Durov: Notifications can reveal deleted messages

Telegram founder Pavel Durov warned on Friday that push notifications can expose deleted messages after reports that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation recovered deleted Signal chats from an iPhone by extracting device notification logs.

The reports say notification logs stored on the phone contained message content or previews. Those records can remain on a device or in backups even after users delete messages or remove an app, and they may be accessible to investigators or anyone with forensic access to the device.

Durov wrote that turning off notification previews is not sufficient to protect users. He warned that notification data creates a persistent privacy risk because content can be reconstructed from logs retained by a device.

Security specialists note that end-to-end encryption protects messages while they travel between devices but does not prevent other data generated on the phone-such as notification previews, timestamps and metadata-from being accessed. Records stored locally or in device backups can be extracted by someone with access to the phone or to forensic tools.

Durov called for messaging systems that limit or avoid central collection of metadata. He said decentralized messaging platforms that do not store searchable metadata could reduce the chances that notification logs are used to rebuild private conversations.

He also commented on state bans of Telegram, saying governments that tried to force users onto surveilled apps saw widespread use of VPNs instead. He wrote, “The government hoped for mass adoption of its surveillance messaging apps, but got mass adoption of VPNs instead,” and noted more than 50 million downloads of Telegram in Iran despite a long-standing ban.

Interest in decentralized messaging and peer-to-peer apps has increased since 2025. Search interest in decentralized social platforms rose significantly over the last five years, and one peer-to-peer app that relays messages over Bluetooth mesh networks recorded more than 48,000 downloads in Nepal during a national social media ban in September 2025.

Signal did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication. The reporting describes how access to device-level logs and metadata can allow recovery of message content even when messages or apps have been deleted.