Even we can't see your photos
Meanwhile has no account and no feed. Photos and notes you send are locked on your phone so only the person you paired with can open them, pass through our servers only long enough to be delivered, and then are deleted. Your history lives on your phone. In plain English, below.
1. Introduction
Meanwhile is an app by Tappect for two people to share a photo each hour and turn their two days into one short reel. You can pair with a partner, a friend or family member. This policy explains what Meanwhile does and does not do with your information.
Meanwhile is available on iOS and Android and is for adults aged 18 and over. This policy applies to everyone who uses it.
2. No Account
Meanwhile never asks for your email, phone number or a password. When you open the app, your phone is given a random, anonymous identifier (through Google Firebase Authentication) and its own encryption keys. That identifier is how your paired phones find each other. It is not linked to your real name.
The name you enter ("What should they call you?") is sent only to the people you pair with, inside the same encryption as your photos.
3. Your Photos and Notes
When you send a photo, caption or note to someone you are paired with:
- It is compressed and end-to-end encrypted on your phone before it leaves. Only your paired person's phone holds the key to open it. Tappect cannot open it.
- The encrypted file is held on our servers (Google Firebase) only until your person's phone downloads it, and is then deleted. If it is never downloaded, it is deleted after 48 hours.
- Your full history (photos, notes, reels) is stored on your phone, and a copy of your shared days is stored on the phone of the person you shared them with.
Safety check on your phone. Before a photo is encrypted and sent, Meanwhile checks it on your phone for explicit nudity. This check happens entirely on your device; the photo is never sent to us or anyone else to be checked. Photos that fail the check are not sent.
4. Cloud Backup (Optional)
Cloud backup is off by default. If you turn it on (part of Meanwhile Pro), your history is encrypted on your phone and stored on our servers so you can restore it on a new phone. The key that unlocks it is kept in your iCloud Keychain or Google account, or in a recovery code you save. Tappect cannot read your backup.
Turning backup off deletes the server copy. Ending a pairing deletes anything we hold for that pairing.
5. Analytics, Crash Reports and Screen Recordings
To find bugs and see where the app is confusing, Meanwhile uses Firebase Crashlytics (Google) and PostHog. What is collected:
- An anonymous, randomly generated install identifier
- Device model, operating system version, app version and language
- General app events, such as "onboarding step completed", "paired", "reel previewed" or "paywall viewed"
- Crash and error diagnostics
- Screen recordings of the setup screens only (age, name, pairing and plan screens), with all text and images masked. The camera and any screen showing photos, notes or reels are never recorded. Recordings are kept for 30 days.
Never collected: your photos, captions, notes, reels, your name or your partner's name, pairing codes, or your birth year. You can turn analytics and ad measurement off in Settings with the "Share usage and ad results" switch. If you are in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, the switch starts off and nothing is collected until you turn it on.
6. Age Check
Meanwhile is for adults 18 and over. The app asks for your birth year on first launch and may use the age signals Apple and Google provide. We keep only whether you confirmed you are 18 or over, never your birth year. If you are under 18, nothing is stored and the app cannot be used.
7. Purchases (RevenueCat)
Meanwhile uses RevenueCat to confirm subscriptions with the App Store or Google Play. RevenueCat receives your purchase receipt and your anonymous identifier. When a subscription covers the people you are paired with, our server records which pairings it covers, using anonymous identifiers only. RevenueCat never receives your photos, notes or names.
8. Feedback and Support
If you choose to send feedback or report a bug from inside Meanwhile, the app sends your message, the feedback type, your email only if you enter one, the app version, platform and language to tappect.com. If you email support@tappect.com, we receive what you send us. We use this only to reply and improve the app.
9. Permissions
Camera
To take your hourly photo. Photos are only captured when you press the shutter.
Photos (Optional)
Only to save a reel to your photo library when you ask.
Notifications (Optional)
To tell you when your person's photo arrives, when you get a nudge, or when a surprise is ready. You choose which in Settings.
Local network (Optional)
Only while you move Meanwhile to a new phone, to transfer your history directly between your two phones.
Tracking on iPhone (Optional)
Only so Meta and TikTok can use your advertising identifier to measure our ads (section 10). Meanwhile asks once; saying no changes nothing in the app.
Meanwhile does not access your contacts, location, microphone or health data.
10. Ad Measurement with Meta and TikTok
We advertise Meanwhile on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. To learn which of our ads bring people to the app, Meanwhile includes the Meta (Facebook) SDK and the TikTok Business SDK. They do not show any ads inside Meanwhile.
When they are allowed to run (see "Your choices"), they receive:
- that Meanwhile was installed and opened, with device information such as model, operating system version, language, time zone and IP address;
- identifiers for your device: identifiers these SDKs create for this install, and your device's advertising identifier (Apple's IDFA, only if you tap Allow when iPhone asks; or Google's advertising ID on Android);
- five moments in the app: you connected with someone, you started a free trial, you subscribed (with the price and currency), you previewed your first reel, and you shared your invite.
They never receive your photos, captions, notes, reels, your name or anyone else's, pairing codes, or any account or pairing identifier, and we do not send your email or phone number (Meanwhile never has them). We turn off Meta's and TikTok's automatic event collection and do not use "advanced matching".
Meta and TikTok use this information to measure and improve our ad campaigns, and may combine it with information they hold about you under their own policies: Meta Privacy Policy, TikTok Privacy Policy and TikTok for Business Privacy Policy. Apple calls this "tracking", and some US state laws may treat it as "sharing" for advertising. We see only campaign totals, never a list of people. We do not sell, rent or trade your information for money.
Your choices
- iPhone: Meanwhile asks once, right after you connect with someone. Tap "Ask App Not to Track" and your advertising identifier is never read. You can change this any time in the iPhone Settings app, Privacy & Security, Tracking.
- In Meanwhile: turn off "Share usage and ad results" in Settings. Both SDKs stop on your phone straight away, and analytics stops too.
- Android: delete or reset your advertising ID in your phone's Settings (Privacy, Ads, or Google, Ads).
- European Economic Area, UK and Switzerland: the switch starts off. Nothing is sent to Meta or TikTok unless you turn it on, which is your consent; turning it off again withdraws it.
11. Your Rights and Deleting Your Data
- End a pairing: deletes anything we hold for that pairing. You can also remove the photos you sent from the other person's phone.
- Delete your account: Settings, Where your photos live, Delete my account. This deletes everything on your phone and everything we hold for you, and ends all pairings.
- From the web: see tappect.com/delete-account/meanwhile.
Photos you already sent are stored on the other person's phone, and reels already shared outside the app, or screenshots, cannot be recalled by us.
12. Children
Meanwhile is not intended for anyone under 18 and we do not knowingly collect information from minors. If you believe a minor is using Meanwhile, contact us and we will delete what we hold. Any child sexual abuse material is reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children as required by law.
13. Where Data Is Processed
Our servers are provided by Google Firebase, PostHog and RevenueCat, and the ad measurement described in section 10 is processed by Meta and TikTok. They may be located in the United States and other countries. By using Meanwhile you understand that the limited data described above may be processed there.
14. Changes to This Policy
If we change what Meanwhile collects, we will update this policy and the "Last updated" date above, and tell you in the app for any significant change.
15. Contact Us
Email: support@tappect.com
Subject Line: Meanwhile Privacy Inquiry
Developer: Tappect
App Identifier: com.tappect.meanwhile
We will respond to your inquiry within 30 days.