this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025

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773

Signal will finally let you transfer your encrypted chat history to new linked devices (mas.to)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

108 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Signal has announced new functionality in its upcoming beta releases, allowing users to transfer messages and media when linking their primary Signal device to a new desktop or iPad. This feature offers the choice to carry over chats and the last 45 days of media, or to start fresh with only new messages.

The transfer process is end-to-end encrypted, ensuring privacy. It involves creating a compressed, encrypted archive of your Signal data, which is then sent to the new device via Signal's servers. Despite handling the transfer, the servers cannot access the message content due to the encryption.

With the introduction of a cross-platform archive format, Signal is also exploring additional tools for message transfer to new devices or restoration in case of device loss or damage. Users can begin testing this feature soon, with a wider rollout expected in the coming weeks.

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[–] [email protected] 111 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Holy shit no way, basic functionality needed at absolutely all times, in my signal? More likely than you think!

Kudos to the Devs! Maybe time to give this app another shot!

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

I’m still waiting for the day that I can make a full backup of my chats and save it on an external hard drive so that I won’t lose all of my message history when I lose my phone.

[–] JohnWorks 64 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

You can on Android. If you have an iPhone you can link using the molly signal fork on an android device and then backup using that.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Oooh interesting! Could you please elaborate / share any resources about this?

[–] JohnWorks 7 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Here's a link to their website https://molly.im/ It also links to their GitHub. If you'd want to backup what you'd do is link molly to your iphone signal instance and then the Android client or molly android client of signal allows you to make local backups on device.

Restoring it back to the iPhone won't be possible but there's a backup at least. Or rather maybe with that recent change the article talks about it might be possible in the future but not currently afaik.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

You can already do it. I have Signal create daily backups, sync it to my NAS using Syncthing with versioning enabled.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Oh fucking shit, setting this up today

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Original announcement: https://signal.org/blog/a-synchronized-start-for-linked-devices/

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Blogs like these drive me fucking crazy: there's a primary source out there, why not just link to that at the end of your (evidently pointless) opinion piece?

It's almost like they know their commentary isn't adding anything and they're worried we'll click away immediately.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago

Yay Signal!

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Finally I can transfer my one and only chat to my PC

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[–] AlecSadler 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks, I love Signal, but can we get Android tablet linking?

Molly has it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

What's Molly in this context?

[–] AlecSadler 18 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

https://molly.im/

A hardened Signal fork that works with Signal's servers and adds features I like that Signal doesn't support.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I heard signal dislikes forks using its server, did molly get approval to do so, or is this based on generosity until signal can ban them?

[–] AlecSadler 4 points 3 weeks ago

I heard that too...1ish years ago and Molly still seems to work okay. I would assume by now that Signal knows they exist, so hopefully they'll keep playing nice.