Privacy

Every recording, and everything the app learns from it (its name, key, tempo, chords, mood, the words it heard, its stems), is saved on your iPhone or iPad, inside the app. All of that analysis runs on the device itself, using Apple's built-in speech and language models and the app's own. None of it is sent to us or to anyone else. Deleting the app deletes it, apart from any copies you chose to keep elsewhere (see below).

The app records when you ask it to: the record button, a widget, the Lock Screen or Control Center, Siri or the Action Button. Two optional settings listen while the app is open. Listening mode keeps the last few seconds of sound in memory, so a take can begin just before you tapped record; it is never written anywhere unless you record, and it is overwritten as it goes. Hands-free recording starts a take when it hears you play and stops after a pause. Both are off until you turn them on, and iOS shows its orange microphone dot whenever the microphone is in use. You can turn the microphone off for the app at any time in Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone.

If you allow it, each new recording is pinned to where you made it, so you can find ideas on the map. The place is saved with the recording on your device. To turn a position into a readable place name, and when you search for a place, the app uses Apple Maps, which receives the position or the search but nothing else about you. Location is optional: say no when asked, turn off Pin new recordings on the map in the app's Settings, or remove the place from any recording. A recording's place travels with it when you export or share the file, as part of its details; remove the place from a recording first if you'd rather it didn't.

If you are signed in to iCloud, your library and recordings sync between your devices through your own iCloud account, in Apple's private storage for the app. Only you can read it; we have no access to it. You can turn sync off in the app's Settings, or in your device's iCloud settings.

When you share or export a recording, or ask the app to copy every take to a folder (iCloud Drive, Dropbox or a drive), the files go where you send them, along with the details you choose to include, such as the title, notes, status and tags. What happens to them there is up to the service you chose. If you import files or old Voice Memos, the app reads only the files you pick.

If the app crashes or freezes, iOS may give it a technical report about what happened, usually the next day. The app keeps these reports on your device, and you can see them in the app's Settings › Privacy › Crash reports. They contain technical details about the app's code, not your recordings or anything you wrote. Nothing is sent to us unless you choose to share a report, for example by email to support. Separately, if you have chosen in your iPhone's settings to share analytics with app developers, Apple may pass us anonymous crash reports; that is Apple's setting, under Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements.

A take recorded on Apple Watch is sent straight to your iPhone over Apple's own connection between the two. Widgets, Siri and Shortcuts only start and stop recordings; they send nothing anywhere.

Pro is bought through Apple's App Store. Apple handles the payment and your Apple Account; we are told only whether the purchase has been made, so the app can unlock, and nothing about who you are.

Nothing of ours. It has no server. The only outside services it uses are Apple's: iCloud if you turn on sync, Apple Maps for place names and search, the App Store for the purchase, and the one-time download of Apple's on-device speech model.

The app is suitable for everyone and collects no personal information from anyone, children included.

If this ever changes, this page will say so first, with a new date at the top. Songling Memos is made by Pyrokinesis Ltd, in New Zealand, and this policy follows New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020. Questions are welcome at support@songling.app.