Managing your data
What is kept where, what syncs between devices, the sharing options, and deleting everything.
5 min read
Here is where everything the app keeps actually lives, and what you can control.
Data that stays on your device
Your session summaries (date, technique, length, score, report), your intake answers, your settings and your notification preferences are stored on your device.
If iCloud is on, your session history syncs in your own iCloud account. So when you sign in on another device your history is there. We have no developer access to that area — it sits on Apple's infrastructure, in your account.
Your settings and intake answers sync in the same account, so a new device sets itself up the way you left it.
Audio
Audio is not recorded. The microphone runs only during a session and only the instant sound level is worked out from it. No audio file is written to disk.
The one exception is the audio sample permission below — if you haven't turned it on, audio is never recorded in any session.
Optional sharing
There are three separate switches under Settings → Privacy. All of them start off and each is asked about separately.
Anonymous usage summary. A randomly generated identifier, the date and time, the technique, the length, the score, whether it was completed, whether the microphone was used, the app version and the technical values from the report. Your name, email address, location, device identifier and health answers are never sent.
Audio sample. Now and then the audio of a session is sent in compressed form. Its only purpose is to measure the accuracy of breath detection. The file that is sent is deleted from your device. This option appears only if you turned the usage summary on, and is never shown to anyone who says they are under thirteen.
Heart rate summary. Only for sessions done with an Apple Watch, and only with separate permission.
All of these can be turned off whenever you like. If you turn audio sharing off, any pending audio files are deleted too.
We have written a separate article on what happens to the records you share after they reach us.
The question that comes up now and then
If you turned anonymous sharing on, a short question may appear at the end of a session now and then: a score out of ten, followed by one more question. Both can be skipped.
If you skip it, the app doesn't ask again for a while, and that wait grows with each skip. After a few skips it stops asking altogether.
You are also asked once when you finish or abandon a program.
Deleting everything
At the bottom of the settings is Delete all your data?. If you confirm, all the session history, profile and settings on the device are deleted, and the app starts again from the intake.
For the iCloud copy you need to use Apple's iCloud settings.
If you want records you shared anonymously deleted as well, writing to the support address is enough.
If you delete the app
The data on the device is deleted. The iCloud copy stays for a while under Apple's rules; if you reinstall the app, your history comes back.