Signal extends backup feature to iOS users

Fortunately, we live in a time when most information can be recovered from another device or the cloud. Now, iPhone users can add another app to that list. Signal has announced that secure backups are now available for iOS devices. It follows a similar launch for Android devices in early September. The company shared the news on X and linked to the previous Android blog post for all additional information.

At the time, Signal noted that secure backups would be an opt-in feature and available in Android users’ latest beta release. The company stated this was to test the feature on a smaller scale before it came to iOS and desktop — so clearly something worked.

The end-to-end encrypted backup offers no-cost storage of a user’s text messages and up to 45 days of media. Keeping older media costs $2 per month — Signal’s first paid offering. “The reason we’re doing this is simple: media requires a lot of storage, and storing and transferring large amounts of data is expensive,” Signal said at the time. “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.”

Anyone who opts-in will have their messages backed up each day. The secure backups use a 64-character recovery key that is available exclusively on a user’s device. It’s required to access the backup and Signal is unable to recover it.