▶ How to delete messages on Signal
Table of contents:
Signal has become a messaging application that bases its success on security incorporating features that enhance the privacy of conversations. But how to delete messages in Signal? This functionality is to make messages delete automatically, to be ephemeral.
Signal Ephemeral Messages
Signal ephemeral messages stay in the chat window for a while and then disappear. An action that you can activate and deactivate yourself by establishing a stay interval that goes between a minimum of 5 seconds or a maximum of one week.
Once the "disappear messages" option is activated, a icon of a stopwatch will appear next to the name of your contact just above the message symbolizing the countdown until it disappears without a trace.
How to make messages disappear on Android
To make Signal messages disappear on Android you must first open the chat of the conversation. Then tap on the name of the contact that appears in the header and then click on “disappearance of messages”.
A drop-down menu will then open for you to choose the time interval for the duration of the messages. Then in the header of the chat and in the window you will have a reminder of the duration of the message.
If at any time you want to deactivate this option and have the messages remain fixed without being deleted, all you have to do is click on the header within the conversation and return to "disappearance of messages" and in the interval of time click on "inactive".
How to make messages disappear on iOS
If you want to know how to make Signal messages disappear on iOS, you must also open the chat where you want to set the deletion of messages and click on the headerwith the name of the contact.
You will see the option “Disappearance of messages” in the drop-down menu and you must activate it by sliding the button to the right so that it stays in the background blue. Just below you should see that a slider is activated where you will set the time interval.
If you want to disable this option in iOS you just have to go to “Disappearance of messages” and slide the button to the left, removing the color blue and the range control disappearing.
How to recover messages in Signal
If you uninstalled the app and want to know how to recover messages in Signal that you had or have a new device and what you want is not to lose the conversations when you install the app again you can recover the conversations because the application saves information on your device.
On Android devices:
Activate backups by opening the Signal application. Press the three dots at the top right and open “Settings”. At the bottom of the screen you will see the option “Backup copies” click and activate them. Select the folder where the copy will be saved. A 30-digit password will then appear that you must write down and save to retrieve the messages later.
If you want to recover the messages on the same phone you must save the folder where the backup copy is that has the name of Signal in other storage, such as an external card, before restoring the phone to factory settings.
If the conversations to recover are on a new phone you must copy that folder named Signal to the new device.
Then install the Signal app again on your mobile and enter the 30-digit password you noted down before entering the number of phone. You will thus recover all your conversations.
On iOS devices:
In the case of iOS from Signal, the transfer of the account to a a new device is allowed.
Install Signal on the new mobile and complete the registration. Then select the option “Transfer from iOS device”. You will get a QR code that you must scan with your old device. The transfer will begin and then your message history will be transferred to the new device and deleted on the old one.
