> ‘Signal won't let us download our own data and back it up using our own secure systems.

Signal is slowly, very slowly, moving toward providing real backups and cross-device transfers

I understand why you’d believe Signal still can’t deliver that, because they had been ignoring the user demands for years.

But there is real progress now

https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/9708267671322-S...

It's not a matter of belief. Signal does not provide a way for me to download my own messages off my own devices and safely store them using my own secure backup facility.

Obviously Signal don't owe me anything. I'm not paying for the product and I appreciate what it does offer and makes available for free. But it would be much better if it also supported local backups under the user's control.