How to Use Signal: The Beginner's Guide (First Chat, Disappearing Messages, and Staying Private)

CodexFuse Team · 2026-10-28T22:02:52.138Z · 16 min read

Learn how to use Signal from your first install to your first private chat: registration, usernames, disappearing messages, safety numbers, Signal Desktop, and backups — all in one beginner guide.

Learning how to use Signal takes about fifteen minutes, and most of that is waiting for one verification code. Signal is a free, open-source messaging app for Android, iPhone, and desktop that protects every message and call with end-to-end encryption by default, so only the people in the conversation can read or hear it. This Signal messenger tutorial walks you through the whole first setup in order: installing the app, registering with your phone number, sending your first message, creating a username that hides your number, turning on disappearing messages, checking a safety number, linking Signal Desktop, and backing up your chats.

If you are switching from a mainstream chat app, the move is smaller than it looks. Signal works like any other messenger for the everyday parts — chats, groups, photos, voice calls, and video calls — and the privacy parts are mostly settings you choose once. If you use WhatsApp on your computer today, our WhatsApp Web beginner guide covers that setup; this guide covers Signal itself, from first install to a setup you can trust.

How do you use Signal for the first time?

To use Signal for the first time, install the app, register with a phone number that can receive a text message, set a profile name, and send a message to a contact who already uses Signal. That is the whole first run, and every step below expands one part of it.

1. Install Signal from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, and open it.
2. Enter your mobile phone number, then enter the six-digit verification code Signal texts you.
3. Choose a profile name — a first name is enough — and optionally add a profile photo.
4. Tap the compose button, pick a contact who already uses Signal, and send your first message.
5. Set a username in Settings, turn on disappearing messages for sensitive chats, and link Signal Desktop if you want Signal on your computer.

How do you set up Signal on Android and iPhone?

Signal setup starts with the same two requirements on both platforms: a phone number that can receive a text message, and a device that meets the minimum version. Signal's own installation guide lists Android 6.0 or later and iOS 15 or later, and the app is free to download and use over Wi-Fi or mobile data.

Install Signal from your phone's app store and open it. Signal asks for permission to see your contacts so it can show you which of them already use Signal. If you decline that permission, Signal still works — you will just need to enter a contact's phone number by hand to start a chat.

Enter your mobile number and tap through to the verification step. Signal sends a six-digit code by text message, and you enter it in the app to prove the number is yours. That number becomes your account: there is no email address or password to remember, which is exactly why the backup step later in this guide matters so much.

Next, Signal asks for a profile name and optionally a photo. Your profile name and photo are what new contacts see when you message them or join a group, so a first name is plenty. You can change both later, and your username — a separate setting covered below — is not the same thing as this profile name.

How do you send your first message, photo, and call on Signal?

Sending your first message on Signal works like any messenger: tap the compose button, choose a contact who already uses Signal, type your message, and send it. Your contacts who already use Signal appear in the list automatically when you allow contact access; anyone else can be invited, but they need the app installed before an encrypted conversation is possible.

Photos, videos, voice notes, and files all attach from inside the chat, and everything you send to another Signal user travels end-to-end encrypted. That encryption is always on — there is no "secret chat" mode to switch on, and no setting that turns it off. Group chats work the same way: create a group, add members, and every member's messages and calls stay encrypted.

Voice and video calls are just as simple. Open a chat and tap the phone icon for a voice call or the camera icon for a video call, and the call runs over your internet connection instead of your phone plan. Both people need Signal installed and an internet connection, on Wi-Fi or mobile data, for the call to connect.

If you run group chats elsewhere, the habit transfers directly. Our Discord beginner guide covers community servers and voice channels; on Signal, groups are smaller and private by design, with no public discovery and no server list to browse.

How do you create a Signal username and hide your phone number?

A Signal username lets people start a chat with you without ever seeing your phone number, and it is the single most useful privacy setting in the app. To create one, open Signal, tap your profile icon, open Settings, tap your profile, and tap by the @ symbol. Your username is only a way to start a conversation — it is not your profile name, and it never appears in your profile details.

Signal's username rules are strict and worth knowing before you pick one. Usernames are 3 to 32 characters, may contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores, and must end with at least two digits — for example, a name like "maya_reads42" fits, while a name with no digits does not. You can have only one username at a time, you can change or delete it whenever you like, and changing it does not notify your chats.

Hiding your number takes two settings, and they do different jobs. Under Settings, Privacy, Phone Number, "Who can see my number" controls whether people you chat with see your number in your profile details — and even on "Nobody," people who already have your number saved in their contacts will still see it, because they already know it. "Who can find me by my number" controls whether anyone can discover that you are on Signal by searching for your number at all.

