Curtilage

Privacy policy

TextWarden privacy policy

How TextWarden handles your information.

Last updated:

Summary

  • TextWarden has no internet permission, so Android does not let it connect to any network. Your texts travel the way every text does: through your mobile carrier.
  • We do not receive your messages, your contacts, or any usage data. The app's usage counts stay in a database on your phone.
  • The AI features are optional and work only through the BrainTrust app on the same phone. Each one sends only what is listed below, and only when you use it or turn it on.

What the app collects

TextWarden is a text messaging (SMS and MMS) app. To work, it reads and writes:

  • Your text messages. SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) messages, including photos, voice notes and other attachments. These live in Android's shared message store. The app also keeps its own copies of some of them in its database on your phone: starred messages, messages in the recycle bin, scheduled messages, drafts, message reminders and the categories you assign.
  • Your contacts. Names, numbers and photos, so a conversation shows who it is with.
  • Settings you choose, such as blocked numbers, blocked keywords and senders you marked "Not spam".
  • Usage counts. The app records a short event name and time when you use certain features, such as "export completed" or "reaction sent". The extra detail is a count, a format name or a yes/no value. It is never message text, a phone number or a contact name. These records stay on your phone.
  • Voice notes, only while you are recording one.

Where it goes

On your phone

  • Your messages stay in Android's message store, and the app's own data stays in its private storage. Android Auto Backup and device-to-device transfer are turned off for this app, so its database and settings are not copied to a cloud backup or to a new phone by Android. Android's message store itself is managed by Android, not by this app, so this setting does not cover it.
  • The app does not add its own encryption to its database or settings. They are protected by Android's normal app sandbox and your phone's own storage encryption, if your phone uses it.

Your mobile carrier

  • When you send or receive a text, Android's built-in messaging service carries it over your carrier's network. Picture and group messages (MMS) are sent and downloaded by Android over your carrier's mobile data connection. The app itself does not connect to the internet to do this.

Your own server

  • None. The app has no internet permission and does not connect to any server.

A third-party service you choose

  • None directly. If you connect BrainTrust to an AI service, BrainTrust may send what TextWarden hands it to that service. See "Sharing with other Curtilage apps" and BrainTrust's own privacy policy.

Permissions and why

  • SMS (read, write, send, receive) and receive MMS
    • Why the app asks: To show, send, receive and store your texts as your default messaging app
    • When: When you make TextWarden your default messaging app
  • Phone state (read)
    • Why the app asks: To open conversations and to pick the right SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card on phones with more than one
    • When: When you first open a conversation
  • Contacts (read)
    • Why the app asks: To show names and photos instead of bare numbers
    • When: When the app needs a name for a conversation
  • Make phone calls
    • Why the app asks: To call the person in a conversation when you tap Call. If you say no, the phone's dialer opens instead
    • When: When you tap Call
  • Microphone (record audio)
    • Why the app asks: To record a voice note
    • When: Only when you tap "Voice note"
  • Notifications
    • Why the app asks: To tell you about new messages, failed sends and reminders
    • When: On Android 13 and later, when the app first needs to notify you
  • Exact alarms, run at startup, keep awake
    • Why the app asks: To send scheduled messages and fire message reminders on time, including after a restart
    • When: When you schedule a message or set a reminder
  • BrainTrust suggestion access
    • Why the app asks: To talk to the BrainTrust app for the optional AI features
    • When: Granted at install; used only when you use an AI feature

Analytics

We do not run analytics on this app, and the app does not send usage data to us or to anyone else. It keeps simple usage counts in its own database on your phone, as described above. They are deleted when you uninstall the app.

The app has no crash-reporting service of its own.

Sharing with other Curtilage apps

TextWarden can work with two other Curtilage apps on the same phone. Nothing is shared with an app that is not installed.

BrainTrust (our AI assistant app). TextWarden checks that the BrainTrust it talks to is signed by us before it sends anything.

  • Reply suggestions and draft rewrites — only when you tap the sparkle button. TextWarden sends up to the 20 most recent text messages in the conversation (or the ones you selected), with each message's text, time, and whether it came from you or the other person. Messages from the other person are labeled with their contact name or number. It also sends the contact's name and phone number (for a group, only the conversation title), the style you picked, and, for a rewrite, your draft.
  • "Reply with BrainTrust" — only when you choose it from the menu. TextWarden opens BrainTrust's "Draft a reply" screen with the recent text of the conversation, marked only as "me" or "them". No phone number, contact name, time or attachment is sent. Nothing is sent as a text until you send it yourself.
  • "Ask BrainTrust about undecided texts" — off unless you turn it on in Settings. When the app's own spam rules cannot decide about a recent message from an unknown sender, it sends that one message's text to BrainTrust. No number, no name and no other messages are sent. Contacts, verification codes and conversations you have replied in are never sent.

What BrainTrust does with this, including whether it uses an AI model on your phone or one you connect it to, is described in BrainTrust's own privacy policy.

nextCalendar (our calendar app). If you turn on "Offer calendar reminders" (off by default), TextWarden looks for a time you promised in messages you send. This check runs on your phone with simple text matching, not AI. If it finds one, it asks you first. If you say yes, it opens your calendar app's new-event screen with a title, a start and end time and, for nextCalendar, an alarm lead time. Nothing is saved until you save it in the calendar app.

Built-in spam check. "Move suspected spam aside" is on by default. It runs entirely on your phone using fixed rules. It moves suspected messages to a separate view. It does not delete them or mark them read.

Your choices

  • Export: Settings has "Export messages" for your SMS and MMS messages, and each conversation can be exported as a text, web page (.html) or data (.json) file. You choose where the file is saved. You can also export your blocked keywords.
  • Import: Settings has "Import messages" to bring an export back in.
  • Delete: You can delete messages and conversations in the app. Deleted items can go to a recycle bin first, which you can empty. Uninstalling the app removes its own database and settings. Messages in Android's message store stay on your phone until you delete them, even after you uninstall.
  • Turn off: The AI spam check and calendar reminders are off unless you turn them on. Reply suggestions run only when you tap for them. You can turn off "Move suspected spam aside" in Settings. You can revoke any permission in Android's settings.

Children

TextWarden is not designed for or directed at children. It does not ask for anyone's age, and we do not receive any information from it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the new version on this page and update the date at the top.

Contact

Questions about this policy: https://curtilage.zone/contact