Privacy Policy
Last updated 13 October 2026
Herald reads your message notifications aloud. That means it handles some of the most personal things on your phone, so we built it to keep them there. This policy explains exactly what Herald touches, where it goes, and how long it stays.
The short version: Herald works entirely on your phone. Your messages are never sent to us, there's no account, and we don't run ads, analytics or tracking. The little Herald keeps on your device clears itself within a day or two, and uninstalling removes it all.
Who we are
Herald is made by Seedcraft Ventures Ltd (“we”, “us”), a company based in the United Kingdom. For any privacy question or request, write to admin@seedcraft.co.
What Herald can access on your phone
Herald only works with the permissions you choose to give it:
- Notification access: so Herald can see new notifications from the apps you've chosen (for example Gmail, WhatsApp or Messages) and read them aloud. Herald ignores notifications from apps you haven't turned on.
- Microphone: so you can answer by voice (“yes”, “no”, “skip”) and dictate replies. Herald only listens for a few seconds after asking you a question, or while you're dictating.
- Notifications: so Herald can show its own notifications with Listen and Reply.
- Bluetooth (optional): only if you turn on “when I get in the car”, so Herald can tell when your car's audio connects.
- Battery optimisation (optional): so your roundup arrives on time.
What stays on your device
Everything Herald stores lives in its private storage on your phone, excluded from cloud backups:
- Recent notifications from the apps you've chosen (sender, subject or message preview), kept so Herald can read them and fire the app's own reply action. Deleted automatically after 48 hours.
- Messages held for your roundup: kept until they're played, or 48 hours at most.
- “Heard today”: who a message was from and when you listened. Never the content. Cleared after 24 hours.
- Counts (messages received and heard today), with no content.
- Your settings: voice, speed, which apps are Live, Later or Off, the people you've marked as always live, and your roundup times.
Uninstalling Herald, or clearing its storage in Android settings, deletes all of it.
What leaves your phone
Herald never sends your messages, contacts or recordings to us. We don't have servers that receive them. A few things involve other services on your phone, which you should know about:
- Speech: Herald uses your phone's speech services (usually Google's) to read text aloud and to understand what you say. Herald asks for on-device recognition and offline voices wherever your phone supports them. If your phone has no on-device speech recognition, Android may process short voice clips through Google's service, under Google's privacy policy.
- Replies: when you reply, Herald hands your words to the messaging app's own reply button (the same one your watch or car uses). The app then sends it as normal, under that app's terms and privacy policy.
- Herald voices (optional): if you turn on Herald voices, the voice files are downloaded once from GitHub. That download, like any web request, shares your IP address with GitHub. No personal data is included.
Why we use it, and our legal basis
Herald processes this information only on your device, to provide the features you've switched on: reading messages aloud, voice commands, replies and roundups. Where data protection law applies, our basis is performance of our agreement with you (giving you the app's features), and your consent for the optional permissions, which you can withdraw at any time in Android settings.
Who we share it with
No one. We don't collect your data, so there's nothing for us to sell or share. We don't use advertising identifiers, third-party analytics, crash reporting or tracking SDKs.
Children
Herald is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from anyone, of any age.
Your rights
Under UK and EU data protection law you have rights to access, correct, delete and port your personal data, and to object to or restrict its use. Because Herald keeps everything on your phone, you're in control of all of it: change what Herald can see in Android settings, and delete everything by uninstalling or clearing Herald's storage. If you have a question or concern, email us. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk), though we'd appreciate the chance to help first.
Security
Herald's data sits in app-private storage that other apps can't read, and is excluded from device backups. Nothing is sent over the network except the optional voice download.
This website
This site doesn't use cookies, analytics or tracking. Our host keeps standard server logs to keep it running.
Beta sign-up
If you join the beta, we keep the email address you give us so we can add you as a tester on Google Play and tell you about Herald. That's all we use it for. The form is delivered to our inbox by FormSubmit (formsubmit.co), which processes it on our behalf. Our legal basis is your consent: ask us any time at admin@seedcraft.co and we'll remove you, and we delete the list when the beta ends unless you've asked to hear about the launch.
Changes to this policy
If Herald ever starts doing something new with your data (for example, an optional feature that uses an online service), we'll update this policy first and ask before switching it on.
Contact
Questions? Write to admin@seedcraft.co and we'll help.