Signal finally makes using multiple Android devices much easier

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For years, one of Signal’s biggest pain points when compared to other messaging apps wasn’t encryption, voice calls, or missing features. It was the awkward experience of moving between devices. If you wanted to use a second Android phone or tablet, you were largely out of luck. That finally changes with the latest update.

Signal has announced a major expansion of its linked devices feature, allowing users to connect another Android phone or Android tablet to their existing account. The feature arrives in Signal Android v8.20, while Signal iOS v8.22 similarly lets iPhone users link another iPhone alongside existing iPad support.

If you’ve followed Signal over the years, this feels like a long-overdue moment. The app has always prioritized privacy over convenience, and that philosophy made seamless multi-device support significantly harder than it is for cloud-backed messaging apps.

The good news is that Signal isn’t compromising on that privacy model. Instead, it’s extending the encrypted link-and-sync system it introduced in early 2025, which allowed new linked devices to securely receive message history without exposing conversations to Signal’s servers.

When linking a new Android phone or tablet, users can choose to transfer their complete message history and media from the past 45 days. The entire process remains end-to-end encrypted, and if you’d rather start fresh, you can skip the transfer altogether.

Beyond the new linked-device support, Signal has modernized much of its Android interface to better support foldables, tablets, and larger screens. The company admits some work remains — including updates to the Settings interface, in-app camera, keyboard shortcuts, and Chromebook optimizations — but says those improvements are already on the roadmap.

For Signal users, this is arguably the natural next step after last year’s synchronization update. Back then, the company solved the longstanding problem of securely bringing your chats to a newly linked device without weakening its privacy guarantees. The latest release builds on that foundation by dramatically expanding the types of devices that can participate.