Signal has added a major new feature, allowing people to change their phone number without losing their chats.
Signal is one of the most secure messaging platforms on the market, but that level of security sometimes comes with convenience compromises. Until now, one such compromise meant that changing one’s phone number would result in a loss of all previous chats.
The company has now addressed that issue, providing a way to change numbers, while still keeping old messages.
If you’re getting a new phone, but keeping your old number, you can use our end-to-end encrypted device-to-device transfer on Android or iOS to carry your contacts and chat history over to your new device. Make sure you do this before wiping/recycling your old device, as Signal messages are excluded from built-in operating system and cloud backups.
If you’re keeping your existing phone, but getting a new number, the Change Number feature will let you keep your profile and all of your existing messages and groups on your device, while making you reachable at your new phone number.
As big fans of Signal, it’s good to see the company introducing features that make it easier to use.