It’s been a long time coming, but we finally feel comfortable taking all of our work on the new Signal Secure Backups system to beta!
To pay for the backup, you have to go through Google, and according to them, an alternative solution without Google isn’t going to happen any time soon.
For a solution focused on security and “privacy”, I find that disappointing.
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Where does it read you have to go through google?
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Unfortunately yes, right now we have no plans to offer paid backups on non-gapps devices. Because it’s a paid product, not a donation, we have to pay a Play Store fee no matter what payment is used, and so right now it’s just easier to use the in-app billing. We are still thinking through the best way to support non-gapps devices. But for now the recommendation is to still use local backups (which will be getting much better soon! I talk about it in the alpha testing post).
Generally mad that donors do not get access.
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asked here too: Beta feedback for the upcoming Android 7.56 release - #97 by ph00lt0 - Android Beta Feedback - Signal Community
I think it would cause more issues to Signal as they are now selling a product (feature) and “disguise” it as a donation. I definitely could imagine Google go after Signal for this.
While they already offer a badge to donors, I don’t think anyone would really think a badge is a product (feature).
I think this entire thing will just drop the amount of donations they will get. People who pay for backups I believe are not also going to donate. At least I would not.
Backup isn’t a gift, it’s a feature, that’s why it goes through Google, unless I’ve missed something.
I don’t think it would be an issue, you are paying them with real money, anyway. You could even not using online backup feature after paying for that.
I would prefer they find a way to enable backup to other services though.
tbh yeah some sort of say proton drive integration or equivalent privacy alternative would be amazing.
Alternatively do it kinda like whatsapp, where the file is end-to-end encrypted by default anyway but it utilizes the AOSP files app to choose the cloud drive or self hosted of your choice.
How come Threema has an option to buy it outside of the play store?
Threema uses license key system. My hypothesis is that signal may want to avoid it so it doesn’t get tied to your phone number but I could be wrong.
Not mentioning this is a monthly subscription, not a one time payment, a license key isn’t gonna cut it (all though there are solutions like how many privacy friendly companies have partnered with proxystore to offer cash for a specific duration of the subscription (eg. 1 month to 1 year or offer it themselves like Mullvad, like IVPN/Safing.io) and utilize redeem codes for it and without needing to collect who did it at all.)
MagicEarth is also working on that, and I think it will be subscription. So I hope it will be possible for Signal in the future.
Anyway I have no need for this feature, but I would pay 2€/month for support, instead of occasional donations. It’s a fair price.
Can you enable this and local backups simultaneously?
Both can be used at the same time
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Nice to see them monetizing cause it will be needed long-term. As long as they don’t pull manual backups this is fine.
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