Signal Launches First Paid Feature: Encrypted Backups
▼ Summary
– Signal is launching its first paid feature: encrypted backups for media older than 45 days and text messages at $1.99 per month.
– The company cites high storage costs as the reason for the paid tier, differentiating itself from ad-supported competitors.
– A free backup option is available for media from the last 45 days and up to 100MB of text messages, which Signal claims is sufficient for most users.
– Backups are stored without direct user links and require a recovery key, which cannot be retrieved if lost.
– The feature is currently in beta for Android, with plans for broader platform support and user-chosen storage locations in the future.
Signal has introduced its first-ever paid service, marking a significant shift for the popular privacy-focused messaging platform. For $1.99 per month, users can now create fully encrypted backups of their media older than 45 days and preserve their entire text message history. This move allows Signal to generate revenue while staying true to its nonprofit, ad-free principles.
Jim O’Leary, Signal’s VP of engineering, explained the reasoning behind the new feature in a company blog post. “Media requires a lot of storage, and storing and transferring large amounts of data is expensive,” he noted. Unlike many tech firms that rely on advertising or data monetization, Signal operates as a nonprofit and does not collect or sell user information. This paid offering helps cover the substantial infrastructure costs associated with large-scale data storage.
Alongside the subscription model, Signal is also rolling out a free backup option. This tier allows users to save media from the past 45 days and retain text messages beyond that period. Although the free version limits message backups to 100MB, O’Leary emphasized that this should be “large enough for even heavy Signal users to back up the text of all of their messages.”
All backups are designed with privacy at the forefront. According to O’Leary, the archives are “stored without a direct link to a specific backup payment or Signal user account.” Access is managed through a user-controlled recovery key. It’s important to note that if this key is lost, Signal cannot assist in recovery, placing full responsibility for backup access in the hands of the user. Once enabled, the system automatically creates a new backup each day.
Currently, the encrypted backup feature is available in beta for Android users. A full public release, along with support for iOS and desktop, is expected soon. Looking ahead, Signal plans to expand flexibility by allowing users to save their encrypted backup archives to “the location of your choosing,” offering even greater control over personal data storage.
(Source: The Verge)
