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Signal users will soon be able to save end-to-end encrypted backups of their chat history in a secure archive, making it possible to restore your conversations even if you lose your device. While text message and limited media backups will be free, the platform is also offering longer-term media storage as its first paid feature.
Secure backups are available now to users running the latest Android beta, with a full public release to those on iOS and desktop coming “soon.” You’ll see the opt-in for secure backups in your Signal Settings menu upon rollout.
Signal’s backup plans
With secure backups, anyone will be able to opt into full text message backups (up to 100 MiB) and media backups—including photos, videos, GIFs, files, and attachments—from the previous 45 days at no cost. Or you can pay $1.99 per month for full media backups beyond 45 days with a storage limit up to 100 GB.
If you enable secure backups, your device will automatically create a new archive daily and replace the one from the day before. View-once messages and those set to disappear in the next 24 hours are excluded.
How Signal keeps your backups secure
Signal is an open-source messaging platform with a reputation for strong privacy and security settings and features, such as end-to-end encryption and disappearing messages, so you can reasonably expect it to take protecting your backups seriously. According to the blog post outlining the new feature, backup archives will be stored without any direct link to your Signal user account or subscription payment, so they cannot be tied back to you.
Backups are secured behind a 64-character recovery key generated on your device, meaning it is never shared or stored on Signal’s servers. (This is different from your Signal PIN.) Your recovery key is the only way to unlock your backups, so if you lose it, you’ll permanently lose your archives too. Make sure you store this key in a secure spot, such as a password manager.
Other related features coming in the future include the option to save your backup archive to a location of your choice and the ability to transfer your encrypted message history between devices.