Last updated on September 19, 2025

As Signal previously announced, the developers are working on an end-to-end encrypted backup system. In this article, we share what we already know about the backup feature.

Signal officially introduced secure backups on September 8, 2025, via a blog post. As of September 19, 2025, Signal Secure Backups are available for Android users with Signal version 7.56.10. iOS and Desktop support will follow soon.

Backups hosted by Signal

Signal backups are hosted by Signal itself and allow you to securely and privately back up your messages and media. This means you can recover your messages and media even after your device is lost or damaged.

Backups are optional and you can delete your backup at any time.

Free and paid versions

There will be both a free and a paid version of Signal backups. The free version will include all your text messages plus media from the past 45 days. The paid version will allow you to back up all your media up to a maximum of 100GB.

The paid version will cost $1.99 per month. Signal also indicates that pricing may be subject to change in future and vary by region to make it affordable for people worldwide.

Signal is a non-profit organization that runs mostly on donations, and of course, these backups incur additional costs. Signal is made for you and your privacy — unlike WhatsApp, Signal will never show ads. That’s why Signal asks a fair price for the expanded backup subscription.

Dynamic media management

The paid version will eventually also let you save space on your device thanks to dynamic media management. Your media will automatically be uploaded to the Signal backup and downloaded again automatically when you scroll up. This feature will not be available at launch and is still in development.

Backup frequency and mobile network option

For both the free and paid versions, backup fequency is set to daily by default. You can also create backups manually at any time.

You can choose to allow backups over a mobile network as well. For users with limited mobile data plans, it’s recommended to keep this option disabled.

Disappearing messages and view-once media

Signal has carefully considered how disappearing messages should be handled in backups. The team decided to exclude disappearing messages that have been read and are due to expire within 24 hours, as well as any message with a timer shorter than 24 hours, regardless of whether it’s been read. Signal believes this strikes a good middle ground.

Photos and videos set for view-once are always excluded from backups.

Cross-platform backups possible

Signal backups will be cross-platform. This means you can create a backup on Android and restore it on iOS, and vice versa. Currently, the beta test version is only available for Android, but iOS and Desktop support will follow soon.

Privacy first

As always, privacy is Signal’s top priority: the backup system is designed so that backups are encrypted with a 64-character recovery key only you possess. Moreover, backups are disabled by default and cannot be linked to any user — even payments are designed so they cannot be linked to a user account.

Improved local backups

Alongside the new Signal backups, local backups for Android will remain available and will be introduced on iOS and Desktop too. You can create full local backups for free.

Signal is also working on an improved version of local backups that uses a new cross-platform format and only stores changed media. This will make new local backups significantly faster — just seconds instead of minutes. The improved local backups will be introduced shortly after the launch of Signal backups.

Availability

Signal backups are now available for Signal on Android and Desktop. When this will be rolled out to iOS and Desktop is not yet known.

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