Privacy Policy
Who we are
Messages is an Android messaging and home-screen app. This policy explains what the app handles on your device and what it sends to our services.
Contact: paypal@rtbdemand.com
Messages stay on your phone
SMS and MMS stay in the Android telephony provider. The app reads and sends them only so it can work as your messaging app. We do not upload your inbox to the cloud.
Permissions
- Contacts, phone state, and call log are used for chats, caller details, and the after-call screen.
- Notifications are used for message alerts, and for the optional tips, updates and reminders described below.
- Display over other apps is used for the after-call screen.
- Location is used only if you allow weather.
- Usage access is used only if you grant it, to show screen-time information.
Account and app data
The app signs in anonymously with Firebase. That sign-in identifies the device. It is not a name, email, or phone-number account.
Cloud Firestore database message-db stores app metadata for that anonymous user: pins, display names, archived and blocked threads, scheduled messages, unsent drafts, delivery status, and reminders. This is not a copy of your SMS inbox.
Ads, diagnostics, and purchases
- Google AdMob and Meta Audience Network may show ads and receive the device and ad identifiers those networks use.
- Firebase Crashlytics and Analytics record crashes and app events: which setup steps you finish, which features you use (for example search, backup, theme, language, blocking), how our notifications perform, whether the Premium screen is opened and a purchase succeeds, and how ads load and perform on each screen. These events never contain message text, phone numbers, contact names or addresses, and they do not contain search words.
- The Google Play install referrer is read once to tell how the app was found. Its campaign fields (source, medium, campaign) are recorded in Analytics.
- Firebase Remote Config delivers settings such as ad placement and the premium product id.
- Google Play Billing handles the premium subscription. We do not receive your full payment card details.
News headlines are loaded from public feeds. Weather is requested from a public weather service when you allow location.
Tips, updates and reminders (push notifications)
With your permission to show notifications, we can send tips, news about new features, setup reminders, offers and update notices through Firebase Cloud Messaging. These are optional and separate from your message alerts.
To send them, the app registers with our push service. The registration contains: a device identifier (the Android ID), the Firebase messaging token, the app version, your language and time zone, whether you have Premium, whether notifications are turned on, your choice for each type of notification, how many times you open the app in each hour of the day (counts only, no times or content), and when you tap or dismiss one of our notifications.
You can switch each type, or all of them, off in Settings, Notifications, Tips and updates, or in Android's notification settings. We stop sending that type to your device after your next app open.
Device state and counts
To choose which reminder or tip is useful, and when to send it, the app can report simple facts about the app on your device. They are numbers and yes/no values only:
- whether Messages is your default SMS app or your default home app, whether the after-call screen and the quick-access notification are on, whether the "display over other apps" and phone-state permissions that the after-call screen needs are granted, and whether SMS permission is granted;
- whether you have changed the theme, the swipe actions or the language;
- how many conversations you have, how many have unread messages, how many are archived, how many numbers you have blocked, and how many messages are scheduled;
- how many days ago you last made a backup.
The app never sends message text, phone numbers, contact names or addresses, and the counts are not used for anything except choosing reminders and tips. Each item is sent only when our push service asks for it.
Sharing
We do not sell your personal information. Data is shared with the service providers above and with our own push service only to run messaging features, notifications, ads, diagnostics, configuration, and purchases.
Children
Messages is not directed at children under 13.
Changes and requests
We will update the date at the top of this page when the policy changes. To ask a question or request deletion of the anonymous cloud data tied to your install, email paypal@rtbdemand.com.