Signal Archiving: Top Ways to Capture Signal Messages

The ultra-private mobile messaging app is growing in popularity for business conversations. Here’s how organizations can capture and store conversations taking place via the platform.

On the heels of privacy and surveillance scandals that have raised public concern around data security to new heights, Signal has evolved from a fringe messaging app to a popular communication channel for mobile messaging. The app promotes itself as the most secure and private on the market, and it’s gained a major following among people who want to share text and voice messages that can’t be monitored by a third party.

As more and more people use Signal (there are an estimated 40 million monthly active users worldwide), the platform has naturally evolved into one of the more commonly used instant messaging apps for business, both for internal discussions and client-brand conversations. But Signal’s biggest benefit – hyper-private, virtually untraceable messaging – poses a serious issue for companies, who need clear visibility into their messages both for liability and compliance purposes.

The platform is purposely designed to make it difficult for third parties to monitor what’s being said. Even the process of storing, capturing, and transferring messages within the app is far more complicated than archiving within competitors’ platforms. 

So how can companies leverage Signal to interact with customers concerned about privacy, while balancing their own need for secure messaging that can be easily accessed in the future?

Compliance and your company’s instant messaging policy 

 

A secure encrypted messaging app, Signal may feel like a more private, secure alternative to popular messaging services like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat. But if business related conversations are taking place over Signal – whether they’re internal company discussions or client-facing interactions – they must be recorded and saved, according to legal standards for organizations operating in the financial, banking, and other regulated industries.

Your company’s compliance efforts around business communications must include conversations taking place via the platform. But there are several major challenges around Singal compliance — namely, that the app does not fall under the protective umbrella of company-wide communications like Slack, and businesses cannot automatically see, monitor, or store Signal messages. 

The lack of transparency into what’s being discussed on Signal creates serious risk. Without access to Signal conversations, companies are left in the dark and may be setting themselves up for disaster in the event of a regulatory crackdown or future client – brand dispute.

Signal archiving: Why it’s mission critical

 

Creating a solid digital record of Signal conversations is important for protecting your business and remaining in compliance. In order to ensure you gain a full history of all text messages, voice notes, and multimedia exchanges including screenshots, photos, and videos, you need to use a system which automatically captures all of that pertinent data. Signal archived messages and Signal backups serve as both a powerful record of both sides of a conversation, and can provide regulators with legally required visibility into your organization’s business communications.

In theory, you can ask your individual employees to periodically create backups of their Signal conversations which took place via the mobile app, and upload them to a shared Cloud, drive, or folder which your organization’s senior staff can view. Each time they create a backup, they’ll need to enter the app’s settings, scan a QR code on their computer, and manually enter a 30-digit passphrase before the message transferring begins.

The problem is that this method of archiving relies on people acting perfectly, at all times, and taking initiative to regularly perform these arduous steps. According to Signal’s official site, backups and restoration of old messages becomes impossible if any of the following circumstances apply:

• you do not have your old device or lost your phone.
• you cleared your phone.
• you uninstalled Signal on your iPhone or iPad.
• you accidentally deleted a message or chat.
• you switched between Android and iOS.
• you changed your number.

Transferring and storing conversations which took place on the desktop app is even more complicated. Signal’s site explains that the platform is specifically built not to support the transfer of messages from computer to computer, and that “you cannot simply copy files to another instance of Signal or copy files after linking and using Signal.”

Essentially, in order for a backup to happen, all the stars must be aligned perfectly. You need to trust that employees will never delete messages or conversations that are cluttering their inbox and don’t seem relevant anymore, never lose their phones or computers, or change their numbers. That’s not to mention the issues posed by an employee leaving your company, whose conversations you can consider to be lost forever.

How to create a comprehensive Signal app archive

 

It’s clear that companies need a better way to gain access and visibility into business-related Signal conversations. The good news is that a third party system can provide that, with no need to account for human error.

LeapXpert, a responsible business communications platform, automatically captures, records, and archives all business conversations– whether they’re internal or between a business and its clients — that happen via instant messaging applications, including Signal. It seamlessly integrates with WeChat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and more. 

The solution creates an all-encompassing digital record of all exchanges, including text, multimedia, and voice messages, providing stellar visibility and unparalleled transparency into everything that’s being said. 

With traceability and ownership of business communications available as a single source of truth in one easy to access location, employees at your organization can securely use Signal to deliver lightning-fast responses to their customers and colleagues. This record also helps protect your business with clear documentation of conversations in the event of a dispute between parties, regulatory investigation, or future litigation.

For more on adding Signal archiving and backups as an integral part of your organization’s secure instant messaging communications strategy, get in touch with us! We’d love to show you how capturing Signal conversations can protect your brand and streamline your compliance efforts, as well as strengthen your relationships with your customers.