For the strongest setup, set both to "Nobody" and share your username instead. The trade-off is real: with "find me" set to "Nobody," even friends who know your number cannot find you on Signal unless you give them your exact username, QR code, or link, because Signal has no searchable directory of usernames. And one merge warning matters: if you already chatted with someone by phone number and then start a chat with them by username, the chats merge, and they will learn that the username belongs to the same person — even with "find me" set to "Nobody."

How do disappearing messages work in Signal?

Disappearing messages delete themselves from your devices after a timer you choose, and they are the right tool for keeping a chat history tidy — not a guarantee against a determined contact. Signal's own support page puts it plainly: disappearing messages are for situations where everyone in the chat wants automated cleanup, not for situations where your contact is your adversary, because anyone who receives a message can always photograph the screen before it disappears.

To set a timer for one chat, open the chat settings and choose Disappearing messages, then pick a time or a custom time of up to four weeks. To set a default for all new chats, go to Signal Settings, Privacy, and choose Default timer for new chats. Anyone in a chat can change its timer, and in group chats the admins may choose who can change it.

Three timer rules catch beginners out. First, the timer only applies to messages sent after it is set — older messages in the same chat are untouched. Second, for a message you send, the timer starts as soon as you send it; for a message you receive, it starts after you read it.

Third, when the timer ends, the message is deleted from disk, and every disappearing message carries a small countdown icon so you can see the timer is active before you send anything sensitive.

A sensible default for most people is one week for everyday chats and one day or less for anything genuinely sensitive. If a chat needs to last — tickets, addresses, instructions you will need next month — leave the timer off for that chat instead of fighting it, and use a short timer only where ephemerality is the point.

What is a Signal safety number, and how do you verify it?

A Signal safety number is a fingerprint of the encryption keys for one conversation, and verifying it is how you confirm that no one has slipped a different key into the middle of your chat. End-to-end encryption already keeps outsiders from reading your messages in transit, but it rests on one assumption: that the public key your app received for your contact really belongs to them. The safety number lets you check that assumption through a channel outside Signal itself.

To view one, open the conversation, tap the contact's name at the top, and choose View Safety Number. If you are sitting with the person, the fastest check is the QR code: one of you displays it, the other scans it, and Signal confirms the match on the spot. If you cannot meet, send the number through a channel you already trust — a different messaging app, a video call, or an email thread where you have already confirmed the person's identity — and compare it there.

One verification habit matters more than the rest: the person who wants to confirm an identity should receive the safety number, not send it. Because both sides of a conversation share the same number, someone impersonating your contact could simply echo back whatever you send. Wait for them to send it unprompted, then compare it with the number in your app.

If Signal ever warns you that a contact's safety number has changed, pause before trusting the chat again. A changed number usually has a boring explanation — a new phone, a fresh install — but it is exactly the signal that a takeover would also produce, so verify again through another channel before sharing anything sensitive.

How do you use Signal on your computer?

Signal Desktop is a linked device, not a standalone account, so your phone stays the primary device and the computer mirrors it. Download Signal Desktop for Windows, macOS, or Linux, open it, and it shows a QR code. On your phone, open Settings, Linked Devices, add a new device, and scan that code with your phone's camera.

Once linked, new messages arrive on both devices, and you can send from either one. Your phone must stay registered for the link to keep working, and if you ever restore your phone from a backup, you will need to relink your desktop afterwards. The same linking flow covers an iPad, with one difference Signal documents plainly: chat history is not transferred from the phone to a linked iPad.

If you message from a computer all day, Signal Desktop is the comfortable way to do it, and it keeps the same encryption as your phone. Just remember that a linked computer is another device holding your conversations — review Settings, Linked Devices from time to time, and unlink anything you no longer recognize.

How do you back up Signal without losing your chats?

Backing up Signal is the step most beginners skip, and it is the one that decides whether a lost or broken phone costs you your chat history. Signal offers three options, and they are not interchangeable — the right one depends on whether you are moving to the same kind of phone or a different one.

Signal Secure Backups are the simplest choice for most people. They store your messages and recent media with end-to-end encryption, protected by a recovery key that only you hold. Turn them on before you need them, write the recovery key down on paper, and store a copy somewhere safe — a password manager is ideal, and our Bitwarden beginner guide walks through setting one up.

Without that key, the backup cannot be opened, and there is no account recovery that can replace it.

Two restore rules are worth memorizing now, while you are calm. First, a backup restores only when you set Signal up fresh on a new device — you cannot merge an old backup into an app you already set up, so if you install first and remember the backup second, you start over. Second, device-to-device transfers need both phones in your hands at the same time, so they help with an upgrade and not at all with a phone that is already lost.

