Get fancy with messaging

Use group messaging

iPhone users: From the main screen, click the message icon at the top right. Click the group messaging icon in the top right.

Android users: Click the settings icon at the top right (three dots) and hit “New group.”

From here, you can name your group and add multiple people. You can also change the group icon by clicking on the image to the left. Later, you can always make changes to the group by clicking the conversation settings for the group at the top right.

Signal on desktop

You can use Signal on your desktop as well! Before jumping in, think about whether Signal for desktop works for your situation. If you’re having highly sensitive conversations and think you may have malicious software on your personal computer, you probably don’t want to feed your encrypted messages into that infected machine. For example, if you’re infected with malicious software designed to log your keystrokes or send screenshots to a remote attacker, encryption won’t protect your messages.

If it makes sense for you, try Signal for your desktop.

Attachments

You can send media files by clicking the attachment (paperclip) icon at the bottom of a conversation. This is very important: you can send GIFs here.

Get fancy with security

Make messages disappear

If you want to delete a specific message, press and hold the message. When the menu pops up, click “Delete.” Because Signal stores all of your messages locally and not on a remote server, you are only deleting the message on your personal device. Your conversational partner may still have it.

If you and your conversational partner want to get rid of messages after a certain amount of time by default, there’s a way to do that.

iPhone users: Click on your conversational partner’s name at the top of the screen to open the conversations settings menu.

Android users: Click the settings icon in the top right corner. Click “Disappearing Messages.”

Use the slider to change the amount of time you’d like to wait before messages disappear after they’ve been viewed — anywhere from 5 seconds to a week. Again, messages will disappear for both you and your conversational partner. If you change your mind later, you can always change your settings from this menu, or remove disappearing messages.

iPhone users: To delete all messages across all of your contacts, click the settings icon in the top left and navigate to Privacy > Clear History Logs.

Lock screen notification security

Even when your phone is locked, someone with physical access can still read the message and sender name on your lock screen. But we can fix that.

iPhone users: You can find these settings under Settings > Notifications > “Show.” On this page, you can have Signal display sender name and message, sender name only, or no name or message.



Android users: Device > Sound & notification > When device is locked. On this page, you can have Signal show all notifications, “Hide sensitive information content” or don’t show notifications at all. If you still want alerts but don’t want names or messages visible on your lock screen, hit “Hide sensitive information content.”

Now your messages aren’t readable on your lock screen.

Session verification

On most messengers, there is no way to know that your message isn’t intercepted by a third party. With Signal, you can verify that the current conversation is secure for both messages and calls. Consider verifying your session for sensitive conversations.

You can verify your session with safety numbers. Open a conversation with someone. For iPhone, click the person’s name at the top of the screen. On Android, click "Settings" then navigate to "Conversation settings" and finally "Verify safety numbers". From there, you’ll see a QR code and your safety numbers.

If you and your conversational partner are seeing the same numbers, your session is secure. You want to verify that your numbers match on a different channel — for example, over Twitter DMs, Facebook, Google Hangouts, or a regular old phone call.

If you’re in person with someone, one of you can click “Scan code.” Scan the other person’s QR code with your camera.

You won’t need to verify safety numbers again until someone starts a new session (e.g., when someone gets a new phone).



