I don't know about other platforms, but Signal on Android supports backing up to a file, as well as direct transfer of data to another phone.
Example: I am running out of space on my phone. I look, and see Signal is taking 4gb of space. But I would like to preserve a lot of that media. So I buy a mini-SD card and install it in my phone. Yay! Now to turn on Signal chat backups!
Oh, but the backups are hardcoded to a location on your primary storage that you can't change. so even though I have 126gb of free space on the SD card I installed, I can't back Signal up to it and I am still running out of space.
My only option is to try removing every other app I have installed, and hope there is enough space reclaimed to perform a backup, which I can then copy off my system so I can reinstall my apps...WTF.
Meanwhile there is no way to back up a single chat. You can archive it, but that just removes it from your Signal home screen, it doesn't actually create an archive of any kind. And there is no way to back anything up on desktop.
This isn't a feature, it's an antipattern.
Backing up to the same device on which are running out of space is an extremely obvious problem, to which the solution is to just ask the user where they want the backup stored instead of deciding for them.
In the beginning, it might have been an oversight. Now moxie is just making seriously misleading arguments on behalf of people he doesn't know to make their service worse.
What are you referring to? An option to choose your backup location got added two years ago. It works on Android 10 and above.
https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/commit/ee3d7a9a3...
This means:
* Backup must be automatic.
* Backup must be done off device.
* Backup must be common enough that messages aren't lost.
* Restore must be available to person of average technical ability.
* Restore must not require a person to remember typing in a 20+ character pregenerated number they probably lost in last 2 years of having Setup signal.
This is the bar other messaging apps have set.
It's also funny how demanding on use of phone numbers, shoving in crypto currency and demanding everyone to use out-of-date Electron app is somehow fine, but making backups user friendly is suddenly a massive "security" issue.
This is the BS security theater I despise at Signal. It's the software equivalent of having every single airplane passenger take off shoes.
That's probably your answer. I don't know anyone who uses a mini-SD card. The last time I bought a phone no phone I considered had an SD slot.