How to Transfer Alarm Message History Between Android Devices
Signal is testing a new Wi-Fi data transfer tool for Android users that will allow you to transfer your message history to a new device, similar to how Signal for phone-to-phone transfer was added to iOS last year.
Prior to the introduction of this new feature, Android users could activate their account on multiple devices , but these messages had to be manually backed up and transferred using a PC. The new transfer tool skips this step and moves all of your Signal data, including your message history, over Wi-Fi. Both devices are encrypted during transmission to keep your data safe.
Signal transmission for Android is only available in the beta version of the app (version 5.5.1). You can join the beta version of Signal for Android on the Google Play store to try it out sooner, or you can wait for the feature to arrive in the stable version.
If you are using the transfer tool while it is still in testing, make sure you have installed the Signal beta app on both Android devices. Then follow these steps to pass your signal data:
- Connect both phones to the same Wi-Fi network.
- Open the Signal app on your new phone.
- Select “Transfer Account” during setup .
- Follow the instructions on the screen. Note. Keep phones close to each other and make sure they don’t turn off or lose their Wi-Fi connection while transferring.
- Once the process is complete, your Signal account, settings and messages will be available on your new phone and removed from your old device.
Transfer Signal Data to Android Manually
For those who cannot use Wi-Fi transmission, you can still manually move Signal message data to a new Android device. It’s a tricky process, but the Signal support page offers a variety of troubleshooting steps if you run into issues along the way.
- Open the Signal app and go to Settings> Chats> Chat Backups .
- Click Enable.
- Select a folder to save your backups.
- Write down the 30-digit code – don’t lose it! It is used to verify your identity later in the transfer process.
- Select “Allow backup”.
- Wait while Signal creates the backup file. You can see when the last backup was created.
- Connect your Android device to your computer.
- On your computer, open the Signal backup folder, then copy the backup to your desktop. The file is named “signal- [datetime] .backup”.
- Connect your new Android device to your computer.
- Copy the Signal backup from your PC to the internal storage of the new phone.
- Install and open Signal on your new phone.
- Select “Continue”, then follow the instructions and take all the permits to automatically import the backup or select “Restore Backup” to open the file manually.
- Use the 30-digit code from step 4 to confirm the transfer.
After the import is complete, your Signal data is now available on your new phone.
[ Android Police ]