Privacy policy
Effective 3 October 2026
Textual is an SMS and MMS app for Android phones, with a companion app for Wear OS watches and Textual for web. It is made by aflabs. This policy explains what happens to your data when you use it.
Your messages stay on your phone
Your messages, contacts and attachments are stored on your phone: in Android's message database or, if you choose private storage, in Textual's own encrypted database. We don't have a copy and can't read them. Texts you send and receive travel through your mobile carrier, as all SMS and MMS do; your carrier can read them, and its own privacy policy applies.
Watch, browser and other linked devices
If you link a watch, a browser or another phone, Textual sends your conversations to it over Bluetooth or through a relay server: ours by default, or one you run yourself (Linked devices › Relay server). Everything sent through a relay is end-to-end encrypted: no relay, ours included, can read it.
While your devices are connected, our relay necessarily handles:
- a random room identifier that changes every day, so your devices can find each other;
- the IP addresses of connected devices, which are needed to deliver traffic;
- push tokens (Firebase Cloud Messaging registration tokens), so the relay can wake your phone when your watch needs it, and the other way round.
All of this is held in memory only, for as long as a device is connected or the room exists. None of it is written to disk and the relay keeps no access logs.
Wake service. If you use your own relay, it can ask ours to send those wake-ups. Each request carries one push token and a priority flag, plus the address of the relay that sent it, and nothing else: no message, room or name. We keep it only for short in-memory rate limits (at most a minute) and log nothing. You can switch it off on your phone (Relay server › Wake-ups through your relay).
Textual for web stores nothing on our servers. Your browser keeps the keys that link it to your phone, in its own storage, until you sign out or the session you chose ends.
Diagnostics (off unless you turn them on)
Textual sends no diagnostics by default. If you turn on Send diagnostics (Settings › About), it sends crash reports and technical logs to help us fix problems: app version, device model, Android version, error messages and log lines, and the IP address they came from. They never include message contents; phone numbers are removed from error messages before sending. We keep diagnostics for 30 days and then delete them. Turn the setting off at any time to stop sending.
Link previews
To show a preview of a link, your phone downloads the linked page directly, so that website sees your IP address. We receive nothing. For links from unknown senders a preview loads only when you tap it. You can turn previews off in Settings.
Permissions
- SMS and MMS: used only while Textual is your default SMS app, to show, send and receive your messages.
- Contacts: to show names and photos, start new chats and save a contact card someone sends you. Contacts stay on your phone (a linked watch can search them through your phone).
- Location: read once, only when you choose to send your location.
- Microphone: used only while you record a voice message.
- Phone number: to read your own number so group MMS threads correctly.
- Notifications, alarms and the sync service: to notify you, send scheduled messages and keep a linked watch up to date.
What we collect, in short
| Data | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Push token of a linked device | Waking your phone or watch | In memory, while needed |
| IP address of a connected device | Delivering relay traffic | In memory, while connected |
| Diagnostics, only if you turn them on | Fixing bugs | 30 days |
We don't sell or share your data, don't show ads and don't need an account. Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging delivers wake-ups as our service provider; Google's privacy policy covers how it handles push tokens.
Children
Textual is not directed at children under 13.
Your choices and requests
You can unlink any device, switch off wake-ups on your own relay, turn diagnostics off, or uninstall Textual. To ask what we hold about you, or to have it deleted, email support@aflabs.kiwi. Because the relay keeps nothing on disk, the only thing we could hold is diagnostics you chose to send, and we will delete them on request.
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update the date above and, for significant changes, tell you in the app.
Contact
aflabs · support@aflabs.kiwi