Signal vs WhatsApp: which should you use?

Signal vs WhatsApp is less a question of encryption than of what each app is for. Both encrypt personal messages and calls end to end, so the difference is not whether your chats are scrambled — it is who runs the service, what data it keeps, and how you are identified. Signal is run by the nonprofit Signal Foundation, its client software is open source, and it stores very little about you: essentially your phone number, when the account was created, and when it last connected.

WhatsApp is the better choice if your whole social circle is already there and you want the widest set of mainstream features — Channels, Status, and large communities among them. Signal is the better choice if privacy is the deciding factor: usernames that hide your number, disappearing messages with a default timer, safety-number verification, and no advertising business built on your data. Many people end up running both, using WhatsApp where their contacts are and Signal for the conversations they want kept smallest.

If your contacts are still on WhatsApp, start there rather than forcing a switch. Our Telegram beginner guide covers the other big alternative, and the honest comparison is that each app's network matters more than its feature list — the best messenger is the one your people will actually answer on.

What should you do in your first week on Signal?

Your first week on Signal is mostly a short settings pass, and doing it once saves you from fixing things later. Work through this checklist in order, and you will have the setup this guide recommends without having to remember every setting name.

• Create a username and set both phone-number privacy options to "Nobody" if you want strangers kept out.
• Set a default disappearing-message timer for new chats, and a shorter one for your most sensitive conversations.
• Verify the safety number for at least your most important contact, in person or through a channel you already trust.
• Turn on Signal Secure Backups and store the recovery key on paper and in your password manager.
• Link Signal Desktop if you work from a computer, then review your linked devices and remove anything unfamiliar.
• Check what your notifications show on a locked screen, and hide message previews and sender names if your phone is often in other people's hands.

After that, Signal mostly disappears into the background, which is the point. You open it, you message, you call, and the encryption, the disappearing timers, and the backups quietly do their jobs. The only habit worth keeping is the safety-number check whenever Signal tells you a contact's number has changed — thirty seconds of caution, exactly when it matters.

Sources

• Signal Support — "Installing Signal" — https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360008216551-Installing-Signal (Android 6.0 or later, iOS 15 or later, free end-to-end encrypted messaging and calls over any internet connection)
• Signal Support — "Phone Number Privacy and Usernames" — https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/6712070553754-Phone-Number-Privacy-and-Usernames (username rules, "Who can see my number" and "Who can find me by my number" settings, no searchable username directory, chat merging)
• Signal Support — "Set and manage disappearing messages" — https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007320771-Set-and-manage-disappearing-messages (timer rules, custom times up to four weeks, timer start points, deletion from disk, screenshot caveat)
• Signal Support — "Backups and Device Transfers on Signal" — https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/10074659364122-Backups-and-Device-Transfers-on-Signal (Secure Backups with a recovery key, same-platform device transfers, on-device backup limits)
• Signal — "Keep your phone number private with Signal usernames" — https://signal.org/blog/phone-number-privacy-usernames/ (usernames initiate contact without sharing a number, shareable by QR code or link, changeable at any time)
• Electronic Frontier Foundation, Surveillance Self-Defense — "How to: Use Signal" (six-digit SMS verification code, profile name requirement, contact permission behavior, safety-number verification)

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a phone number to use Signal?

Yes, you need a phone number that can receive a text message to register, and Signal texts you a six-digit verification code to prove the number is yours. After registration, a username lets other people reach you without ever seeing that number — but the number itself is still the account, so keep it in mind if you ever change numbers.

Can someone find me on Signal without my phone number?

Only if you give them your exact username, QR code, or link. Signal has no searchable directory of usernames, so nobody can browse for you, and with "Who can find me by my number" set to "Nobody," even people who know your number cannot discover that you are on Signal until you share your username with them.

Do disappearing messages delete from both sides of the chat?

Yes, the timer deletes the message from the devices in the conversation once it runs out, and the timer only covers messages sent after it was set. It does not stop the other person from photographing the screen or copying the text before it disappears, so treat disappearing messages as tidy-up, not as proof against a contact who wants a record.

Can I use Signal on desktop without a phone?

No. Signal Desktop is a linked device, so you need a registered phone to scan the QR code and link it, and your phone stays the primary device. Once linked, you can message and call from the computer, but a phone is required to set the account up in the first place.

What happens if I lose my phone without a backup?

Your chat history is gone with the phone, because Signal does not keep a server-side copy of your conversations to restore from. With Signal Secure Backups turned on and your recovery key saved, you can restore on a new device during first-time setup with the same phone number — which is why the backup step belongs in your first week, not after the loss.