Dear Photos Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 20, 2026

Dear Photos turns the family photos you choose into a calm, responsive slideshow for the moment you hand your phone or tablet to a baby. This policy covers Dear Photos for iPhone and iPad, from the App Store, and Dear Photos for Android, from Google Play. The two work the same way, except where this page says otherwise.

The short version

• Dear Photos has no account, no ads, no analytics and no tracking.
• There is no Dear Photos server or cloud. The app never sends the developer your photos, your voice recordings, or anything about you or your child.
• Everything Dear Photos keeps stays in its private storage on your device.
• A set leaves Dear Photos only when you share it, and only for the place you choose.
• Dear Photos never edits or deletes anything in your photo library.

What Dear Photos keeps on your device

Dear Photos keeps these in its private app storage, which other apps can’t read:

• copies of the photos you choose, sized for the screen, without location or camera details;
• your sets: their names, photo order, cover and framing choice;
• the touch areas you draw on photos, and the familiar-voice recordings and names you give them;
• your settings, such as touch sounds, music, haptics, touch energy, photo timing and the parent-exit gesture;
• on iPhone and iPad, a reference to where each chosen photo sits in your Photos library, so Dear Photos can recognize a photo you choose again and keep its touch areas;
• on iPhone and iPad, if you link an album: which album it is, and a list of your album names and folders so the album picker opens quickly. That list isn’t included in device backups;
• temporary files while you record a voice or prepare a set to share. Dear Photos clears prepared copies older than a day the next time you share a set or open a shared one.

Your child’s touches make light and sound in the moment. Dear Photos doesn’t record or keep them.

Dear Photos doesn’t add a passcode of its own to your library. Anyone who can unlock your device and open Dear Photos can see your sets and play your recordings.

Photos

Choosing photos. You choose photos with your device’s photo picker: Apple’s on iPhone and iPad, and Android’s on Android (on some older Android versions, the system file picker). Dear Photos receives only the photos you pick and saves its own screen-sized copy of each. It doesn’t need access to the rest of your library.

Linked albums, on iPhone and iPad only. If you choose to keep a set linked to an album, Dear Photos asks for access to your photo library so it can read that album’s current photos each time the set plays. You can change this access at any time in Settings, and you can always use the photo picker instead.

Photos stored in the cloud. If a photo you pick, or an album you link, is stored in iCloud Photos, Apple’s Photos service may download it to your device so Dear Photos can show it. On Android, if the photo picker offers photos from a cloud account, that service delivers the photos you pick to your device. Dear Photos itself doesn’t connect to these services.

Faces. To keep faces in view in small previews and in the optional Fill more framing, and to suggest touch areas, Dear Photos uses the face detection built into your device. It finds where faces are in a photo, never who they are. The results stay briefly in memory and are never saved or sent anywhere.

Your library stays as it is. Dear Photos never edits, moves or deletes anything in your photo library.

Familiar voices and the microphone

Dear Photos asks for microphone access only when you choose to record a familiar voice for a touch area. It listens only while you’re recording, for up to five seconds at a time. Everything else in Dear Photos works without the microphone.

Enhance voice uses your device’s own voice processing. Recordings stay in Dear Photos’ private storage. Dear Photos doesn’t transcribe them and never sends them anywhere, unless you include them in a set you share.

You can turn off microphone access at any time in your device’s settings.

The parent check

To leave a slideshow, Dear Photos asks your device to confirm it’s you: with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode on iPhone and iPad, or with your fingerprint, face or screen lock on Android. Dear Photos learns only whether the check succeeded. It never receives or stores your biometrics or your passcode.

Apple’s Guided Access and Android’s app pinning belong to your device. Dear Photos explains them, and on Android it can ask your device to pin the slideshow. Neither gives Dear Photos any information about you.

Sharing a set

When you choose to share a set, Dear Photos prepares one file. It contains:

• the set’s photos, as the same screen-sized copies, without location or camera details;
• the set’s name, photo order, cover and framing choice;
• its touch areas, if you include them;
• its familiar voices and their names, only if you switch that on. It starts off every time.

The file has no account, device identifier or location in it. It leaves Dear Photos only for the place you pick, such as a messaging app, email, a nearby device or a folder. From there, that app’s or service’s own terms apply, and anyone who has the file can see its photos and hear any voices in it. Dear Photos never learns who receives it.

When someone shares a set with you, Dear Photos checks the file on your device and adds a copy to your library only after you confirm.

No internet, ads or analytics

• Dear Photos has no server and makes no internet connections of its own. The Android app doesn’t even ask for permission to use the internet.
• There are no ads, analytics, crash-reporting or tracking tools, and no third-party code that collects data.
• Dear Photos doesn’t sell or share your information.

Apple and Google may give the developer statistics such as install counts, and crash reports from people who chose to share diagnostics with them. They provide these under their own privacy policies.

Backups and new devices

iPhone and iPad. Dear Photos’ storage is part of your device backup, to iCloud or to a computer, if you make one. It follows your Apple settings.

Android. Dear Photos keeps your family photos and voices out of Google’s cloud backup. On Android 12 and later, a direct transfer from your old device when you set up a new one can copy your sets; temporary files are never copied. On Android 10 and 11, Dear Photos is left out of both backup and transfer.

Because there’s no Dear Photos cloud, removing the app removes your sets from that device, unless a backup or a transfer brings them back.

Keeping and deleting

Everything stays on your device until you delete it. You can delete a set from its options in the library, and a recorded voice from the set’s Recorded sounds page. To remove everything Dear Photos keeps, delete the app; on Android you can also clear its storage in Settings. A set you’ve already shared is outside Dear Photos.

Dear Photos never sends your information to the developer, so there’s nothing on a server to delete and nothing to request.

Children

Dear Photos is set up by a parent or guardian for a young child to look at and touch. It never asks a child for a name, age, contact details or anything else. The slideshow has no accounts, chat, ads, purchases or links. The link to this page sits in Settings, behind a question for grown-ups. Dear Photos doesn’t collect personal information from anyone who uses it, including children.

This website and questions

This website is hosted on GitHub Pages. Visiting it is separate from using Dear Photos: the app opens it in your browser only when you choose Privacy policy in Settings. GitHub may process your IP address, browser and device details and request information to run its hosting, as its Privacy Statement explains. This site has no ads, analytics or scripts.

Questions go through public GitHub issues. Posting requires a GitHub account, and issues, your GitHub username and any attachments are public. Please never post photos, voice recordings or your child’s name there. The developer reads what you post only to answer it. To have an issue removed, ask in that issue without repeating the information you want removed.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will appear at this address with a new date. Any change that would send information anywhere new would be described here, and in the App Store and Google Play privacy details, before the version that makes it is released.

Contact

Dear Photos is made by Dan Bretl. For questions about this policy, open an issue at github.com/danbretl/dear-photos-support/issues.