Screenshots cater to people in numerous ways. They can work like pages of a notebook with reminders of places to visit or events to check out. Sometimes they become your assortment of jokes (that you have seen, liked, and borrowed) for the next time you’re trying to impress a bunch of friends with your wit. From time to time, you might even use screenshots to prove your point in a discussion or spread the news about something. 

These are only a few instances that prove how convenient it is to be able to take pictures of your screen. In addition to that, it allows you to do so on nearly any application or website. Taking a screenshot is sometimes the only possible way to copy or save information.

Saving information in a screenshot is undoubtedly very convenient. However, it is worth remembering that, in certain cases, it might not go unnoticed. Certain applications inform the author of whatever it is that you’re taking a picture of, so you don’t go screenshotting and sharing others’ information without their knowledge.

This often happens with pictures shared in private messages. Some applications—Instagram or Snapchat, for instance—alert the sender if the recipient takes a screenshot of a picture they’ve sent.

The likelihood of your content being screenshotted is never zero. That is why it is extremely important to evaluate everything you want to share online before doing so. Once it goes live, there is no way to delete it. 

Even if you remove the content from your profile, someone somewhere might have already saved their screen with your statements on it, and it’s up to them now whether to share it or not. That might create a chain reaction and your content might end up being shared even if it was online just for a mere minute.

Screenshots often work great as proof in certain situations. Everything said and done can be saved as a picture, which often states names, dates, locations, and other useful information. Whether it works for your own good or dooms you for your behavior, it encourages people to take responsibility for their actions.

It is not only such data as names, dates, and content that might be useful in certain cases. Screenshots provide important metadata as well, which allows people to delve deeper into specific situations if needed. 

For instance, accessing the metadata of screenshots using specific tools provides more information and context on when the content was shared, seen, etc. It can work as evidence and help while solving crime or analyzing misconduct.

With the current rate of technological advancement, screenshots are becoming a universal data format that can be relatively easily analyzed with the help of machine learning.

Advancements in technology can also ease the process of data entry. With the optical character recognition (OCR) process, it is possible to extract the text, numbers, and other information provided in the screenshot and save time as there is no need to enter the data manually.

Another interesting application of AI is using it to classify website screenshots. The Urlbox team developed a model that classifies screengrabs at nearly 99% accuracy, which can later be analyzed to help ameliorate the user experience.

Screenshot-related technology was also developed by a team of interns at Microsoft. They used AI to create a tool that allows them to retrieve image intelligent insights just from a screenshot alone.

Screenshotting can undoubtedly be fun and useful, however, it is important to think about what should be shared and what’s better kept to yourself. A lot of information is already readily available to the public, such as Jennifer’s post in the chat room or some pictures on social media. But some people screenshot texts and other private content, which should not be shared with the vast majority.

How many times have you scrolled your phone and stumbled upon something rather unusual or entertaining? Unusual enough to require a screenshot for others to believe (pics or it didn’t happen!) or so entertaining that it’s definitely worth creating an email chain about. This only proves that some screenshots speak louder than a thousand words.