Recent commits suggest Signal is preparing a paid subscription for backups.
https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/blob/7ee1b1386b6a6d5bf9ff90d6b6e20ec466692b7a/app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml#L5335Open linkView original on lemmy.worldSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.worldhttps://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/blob/7ee1b1386b6a6d5bf9ff90d6b6e20ec466692b7a/app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml#L5335Open linkView original on lemmy.world
10 replies
I imagine this would be backing up to Signal's servers, not restricting local backups? Seems like a harmless way to raise money; I'd wait for a blog post for them to explain their reasoning.
I can confirm that, as someone else who has been passively listening to discussions about it, that's the exact impression I got.
Information is available on the unofficial Signal wiki, if you feel like digging around.
Edit: apparently discussions go back at least a year. Here's one titled "Signal is getting Cloud Backups"
I've been waiting for this feature for a while actually 😅
When I last saw people talking about it, there were rumors that there would be a reasonable free backup (ex. up to 1 Gb) with relatively cheap paid options above that. I scrolled through the GitHub link and couldn't confirm or deny if this is still/actually the case.
Backups are the #1 pain point for friends that tried to switch to Signal, especially for those on iOS. I have a local backup + sync setup for my own phone, but it's a lot to expect for the average casual user to set up.
Whatsapp has backups to Google Drive, which is better than nothing but not ideal. It's time Signal had a reliable backup method for casual users
There's no concrete pricing plan, although there were specifics that were originally tied to those rumors.
Have you looked at simplex yet?
Simplex doesn't require you to setup a server. You just need to make a local profile on your device. And it walks you through that.
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Not sure how I feel about this but hey, if they encrypt it properly and make it not too expensive, it could help them gain money to run signal so it’s nice
As long as local backups don’t go away this looks fine.