Signal Rolls Out Encrypted Cloud Backups, Debuts First Subscription Plan at $1.99/Month (signal.org)
(Monday September 08, 2025 @05:50PM (msmash)
from the storage-costs-money dept.)
- Reference: 0179090084
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/09/08/1824254/signal-rolls-out-encrypted-cloud-backups-debuts-first-subscription-plan-at-199month
- Source link: https://signal.org/blog/introducing-secure-backups/
Signal has begun [1]rolling out end-to-end encrypted cloud backups in its latest Android beta release. The opt-in feature allows users to restore message history if their phone is lost or damaged. Free backups include all text messages and 45 days of media attachments. A $1.99 monthly subscription extends media storage to 100GB.
Users generate a 64-character recovery key on their device that Signal's servers never access. Backups refresh daily, excluding view-once messages and those set to disappear within 24 hours. The nonprofit cited storage costs as the reason for its first paid tier. iOS and Desktop support will follow the Android rollout. Signal said it stores backup archives without linking them to specific user accounts or payment information.
[1] https://signal.org/blog/introducing-secure-backups/
Users generate a 64-character recovery key on their device that Signal's servers never access. Backups refresh daily, excluding view-once messages and those set to disappear within 24 hours. The nonprofit cited storage costs as the reason for its first paid tier. iOS and Desktop support will follow the Android rollout. Signal said it stores backup archives without linking them to specific user accounts or payment information.
[1] https://signal.org/blog/introducing-secure-backups/
Dying without revenue (Score:2)
by Big Hairy Gorilla ( 9839972 )
You could see this coming years ago when the nag screens started. Free services costs someone else money. Can't go on for very long.
This will likely do well enough ... there are *always* people who will pay for any product or service. How many of you pay small monthly fees for Apple cloud storage?
Any amount of recurring monthly revenue adds up pretty fast. That's why every thing is a service now. Last I read signal had 600m users ... if 5% sign up that's $60m cash flow per month ... should help keep the ser
I can't think of anything stupider (Score:2)
Then letting another company handle encrypted data like that.
The entire point of signal and things like it is so that you can communicate securely and destroy those communications as needed so that they can't be used against you in lawsuits and such. It's why cops use it.
If you're going to actually store that data then the risk of the person storing it and then giving access to it to whoever is way too high. Even if they let you control the keys that defeats the purpose. If you're going to have to c
Re: (Score:1)
some companies, like those in the financial sector, require keeping records of e-mail and the like for compliance purposes. this probably isn't of much use to individual users.
Re: (Score:3)
> It's why cops use it.
I don't know about cops, but [1]corrupt politicians sure like to use Signal [heise.de]. While, of course, at the same time, [2]demanding that every normal citizen's chats are being stored and eavesdropped [freiheitsrechte.org].
[1] https://www.heise.de/en/news/Signal-Messenger-Von-der-Leyen-has-preset-auto-delete-for-messages-10628236.html
[2] https://freiheitsrechte.org/en/themen/digitale-grundrechte/chatkontrolle
Re: (Score:3)
No, that's not the entire point. Some of us use Signal and other encryption systems for perfectly legal private communications. We just don't want the ISP or anyone else to be reading our chats or reviewing our media - only the intended recipient.
Re: (Score:2)
I think this is the latter case, where the backups are useless to signal or law enforcement, and can only be decrypted by the keys that you hold on your device (or in a backup if you made one). The keys get spread to all the devices you have logged in to signal, so if you have more than one you're reasonably ok to not make an effort to back them up explicitly. If you lost all your logged in devices and had no backup of the keys, their cloud backup would be useless, but it's not super likely I don't think.
It
Re: (Score:2)
> If you're going to have to control the keys yourself you might as well just do the encryption yourself and then hire any one of a number of regular cloud backups companies.
I think this rsilvergun guy might disagree with you - "couldn't think of anything stupider than letting another company (like those cloud backup companies) handle encrypted data like that" :-P
Seriously though... how do you propose we "just do the encryption yourself" in this case? The IOS app doesn't even have an option to export chat history. On the desktop, one can use sqlite to dump the chat DB, but are we really going to recommend that normal users implement an encrypted backup that way?
> I guess if the data isn't sensitive from a legal standpoint and you're not afraid of the cops getting their hands on it. But then there's tons of other services and they're probably going to be cheaper.
I'd move that li