The CEO of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is advising Messenger users against taking screenshots of their conversations.

Zuckerberg, aged 39, co-founded the social media platform in February 2004 with his university roommates. He quickly became the world's youngest self-made billionaire in 2007 and has maintained a significant role in the platform ever since.

The platform has faced scrutiny over the years, attracting political and legal attention due to concerns about user privacy and other related issues.

Now, Zuckerberg is issuing a strong warning to Facebook users.

He recently announced that a Messenger update will include a feature that alerts users when someone takes a screenshot of a disappearing message. These messages are designed to automatically vanish after a certain period of time.

"New update for end-to-end encrypted Messenger chats so you get a notification if someone screenshots a disappearing message," Zuckerberg shared in a post.

"We're also adding GIFs, stickers, and reactions to encrypted chats too."

The founder of Facebook also shared a funny conversation he had with his wife, Priscilla Chan. He made a cheesy joke about a supercomputer, and his spouse took a screenshot of it, demonstrating how the new notification feature will work.

This feature is quite similar to the one available on Snapchat, where messages and images disappear after a certain period of time.

Recently, Messenger introduced the option for users to set their messages to automatically vanish.

According to reports, this move was prompted by concerns about security, as well as a broader discussion on freedom of speech and online safety.

The feature is officially called Vanish Mode, and you can activate it by simply swiping up in an ongoing chat thread on your mobile device. To return to regular mode, just swipe up again.

Bridget Pujals, Messenger Product Manager, and Manik Singh, Instagram Product Manager, mentioned in a statement (as reported by USA Today): "We designed vanish mode with safety and choice in mind, so you control your experience."

This development follows the introduction of a similar feature by WhatsApp, where messages automatically vanish after seven days.

A company representative provided an explanation in a statement, saying: "We're starting with seven days because we think it offers peace of mind that conversations aren't permanent while remaining practical so you don't forget what you were chatting about."

"Our goal is to make conversations on WhatsApp feel as close to in-person as possible, which means they shouldn't have to stick around forever."