Signal Could Soon Make It Easier to Transfer Chats Between Devices

[Chewy_fox]

Signal emerged as a popular and safer alternative to WhatsApp after the latter announced its new, and rather controversial, Terms of Service. 

However, Signal's Achilles Heel is that there's no straightforward option to transfer your chats between devices. That could soon change if the latest Signal beta for Android is anything to go by.

Transfer Signal Chat Data Securely Between Android Devices

As first spotted by TestingCatalog, the latest Signal beta (v5.5.0) introduces a new chat migration tool to transfer your account and chat data to another device.

For safety and security reasons, the transfer process happens over a secure Wi-Fi Direct connection with end-to-end encryption. The change-log of the update explains the feature as follows:

Your next upgrade deserves an upgrade. Quickly and securely transfer your Signal information to a brand-new Android phone. Use the end-to-end encrypted migration feature to move your account and messages from an old device to a new device over a private local WiFi Direct connection.

Unlike WhatsApp and Telegram, Signal chat backups will not be uploaded to the cloud and restored on another device. Instead, the new migration tool will require access to both the old and new Android devices as the chat data transfer will happen locally.

Signal has not rolled out a similar chat migration tool for its iS app so far. It is also unclear if this new chat migration tool will allow the transfer of chat data between iOS and Android.

While this might sound inconvenient at first, Signal's new migration tool is actually more secure than WhatsApp and Telegram's offering.

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If you are already on the Signal beta channel on Android, you can find the chat migration tool under Settings > Chats > Transfer Account. You can join the Signal beta program for Android on this Google Play link.

Signal Already Offers a Tedious Method to Restore Chat Data

Signal already offers an option to move chat data between devices. However, it is not as straightforward as, say, Telegram and WhatsApp. It also does not work between different operating systems. This means you cannot move your Signal chat history from Android to iPhone or vice versa.

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The current process requires you to manually move Signal's chat data from your old Android device to a specific folder on your new device. You then have to enter the 30-digit passphrase to decrypt the backup.

The new chat migration tool makes the entire process simple and straightforward. It should help anyone looking to switch from WhatsApp or Telegram to Signal without worrying about losing their chat data when switching devices.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Chewy_fox

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