Signal Lets You Back Up Your Chats For Free Now - Plus Its First-ever Paid Feature

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ZDNET's takeaways

• Privacy-centric messaging app Signal has a connection backup option.
• The free tier stores up to 45 days of messages.
• You tin salary $1.99 a period if you want to shop much than 45 days.

Signal is offering its first-ever backup option.

In a station Monday, nan security-focused messaging app institution announced a caller characteristic that lets you backmost up your messages for free. 

In nan past, Signal explained, if you mislaid your phone, your Signal history was mislaid too. If you person important conversations for illustration photos, messages from friends, it's easy to spot really that tin beryllium frustrating.

That's why Signal is giving you a measurement to get those messages back. 

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The caller characteristic is called Secure Backups. It refreshes each time and lets you prevention your conversations successful an end-to-end encrypted "privacy-preserving form," Signal said. Secure Backups are opt-in. If you don't want to usage nan feature, you don't person to. However, whoever you're chatting pinch could beryllium utilizing nan feature, truthful your messages whitethorn beryllium saved successful their retention moreover if you opt out. 

You get 100MiB of retention for free and tin backmost up and entree your erstwhile 45 days of messages and media astatine immoderate time. Signal noted that messages are compressed erstwhile archived, truthful nan free retention should beryllium capable for nan mostly of users. If you want to spell beyond 45 days, you tin utilize a paid scheme that's $1.99 a period – nan company's first-ever paid feature. 

The institution explained that it waited until now to rotation retired a paid characteristic because media requires a batch of storage, and storing and transferring ample amounts of information is expensive. Signal added that, "as a nonprofit that refuses to cod aliases waste your data," it has to screen those costs successful a different measurement (not trading ads aliases monetizing data).

How unafraid is Signal Secure Backups?

Signal said that a 64-character betterment cardinal is astatine nan halfway of your backup security. This cardinal is ne'er shared pinch Signal's servers, and it's nan only measurement to "unlock" your backup if you request to do so. If you suffer that key, your backups are gone for bully arsenic well. Signal recommends penning this cardinal down aliases storing it successful a unafraid password manager.

To return information a measurement further, backups are stored without a nonstop nexus to nan personification relationship aliases to a circumstantial backup payment.

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All of this intends that Signal is staying existent to its privacy-first ngo but still adding features group person travel to expect from messaging apps.

Secure backups are disposable for users of nan latest beta type of nan app connected Android now. Access connected each different platforms is coming soon.