New method to back up Signal Messenger data
if you don't use end-to-end encryption, you are the product, even if you pay.
In my mind, the coolest development in the last decade in the messaging space was the mass adoption of end-to-end encrypted messaging tools like WhatsApp and Signal. Unlike other tools like Gmail chat, facebook messenger, where Google/Facebook can read your messages and use it against you, in WhatsApp/Signal, no third party can even read messages between 2 people (assuming your phone itself is not compromised).
The flip side is you need to backup your own data very carefully so that you can recover when, e.g. you loose your phone. Signal provides an option to export your chat data to a backup file on your phone daily. You can then use some other mechanism, to transfer this file periodically to some other computers (in case you lose your phone) or even to cloud: the backup file is encrypted by a long passphrase and the cloud provider cannot read your messages as long as you don’t also let it access the passphrase.
If you use the signal desktop application on a desktop computer, a better option has recently emerged, thanks to the openness of Signal. There is a new open source tool that can convert the chat data on your desktop to a format importable on your Android phone. So now instead of enabling and transferring backups from the phone, you can just set up the signal-desktop app on some secure desktop(s). This has a few advantages:
Because the desktop app receives all messages instantly, you wont lose a day of chats as in the case of daily backups.
Also you don’t need to set up periodic transfer of backup files from your phone to other computers. The signal backup file can be huge and it is one one piece (no incremental backups).
The instructions on using the tool can be found here. I tested it successfully last week. If you use it, consider sending a donation to the developer (not me). (I lost the passphrase of my Android backups but fortunately, I was able to use recover all data from the desktop)