Privacy

What the app keeps, on your iPhone only

The things you write down, where each one sits, and when you added, finished or set it down; when to bring back something you set down for tomorrow; which smaller thing came from which; and how often each one has been set down, which the app never shows. If you choose to answer What was it like? after finishing something, that line, kept with the thing it belongs to and offered back to you later, and which line was offered last. Your focus sessions: when one began, how long you chose, whether you kept going, and when it ended. And whether you turned on the completion sound.

This lives in the app’s own storage on your device. There is no account, no server and no sync. None of it is ever sent anywhere, so nobody at Leaf by Leaf ever sees it.

What the app never keeps

Anything you write under What’s in the way? It exists only while it is on the page. It is not saved, logged or read by anything, and it is erased when you let it go or put the question away. If the app is closed while you are writing, it is gone.

When you leave the app, those words are hidden first, so the picture of the screen that iOS keeps for the app switcher never holds them. The iPhone keyboard may learn words as you type them, as it does in any app; that happens in iOS, outside Leaf by Leaf.

The microphone

Under What’s in the way? you can choose to say your answer instead of typing it. Only then, and only while the page is listening for your answer, does the app use the microphone. Your words become text on your iPhone itself, never on a server, and that text is treated exactly like typed words: it is not saved and it is erased when you let it go. No sound is recorded or kept. The option appears only where your iPhone can do this on its own.

The first time, iOS asks your permission in its own words, which mention sending speech to Apple. That is iOS’s general wording for every app. Leaf by Leaf asks iOS to recognise your words on your iPhone only, so no audio is sent.

Notifications

If you allow them, the app schedules one notification on your iPhone when you give something time, to say when the time is up. It shows the words of your thing, so they may appear on your Lock Screen, depending on your notification settings. Nothing is sent from a server.

The Lock Screen

While you give something time, a Live Activity shows the words of your thing and one quiet sentence on your Lock Screen, and in the Dynamic Island on iPhones that have one. It is created and updated on your iPhone; nothing is sent from a server. So that there is only ever one, the app remembers which session already has it, also on your iPhone.

You can turn Live Activities off in Settings › Apps › Leaf by Leaf.

Thank-you icons

Everything in the app is free. If you choose to buy an icon as a thank-you, Apple handles the purchase; your payment details never reach Leaf by Leaf. To show which icons are yours, the app asks Apple, on your iPhone, which ones your Apple Account owns. Nothing about it is sent to us.

What leaves your iPhone

Nothing of yours. The app makes no network connections of its own; buying or restoring an icon goes through Apple. It has no analytics, no advertising, no tracking and no third-party code.

Apple

If you back up your iPhone to iCloud or a computer, the backup includes this app’s data, as it does for every app. If you choose to share analytics with app developers in iOS Settings, Apple may pass crash reports on to the developer; these describe what the app was doing when it stopped, not what you wrote.

Deleting

It’s not mine anymore deletes a thing, from Now or from Later. Finished things stay in your tree. To remove everything, delete the app; a backup made before then keeps its copy until it is replaced.

Children

The app collects no personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes

If this ever changes, this page will change first.

Contact

Questions about this page are welcome at [email protected].