One of the many ways Signal safeguards your data is by saving everything locally to your phone or tablet rather than on external servers. That’s great for privacy, but it makes it a pain to migrate your account to a new device. Thankfully, Signal now lets iOS and iPadOS users wirelessly transfer their account data between devices.
Signal compares the new account migration tool to Apple’s Airdrop service, which allows for the quick transfer of files between two nearby Apple devices. As you would expect from a Signal feature, the process is end-to-end encrypted and happens locally between the two devices—nothing is ever sent to or saved on an external server. Here’s how to make it works
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Install the Signal app on your new iPhone or iPad.
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Follow the onscreen instructions to register and verify your phone number in the app on the new device.
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Once your account is added, tap “Transfer from iOS Device” when prompted. A QR code will pop-up on screen.
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Open Signal on your old device. You should receive a notification about moving your data over to your new device.
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Confirm you’re ready to begin, then use your old device to scan the QR code from step 3 to initiate the transfer.
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Wait for the transfer to complete. It should only take a few minutes at most, but accounts with lots of saved media files may take longer. Once it’s done, your messages and files should be available on the new device.
The iOS/iPadOS transfer tool is the latest in a round of new features recently added to Signal, including a blur tool for Signal’s built-in image editor that will come in handy if you’re worried about anonymity in your photos. The app also offers new PIN settings that can lock down your account even more. Meanwhile, if you’re a cross-platform user, a new media management tool for Signal’s Android app can save you storage space on your phone.
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