Is Apple Intelligence reading my Signal messages?

Every few months, a message will circulate on Signal threads along the lines of "Signal has been compromised!" Often these concerns are overstated or out of date. We think it's important to spread accurate security information so people don't lose trust in tools that are actually trustworthy.

What is this viral message about Signal and Apple Intelligence?

Around December 2024, we started seeing this viral message shared in a lot of activist groups. While some of this is correct, it contains some misleading and incorrect information that we want to clarify.

Here is the inaccurate viral message that's been going around. Inaccurate statements are highlighted in red text.

Apple Intelligence can now read Signal messages on new iPhones. If you have a newer iPhone, 15 or 16, and you have downloaded iOS 18.1, please make sure you either disable Apple Artificial Intelligence under settings, or go under Siri/ AI and ensure it is not enabled for Signal. If you do not, it will scan your Signal messages and read the content. To do so, navigate to Settings › Siri › scroll down to Apps › Signal › turn off > "Learn from this app" and the other two settings.

Inaccurate Claims

❌ Inaccurate
Disabling "Learn from this app" will protect your Signal messages

• "Learn from this app" has been around since 2015 and only has to do with your phone suggesting apps you tend to use at certain times of day (or locations). The "Learn from this App" feature has nothing to do with Apple Intelligence.

🟡 Partially accurate
Apple Intelligence is "scanning your Signal messages"

• The truth is that Apple Intelligence is creating summaries based on the contents your Signal notifications, not all of your messages inside the app. If you disable notification previews, Apple Intelligence won't be used with Signal.

• Importantly, Apple Intelligence is not accessing your stored messages.

• It is also worth naming that whether or not this tool is "reading" your messages is less the point. In fact, your phone's operating system can always access anything on the screen. The more relevant question is: is this information ever leaving your device?

• While it is possible that AI notification summaries are only being processed on your device (which would keep your messages secure), Apple hasn't provided users with the ability to know which AI requests stay on device and which go to their servers. So we do recommend fully or partially disabling this AI feature.

Accurate Claims

✅ Accurate
Applies to iOS 18.1+: Apple Intelligence is a new feature starting in iOS 18.1 onward.

• It is also enabled by default in iOS 18.3 onward.

✅ Accurate
Applies to iPhone 15/16+: Apple Intelligence is only currently available for iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Max, and all iPhone 16 models.

• We can expect it to be in future iPhone models with high-end processors.

• Apple Intelligence is also enabled for "Silicon" Macs (M1, M2, M3, etc.) and M-series iPads . See the full list of devices that support Apple Intelligence.

What you can do to protect yourself

Step 1: Disable message previews for Signal notifications

This is our top solution because we recommend this already in our protest checklist. It's a good idea to never show message contents or names in notifications in case your phone is ever confiscated or out of your possession.

If you have the Signal Desktop app installed, you should also disable message previews there (same menu location).

Step 2: Disable Apple Intelligence entirely (or just for Signal notifications)

We recommend also disabling Apple Intelligence entirely. This will prevent any of your other notifications from being summarized (and possibly sent off of your device in the process).

Alternately, if you want to keep Apple Intelligence on and just disable it for Signal notifications, here's how you can do that:

(optional) Step 3: Other steps to secure Signal

We have a whole guide on how to configure Signal to be as secure as possible:

Signal Checklist

This guide will help you configure disappearing messages by default, require FaceID to open the app, and more.

You can also check out our other checklists here.

Let's pass along a more-accurate message to our Signal threads

If you want to pass along some security advice to your Signal threads, we wanted to offer a version you can copy-paste.

Copy

There's been a message going around that Apple Intelligence can "read" your Signal messages. In case you saw that, I wanted to pass along some more accurate information:

• Apple Intelligence is only accessing your Signal notifications (not all your messages). It's a part of the "notification summaries" feature. It is currently only available on iPhone 15 Pro/Max and iPhone 16 (all models) on iOS 18.1+.

• Disabling Apple Intelligence is the safest move since Apple hasn't clarified which information it sends off your device or not. You can do this on your phone and computer under Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Disable

• If you want to keep Apple Intelligence on, you can disable message previews in Signal notifications by going to Signal > Click your avatar > Settings > Notifications > Notification Content > Select "No Name or Content" (This is a good security mechanism anyway in case your device is ever confiscated or out of your possession.)

You can see the full instructions and background here: https://activistchecklist.org/signal-ai

Feel free to remove the link if you prefer!

How to disable AI on Android phones

Newer Android Phones offer Gemini AI (from Google). Google has been even less clear than Apple about what information is sent off of your device. Given that, we suggest disabling Gemini on an Android device.

Further Reading

• Can Bots Read Your Encrypted Messages? Encryption, Privacy, and the Emerging AI Dilemma