I just wanted to say that the new(ish) Secure Backups feature rocks!
Last time I needed to transfer my Signal history I had to sit in an Apple Store for 2-3 hours, without access to the new (or old) phone, to wait while my message history was opaquely transferred between devices. The time before that (at home) took something like 10 attempts for it to go through, with each time taking forever before failing and no insight into why.
This time, I simply said I was transferring via Secure Backups, scanned the QR code, and boom... account moved, messages near instantly transferred, and the rest of the data was downloaded to my phone (in the background) a few mins later. Fantastic!
I was one of the people complaining (for years) about why encrypted backups couldn't just be stored in iCloud. I understood the technical/privacy reasons why, but given the fact that there was no alternative, I couldn't understand why Signal didn't allow users to opt-in to storing an automatic encrypted backup in iCloud or manually storing one in a location of their choosing.
Though it took some time, I'm glad this solution is here, I'm really happy that they struck a balance between convenience and privacy, and I'm really glad a user can recover some/all of their data even if they lose their phone with the secret keys. It's a great solution and I'm happy to pay for the privilege and support Signal.
Even if you don't care about losing media older than 45 days if you lose access to your phone, this way of transferring data between phones is SO MUCH BETTER than the phone-to-phone transfer that I'd advise paying $2, using this mechanism, and then cancelling it.
Thanks signal team!