Signal introduces free chat backup feature and a subscription to backup media

Signal is rolling out secure backups as an opt-in feature that lets users save conversation archives “in a privacy-preserving form.” The free tier includes all chats and 45 days' worth of media history. However, Signal has also introduced a paid subscription plan for the first time.

Signal Messenger has introduced a welcome opt-in feature: secured backups, which are only accessible to the user with a recovery key. Signal is a privacy-focused and open-source messaging app appreciated by users for its robust end-to-end encryption.

Until now, all user data, such as messages, images, other media, and attachments, has been stored encrypted on the device. The only exceptions were account details like phone numbers and sign-up dates. However, this also created a problem for users migrating to other devices and transferring data.

“In the past, if you broke or lost your phone, your Signal message history was gone,” explains Jim O’Leary, VP of Engineering at Signal Messenger, in a blog post.

“This has been a challenge for people whose most important conversations happen on Signal.”

The beta feature, first available on Android, lets users save a privacy-preserving archive of their Signal conversations and restore all their chats if they lose device access.

“Signal’s secure backups are opt-in and, of course, end-to-end encrypted. So if you don’t want to create a secure backup archive of your Signal messages and media, you never have to use the feature,” Signal said in a blog post.

The free feature will cover all chat messages and 45 days of media history. The free tier includes 100MB of message storage, which should cover the needs of even the heaviest users.

Beyond that, users can choose a paid subscription plan for $1.99 per month, with a storage size limit of 100GB for paid backups.

Signal explains that it introduced a paid feature for the first time because storing media requires lots of storage space and bandwidth, which is expensive.

“As a nonprofit that refuses to collect or sell your data, Signal needs to cover those costs differently than other tech organizations that offer similar products but support themselves by selling ads and monetizing data.”

How will privacy be preserved?

Signal explains that it uses the same “zero-knowledge technology” for backup archives as it does for Signal groups. The data is stored without a link to any specific user or backup payment.

The only way to access and unlock the backups is a 64-character recovery key generated on the user's device.

“This key is yours and yours alone – it is never shared with Signal’s servers. Your recovery key is the only way to ‘unlock’ your backup when you need to restore access to your messages. Losing it means losing access to your backup permanently, and Signal cannot help you recover it,” the non-profit warns.

Users can choose to generate a new key. Signal recommends storing the key securely, “writing it down in a notebook or a secure password manager, for example.”

Signal plans to roll out the opt-in feature across all platforms “soon." Currently, it’s available on Android for people running the latest beta version of the app.

The new secure backup archive will be refreshed every day. It will not include view-once messages or messages scheduled to disappear within the next 24 hours.

The tech community seems enthusiastic about the additions. On Hacker News, the announcement has gained significant traction.

“That's actually the feature I've been looking forward to. As I moved from Android to iOS, I lost all message histories from all messenger apps that use E2EE,” one user said.

Some users, however, expressed a desire to back up to familiar platforms of their choice or locally rather than Signal-provided servers.

“I would have loved a better solution for local backups, but realistically, $2/month for cloud backup is really cheap, and a pragmatic solution,” another user posted.