their branding. My device serves some master other than myself.
  • pfraze 15 minutes ago
    This is in fact a watermark to promote the application, which otherwise wouldn't be recognizable since Bluesky looks like every other microblogging app. I didn't know that Sam literally named the file GrowthHack.tsx, which is pretty funny.
  • hmokiguess 32 minutes ago
    This sort of stuff to me is an example of fear within an organization. Whenever I see engineering resources allocated towards self promotion and branding rather than quality and features for its users it shows how leaders want control over narratives.
    • haileyok 2 minutes ago
      Someone spending half a day on a feature that places the app's logo in the screenshot so people seeing it can know where it came from is "fear within an organization"? You've got to be kidding lol
    • skupig 24 minutes ago
      It's equally possible there was one engineer with some free time who thought it would be cool.
      • Larrikin 18 minutes ago
        Implementing a watermark isn't a thing anyone thinks is a cool feature they want to try out.
        • paimapi 10 minutes ago
          what do you mean, it's a very normal cool thing that everyone loves

          Sent from my Ryobi Riding Lawnmower

      • hmokiguess 23 minutes ago
        And such engineer would have enough organizational clout to just ship it without going through anyone?
        • rbaudibert 18 minutes ago
          That's how a modern organization works. You trust your colleagues will do good work, and will ship something useful and there's not really "someone to go through".

          I agree this can be defined as cool and very very likely someone did this on their free time/prompted Claude on the side.

          • hmokiguess 11 minutes ago
            It's a Series B company, it needs to make money, and they have to answer to a board and provide information to investors. They have a roadmap, direction, and leadership. Yes, trust and good intentions is an awesome thing and I hope they have that indeed, but I would think reality lies in the middle of both sides.
        • x313 20 minutes ago
          Bluesky has <100 employees so it could be possible
          • hmokiguess 7 minutes ago
            I agree that having less people to manage means easier to build trust relationships and culture, though I believe some form of management and control must exist.
        • Slurpee99 19 minutes ago
          You're fun
  • internetter 16 minutes ago
    Nobody in the comments talking about snapchat where like one of the core pillars of what "sets their service apart" is the difficulty of taking a screenshot without notifying the other party
  • _djo_ 34 minutes ago
    X and Threads do this too. I wish they all wouldn't, messing with screenshots should only ever be done when preventing them as a security measure.
    • FinnKuhn 27 minutes ago
      Reddit as well. Although they let you disable it from what I remember.
  • add-sub-mul-div 0 minutes ago
    Is this iPhone only? I've never seen this on Android.
  • 0xferruccio 20 minutes ago
    To be fair this is useful for discovering bluesky from screenshots getting posted on other platforms.

    Their product UI kind of looks like X, so it's helpful to know the source of a post

    • grim_io 17 minutes ago
      I don't think anyone doubts that it benefits the company.
    • mulmen 10 minutes ago
      If only there was some uniform way to identify a resource. But it might lead people out of the walled garden so best not to risk it.
  • winterqt 32 minutes ago
    This is arguably missing the "how" from the title -- can someone fix?
    • CaliforniaKarl 24 minutes ago
      The best way to ask for this is to send an email, to the email address which you can find at the bottom of the page (click on "Contact"). There's no guarantee that the mods will find your comment otherwise.
    • FinnKuhn 26 minutes ago
      @Dang: I would like to report an innocent victim to the automatic "How"-Removal.
      • altairprime 23 minutes ago
        Saying @dang has no effect; it does not activate a batsignal or any other mechanism of mod summoning. The only way to be sure a mod see this is to email them; see the contact link in the footer and include a link to the comment.
  • lukeholder 7 minutes ago
    Tiktok has been watermarking videos since the beginning.
  • bewal416 32 minutes ago
    I think RevenueCat does the same thing. Smart way to exploit network effects!
  • ebbi 34 minutes ago
    X does the same thing.
    • Jonovono 13 minutes ago
      Just since Nikita joined (altho now he's gone, doubt they will remove it tho)
  • garyhasapoint 21 minutes ago
    has this guy lived on a rock? reddit/twitter/etc every social media platform does this already.
  • gensym 26 minutes ago
    This is clearly bullshit. Fuck the fucking growth hacker bullshit mentality that thinks documents of reality are theirs to manipulate.

    The screenshot should be an artifact of what's on the screen. It's really something how tech companies have stopped even nodding in the direction of ethics.

  • adolph 18 minutes ago
    Example n+1 of why I only use web and not download an app
  • Razengan 20 minutes ago
    As Spring inevitably leads to Winter, and Night follows Day, Thus the Inevitable Enshittification of all Centralized Platforms
  • winningChild 18 minutes ago
    [dead]