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by bmarquez 2210 days ago
iOS may get updates faster than Android and have emojis, but iOS can't backup or transfer your messages to a new phone. This basic feature has been an open request for nearly 3 years.

https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/2542

The inconsistent features between iOS and Android are annoying.

1 comments

Actually iOS can transfer message history to a new iPhone https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Ba...

Not having a backup is seen as a disadvantage by many but i literally feel it's for the best. There's plenty of scenarios when parties benefit from it.

Purchasing a new phone is only a small subset of the scenarios where a backup is useful, for example, in the last two years Apple support has requested that I reset my phone and reinstall iOS twice. Having to buy a second phone to temporarily store my data is not a viable alternative.

Or losing your phone.

Or accidentally breaking it.

Or having it stolen.

A backup protects my data in these situations where a transfer utility does not.

Backups disabled by default would be a sensible approach, but is very much being childish not to let users access their own data.

There were mentions of multi-device coming later on Twitter. While it's not the desired backup feature but a mean to duplicate data at least and backup with Android.