10 Best Signal App Tips and Tricks You Should Know 2021

10 Best Signal App Tips and Tricks You Should Know 2021

Introduction

After so much controversies lately regarding WhatsApp's terms and privacy policy changes, people are considering switching to Signal, Telegram or other privacy focused Apps. Some already switched to these apps.

Look, in this online world where privacy violations and secretly collecting user data has become a norm whether it's by any country's government or any company, Signal app is truly focused on privacy. Their "about the app" section in android they said : "say hello to privacy ".
Signal is behind the End to End Encryption (E2E Encryption) in WhatsApp and other messenger applications. So, you now know, how much secure the signal app here. This messaging app is even open-source, have all features like any other app and offers several other very essential privacy features that you won’t find anywhere else like Screen Security, Incognito Keyboard, Sealed Senders, Relay Calls and many more. And we will know about them in this article in just after some few words.
So in this article, Thepaperbyte.com will list out the best Signal tips and tricks that can enhance your experience while messaging and guard your privacy from all corners. So here are the some best Signal tips and tricks and you should do these as soon as you install the application in your smartphones.

Read Also: How to chat and message securely and privately

Important

• All the tips and tricks are actually features in the app. We show these only to make your experience better.
• People are switching to Signal because of the excellent security and privacy.
• Signal have some very essential privacy features like Screen Security, Sealed Senders, Relay Calls, Two Factor Authentication (2FA).
• Signal have true black dark mode (good for Amoled screen phones).
• Signal is used by whistle-blowers, journalists, and many other famous celebrities and persons.
• Signal App does not store any other data than phone number.
• Use Signal in every device ( Android, iOS, iPadOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux and even on Chrome OS by using Linux container).

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1. Enable Screen Lock

It's built-in locker and this is the first and foremost thing you should do. It will restrict your messages from unauthorized access.

So, to do this, tap on your ‘profile icon’ at the top-left corner and open “Privacy”. Now, in the " App access" section, enable the toggle for “Screen lock”. In this, you can even set custom “inactivity timeout” so that Signal can lock itself automatically.

2. Always Relay Calls

It's for those users who want extremely strong security for very private communication. It basically allows you route your calls through the Signal server so that your IP address is not revealed to your contacts or any other third medium. Keep in mind that it will reduce call quality so do this only when needed for really private calls.

So, to do this, open Settings and tap to “Privacy”. It's in “Communication” section, enable “Always relay calls”.

3. Block Screenshots

It's one the best feature of the Signal app. By this, you can restrict users from taking any kind of screenshots whether it's chats or anything within the app. Also, you can’t even take a screenshot from the Recents menu and this is very useful when your phone get compromised or hacked.

Now, To enable this feature, open Settings by by the same procedure like the first one. And then move to “Privacy”. Here, in the "App access" section, enable “Screen security”.

4. Incognito Keyboard

Look, with this you can restrict keyboard apps from learning your typing behavior and collecting data from typing and clipboard. I have tested this feature with Gboard and SwiftKey.

So, to do this, open settings and tap on  “Privacy”. Here, in the "App access" section, enable “Incognito keyboard”.

5. Hide your IP Address

So, by masking your IP address in Signal is like hiding your address so no one can track when you send messages.

To do this, open settings, tap on “Privacy”. Here, in the "Sealed Sender" section, enable “Display indicators”. Sending messages by this method no one track you (IP address).

6. Note to Self

This feature is not available on most of the messengers like WhatsApp. This is basically a note taking section where you save anything for later purposes (reading, forwarding, etc). In WhatsApp, user's first make group then they remove other's then that group became "Note to Self" like feature and it's loss of mess. So, in Signal, it's inbuilt.

So, to use this, tap on ‘pencil/pen icon’ at the bottom-right corner and then you see 'Note to Self' option in contacts list, tap on that. Now you can save anything for later purposes from your clipboard or from the Signal App messages. It's for the first time only. After this, you can see this in your recents tab.

7. Disappearing Messages

It's also available in other messenger platforms but in Signal, there is a new thing that you can set timer as to when the messages will start disappearing after it has been read by the other end user. The disappearing timeout is from 5 seconds to 1 week.

To use this, open a conversation/chat and tap on the three-dot menu on the top-right corner and now tap and open “Disappearing Messages”. Now, set the timer for messages to disappear.

8. Send One-time Viewable Image

This is one of the best feature available in Signal App where you can send images for one time view only and after viewing one time the image will be disappeared automatically from both sides (sender's and receiver's).

To do this, just select the conversation where you want the image to be seen and then the image you want to and then tap on the “infinity icon” at the bottom-left corner and tap and change it to “1x”, here "1x" means 'one time see'. Now, send the image and it will be auto-deleted after the receiver opened it once. It's like self-destructing message feature but here it's for images.

9. Delete Old Messages

To make conversation look clean and clutter-free, Signal provide a feature called 'Delete old messages'. After setting up the conversation length limit if any group or single chatbox, Signal will automatically delete the old messages. This will be helpful in group chats mostly. One more intresting things in this feature is that you can even choose the message limit in words. So, after reaching that number of words, Signal will automatically delete the old messages.

To do this, open the Settings and navigate to “Storage”. Here, tap and enable the toggle “Delete old messages” and after that you can even set words limit.

10. Other little Tips and Tricks

Media auto download

It's a must to save your internet data. To do this, go to settings > chats and media > media auto download section > turn off all the toggles to none or you can choose as per your requirement.

Turn off Joined Signal notifications

Because a lot of joining on Signal, App pushes alert every time.
To Turn off this, go to Settings> Notifications > toggle the Contact Joined Signal off in "events" section l.

Setting up PIN and 2FA

Setting up PIN is an additional layer for implementing 2-Factor Authorization (2FA) and it's also important for reinstallation and verification. Signal Will occasionally reminds user's to remember the PIN.

To do this, go to Settings and then Privacy and after that in the "Signal PIN" section there are three options : "first", create or change PIN option, "second", PIN reminder to remind user's. So, make sure to Turn on the toggle. And at last, "third", registration lock for reinstallation, turn on this toggle too. So, that no one can register a dummy account on the same number in other device.

Blur Faces

While sending images or any other sensitive documents, user's can blur the face or even other parts of documents. This will help user's to protect identity, documents or images.
To use this, tap on the + (plus) icon then select the image and then tap on the ‘Blur’ icon on top. Now, enable the toggle for “Blur faces” and if it didn’t detect then do it manually.

Verify Contacts

User's can even verify the other end by QR code.

Photo Editor

There is a built-in photo editor by Signal with save to gallary feature.

What you should not change in Signal app

Look, there is a option in “Privacy”, in the "Sealed Sender" section, called “Allow from anyone ”. Make sure that it's off. If its on then anyone can send you anything whether you shared your contact or not, if they know then they can send anything without any trace. So make sure that "toggle" is "Off".

SMS and MMS option

Do not turn the toggle on, otherwise it will combine your normal message inbox with Signal inbox.

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So those are some best Signal tips and tricks that we found on the app very intresting and some even are new. So, these features are not like wallpaper, theme, changing rather most of them are based on strengthening security and privacy. So, like this, we will write more Tips and Tricks about Apps time to time. So, till then, stay alert and do share the article if you like.

Image copyright © and courtesy : Signal App.