It's an optional feature.

Mathew Green has continued to use and recommend it.

If you have the threat model to worry about Intel SGX being cracked, you will also know to use a long passphrase.

You could also use a GrapheneOS phone with a weak pin, it makes it easier to access the data. You can use a long passphrase if you want to protect your data. It doesn't make GrapheneOS bad. Other apps can see that data themselves.

It's not outdated, it's from March 2026.

It isn't an optional feature. If you decide not to create a pin one is created for you and your data is still uploaded to the cloud.

See: https://web.archive.org/web/20230616082821/https://old.reddi...

https://signal.org/blog/sealed-sender/ says "By design, it does not store a record of your contacts, social graph, conversation list, location, user avatar, user profile name, group memberships, group titles, or group avatars."

However, today the reality is that signal collects your name, photo/avatar, and your contacts and stores it forever in the cloud.