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Signal Payments lets you send and receive money directly inside Signal conversations using MobileCoin (MOB), a privacy-preserving cryptocurrency. Transactions are designed to be fast, private, and tied to your Signal account rather than a public blockchain address.
Signal Payments is not available in all countries. Whether you can register for payments is determined by the phone number prefix associated with your account. If payments are unavailable in your region, the feature will not appear in settings.

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How Signal Payments works

Signal Payments is built on the MobileCoin blockchain. Key properties:
  • Privacy-preserving — transaction amounts and sender/receiver identities are encrypted on the blockchain. Your MOB address is distributed to contacts through your encrypted Signal profile, not on a public ledger.
  • No exchange required — you send MOB directly to a contact’s Signal address. Signal resolves the MobileCoin public address from the recipient’s profile automatically.
  • Not linked to a bank account — you fund your Signal wallet by transferring MOB from an external exchange.
  • Recovery phrase — your wallet is protected by a 24-word BIP-39 mnemonic phrase. This phrase is the only way to recover your wallet if you lose access to your account.
Signal Payments uses the MobileCoin MainNet for live transactions and credentials are fetched through Signal’s payments API.

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Geographic restrictions

Signal checks your registered phone number’s country prefix against a server-configured blocklist when you try to enable payments. If your number prefix is on the blocklist, the payments registration option is hidden. This blocklist is updated remotely by Signal and reflects regulatory requirements in various countries. Even if you previously activated a wallet, if Signal later determines your region is restricted, your wallet switches to withdraw-only mode — you can move funds out but cannot send new payments to contacts.

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Activate a payments wallet

1

Open payment settings

Go to Settings → Payments. If your region supports payments, you will see an option to activate a wallet.
2

Activate wallet

Tap Activate payments. Signal generates a random entropy value and derives your MobileCoin wallet from it. The entropy is stored encrypted on your device.
3

Save your recovery phrase

Signal displays your 24-word recovery phrase. Write it down and store it somewhere safe. This phrase encodes the entropy for your wallet; anyone with the phrase can access your funds.
Signal will ask you to confirm you have saved the recovery phrase. If you lose both your device and your recovery phrase, your funds cannot be recovered.
4

Fund your wallet

Transfer MOB to your wallet address from an external exchange. Tap Add money in the payments screen to view your address and QR code.

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Send a payment

1

Open a conversation

Navigate to the Signal conversation with the person you want to pay. They must also have Signal Payments activated.
2

Tap the attachment icon and select Payment

In the message compose bar, tap the + icon and then Payment. If the recipient does not have payments enabled, Signal shows a dialog explaining that you cannot send a payment to this contact.
3

Enter the amount

Type the MOB amount you want to send. Signal displays the approximate fiat value based on the current exchange rate for your configured currency.
4

Add an optional note

You can attach a short text note to the payment. This note is end-to-end encrypted.
5

Review and confirm

Review the amount, recipient, and network fee. Tap Send to submit the transaction to the MobileCoin network.
Payments may require you to authenticate with your Signal PIN or biometric if Payment Lock is enabled in Settings → Payments → Payment lock.

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Receive a payment

You do not need to take any action to receive a payment. When a contact sends you MOB:
  1. Signal delivers a payment message in the conversation thread, showing the amount and any note.
  2. The MOB is credited to your wallet once the MobileCoin network confirms the transaction.
  3. Your balance updates automatically in Settings → Payments.

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View payment history

Go to Settings → Payments to see your wallet balance and a list of all transactions. Each entry shows:
  • Direction (sent or received)
  • Amount in MOB and approximate fiat equivalent
  • Timestamp
  • Contact name or address
  • Transaction status (pending, completed, failed)
You can also view payment messages inline within the relevant Signal conversations.

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Payment lock

You can require authentication before any payment is sent:
  1. Go to Settings → Payments → Payment lock.
  2. Toggle on Payment lock.
  3. Signal will require your PIN or biometric verification each time you initiate a send.

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Restore or recover your wallet

If you switch devices, your wallet entropy is included in Signal Backups (the entropy value is in the list of keys backed up with your account). After restoring a Signal backup on a new device, Signal re-enables your wallet automatically using the restored entropy. If you need to restore from a recovery phrase (for example, after losing a device without a backup):
1

Go to Settings → Payments

Tap Restore payments account.
2

Enter your 24-word recovery phrase

Type or paste your mnemonic phrase. Signal validates that the phrase is a valid BIP-39 mnemonic.
3

Confirm

If the phrase is valid and matches your existing wallet entropy, Signal re-enables payments without creating a new wallet. If the phrase belongs to a different wallet, Signal overwrites the existing entropy — your old wallet address will no longer be associated with your account.
Entering a recovery phrase that differs from your current wallet entropy permanently replaces your wallet. Make sure you are entering the correct phrase before confirming.

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Deactivate payments

Go to Settings → Payments → Deactivate payments. This disables the payments feature but does not delete your wallet entropy from the device. You can reactivate payments later without losing your wallet, as long as the entropy is still on the device or in a backup. Transfer any remaining MOB balance before deactivating if you do not intend to reactivate.