On Monday, Signal, the privacy-centric messaging service, revealed a new option that lets users freely back up their text chats and the previous 45 days of media files. Alongside this, Signal is launching its inaugural paid feature, which provides complete media backups with up to 100GB of storage.
In the past, Signal didn’t allow users to keep any backups of their conversations within the app. This became problematic if a user’s phone was lost or damaged. While chat transfers between devices were possible, there was no support for cloud-based backups. This latest update addresses that limitation, enhancing Signal’s appeal as a secure communication tool.
With Signal’s complimentary plan, users receive 100MB of storage for messages and media from the most recent 45 days. According to a company blog post, messages are compressed for storage, and even users with high activity should find 100MB to be adequate.
Anyone needing to save media beyond the latest 45 days can opt for a paid subscription at $1.99 per month, which expands storage to 100GB.
This marks Signal’s first foray into paid features, and the company explains that the subscription fee helps cover storage expenses while protecting user privacy.
To activate the secure backup, users can head to the app’s Settings, after which their data will be automatically backed up every day.
Signal employs zero-knowledge encryption for backups, ensuring they are not associated with any user account or payment details. A unique 64-character recovery key is generated on the device, which users need to restore their data. In comparison, WhatsApp provides end-to-end encrypted backups as an optional feature that users must manually enable.
For now, this new functionality is available only in the beta version of Signal’s Android app, but the company has plans to expand cross-platform support soon. Signal also mentioned that it is working on allowing users to save backup archives anywhere they choose and to move message histories between different platforms.
