Signal Introduces Secure Free and Paid Backup Plans for Chat Data
Signal, the privacy-centric messaging platform, announced a significant update to its service on September 8, 2025. The company is launching a new chat backup feature that includes both a free tier and a paid subscription option, addressing a long-standing limitation in its app regarding conversation preservation.
Free Backup Tier Covers Recent Messages and Media
Previously, Signal users could transfer messages between devices but lacked any cloud-based backup, posing risks in case of device loss or damage. The newly introduced free plan offers 100MB of encrypted storage, sufficient for text messages and media from the last 45 days. Signal compresses messages before storage to optimize space, aiming to accommodate even heavy users within this limit.
Paid Plan Expands Storage for Comprehensive Media Backups
For users requiring longer media retention, Signal is debuting its first paid feature—a $1.99 monthly subscription providing up to 100GB of backup storage. This plan enables full media backups beyond the 45-day window available in the free tier. Signal emphasizes that the paid option helps offset storage expenses while maintaining stringent privacy standards.
Privacy and Security at the Core of Backup Design
Signal employs zero-knowledge encryption technology to safeguard backups, ensuring that stored data is not linked to user identities or payment information. Users receive a unique 64-character recovery key generated on their devices, which is necessary to decrypt and restore backups. This approach contrasts with some competitors like WhatsApp, which offer optional end-to-end encrypted backups but with different implementation details.
Availability and Future Enhancements
The backup feature is initially available on Signal’s Android beta version, with plans to extend support across platforms soon. Future updates are expected to allow users to store backups in locations of their choice and facilitate cross-platform message history transfers, further enhancing flexibility and user control.
Users can activate the backup function via the app’s Settings menu, triggering daily encrypted backups to the cloud.
FinOracleAI — Market View
Signal’s introduction of free and paid backup plans represents a strategic move to enhance user retention and monetization while preserving its commitment to privacy. The free tier addresses a critical user need for data security, potentially increasing app stickiness, while the paid plan opens a new revenue stream with minimal privacy trade-offs.
Risks include user adoption rates of the paid service and competitive responses from rival apps offering similar encrypted backup solutions. Monitoring Signal’s ability to scale this feature across platforms and maintain robust privacy protections will be key.
Impact: positive
