Microsoft Recall, the controversial AI-powered tool, is now being blocked by messaging giant Signal amid ongoing privacy concerns.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Signal announced that “Signal Desktop now includes support for a new “Screen security” setting that is designed to help prevent your own computer from capturing screenshots of your Signal chats on Windows. This setting is automatically enabled by default in Signal Desktop on Windows 11.”

The move comes as Signal seeks to protect people’s messages from Microsoft Recall, which is an AI tool for Windows 11 that stores a comprehensive history of the user’s activity and has been previously been labelled as a “privacy nightmare”.

Windows 11 block

“If you’re wondering why we’re only implementing this on Windows right now, it’s because the purpose of this setting is to protect your Signal messages from Microsoft Recall,” wrote Signal.

First announced on 20 May 2024, Signal pointed out that Microsoft Recall takes screenshots of your apps every few seconds as you use your computer and then stores them in an easily searchable database.

“In Microsoft’s own words, its goal is to act as a sort of ‘photographic memory’ for everything that you do on your computer,” said Signal. “The words that other people chose to describe Recall upon its debut were decidedly less positive.”

“After an intense security backlash and significant public outcry, Microsoft quickly pulled the feature,” it added. “It’s a one-year anniversary that nobody wants to celebrate, but Recall is back and Signal is ready.”

Signal said that despite Microsoft making several adjustments over the past twelve months in response to critical feedback, “the revamped version of Recall still places any content that’s displayed within privacy-preserving apps like Signal at risk.

“As a result, we are enabling an extra layer of protection by default on Windows 11 in order to help maintain the security of Signal Desktop on that platform even though it introduces some usability trade-offs. Microsoft has simply given us no other option,” said the messaging firm.

DRM exploit

Signal said that if a user attempts to take a screenshot of Signal Desktop when screen security is enabled, nothing will appear.

Essentially, it seems that Signal has invoked some Digital Rights Management (DRM) functionality in Windows to stop the tool from snapshotting private conversations.

“Apps like Signal have essentially no control over what content Recall is able to capture, and implementing “DRM” that works for you (not against you) is the best choice that we had,” the firm stated. “It’s like a scene in a movie where the villain has switched sides, and you can’t screenshot this one by default either.”

Signal warned this setting is only local to a Windows 11 computer and doesn’t apply to screenshots on other devices.

For example, if a user is communicating with someone who uses a screen reader on macOS or Linux, keeping screen security enabled on the user’s side won’t prevent them from taking screenshots or adversely affect any accessibility software they may be using.

“Screen security for Signal Desktop on Microsoft Windows is rolling out now, and enabled by default on Windows 11,” Signal concluded. “We’d like to express our sincere appreciation to the Signal community for helping us test this release during the beta period. We couldn’t do this work without your support.”

Microsoft Recall

It is fair to say that Microsoft Recall has been controversial right from its debut a year ago at Microsoft’s 2024 Build event.

Recall was originally intended to be released in June 2024 as key selling point for its Copilot+ PCs and laptops, which feature specialised chips from the likes of Qualcomm, Intel and AMD and are fine-tuned to run AI workloads.

Amid privacy concerns, the initial launch of Microsoft Recall was pushed back as Microsoft chose to carry out more security testing, and a second launch was announced in September 2024, but this was also delayed.

In April 2025 Microsoft Recall appeared in the Windows Insider Release Preview channel following a tentative preview of a reworked version at the end of 2024.

The feature is opt-in and still carries the “Preview” label at the time of writing.