Signal: Screen Saver Protection in Windows 11

The desktop version of the private messaging app Signal for Windows has a new setting called Screen security, designed to prevent chat screen capture.

The main goal of the new feature is to protect your Signal chats from Microsoft Recall.

First announced on May 20, 2024, Microsoft Recall takes screenshots of your computer’s screen every few seconds and then stores them in an easily searchable database. According to Microsoft itself, its goal is to act as a kind of “photographic memory” for everything you do on your computer.

The words other people chose to describe Recall after its debut were decidedly less positive. After a sharp backlash from security experts and significant public outrage, Microsoft quickly removed the feature.

However, a year later, Recall is back. And while Microsoft has made a few tweaks in response to critical feedback, the updated version of Recall still puts the privacy of any content displayed in apps at risk.

In this regard, the messenger developers decided to enable an additional layer of protection by default in Windows 11 to help secure Signal chats on this platform, although it does introduce some inconvenience in use.

Now, if you try to take a screenshot of Signal with the “screen protection” option enabled, nothing will appear. The new feature uses the system’s digital rights management (DRM) flag and ensures that the content will not be displayed in Recall or any other screenshot app.

Screen protection is already available in the new version of Signal. By the way, it can be disabled, but you will have to confirm your conscious choice.