SignalSep 8, 2025

Until now, if you lost or broke your phone, your Signal message history was gone, a real challenge for everyone whose most important conversations happen in Signal. So, with careful design & development, we’re rolling out opt-in secure backups.

Secure backups will let you save an archive of your Signal messages remotely in privacy-preserving form, refreshed daily.

Now available in the latest Android beta release, rolling out to iOS & Desktop soon

https://signal.org/blog/introducing-secure-backups/

Introducing Signal Secure Backups

In the past, if you broke or lost your phone, your Signal message history was gone. This has been a challenge for people whose most important conversations happen on Signal. Think family photos, sweet messages, important documents, or anything else you don’t want to lose forever. This explains wh...

Signal Messenger
Show threadShannon Clark

@signalapp would this also work for the use case of upgrading a phone (where you want continuity of your message/media history?)

Or do you already have a process for that? (I haven't replaced my phone in years - but plan on doing so soon - and retaining my signal groups etc on my new phone is a key feature I need and assume there is a method to do that)

(I'm on iOS if it matters)

Sep 8, 2025 at 4:23pmWeb
Show thread(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧Sep 8, 2025
@Rycaut @signalapp Currently, if you get a new phone, you can transfer the chat history as long as you still have access to your old phone and haven’t wiped it yet using signals built in transfer tool. It does not transfer chats as part of the system or iCloud transfer
Show threadRoelandDeVriesSep 8, 2025
@Rycaut @signalapp that has already been possible for a long time on iOS, as long as you have access to Signal on your current phone: https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Backup-and-Restore-Messages#ios_requirements
Backup and Restore Messages

Signal messages, pictures, files, and other contents are stored locally on your device. If you have your old device, select the platform to transfer messages: Android iOS Desktop Message restora...

Signal Support
Show threadShannon ClarkSep 8, 2025

@RoelandDeVries @signalapp good to know! As I mentioned been a while since I upgraded my phone so hadn't encountered this feature yet.

(though it looks like that support page will need to be updated as the new Backup feature roles out to iOS as it now has slightly inaccurate information about backups - currently still true for iOS devices but sounds like it won't be for long)

Show threadalexSep 8, 2025
@Rycaut @signalapp Migrating to a different phone, while both devices are still working, is possible. Done that two years ago and I think it's described in the documentation? #Signal
Show threadShannon ClarkSep 8, 2025
@lespocky @signalapp indeed it is the case (someone else in my replies added a link to the documentation) the last time I switched phones was eh many years ago and I don't think I was an active Signal user then. But I do need to upgrade my now very old iPhone sometime soon (waiting until after Apple's announcements later this month to decide if I go for the 17 or the 16 which likely will be a bit discounted.