Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

Glint Launcher ("Glint") is a home screen app for Android, published by Bryson Alef LLC ("we", "us"). While it's in beta, Google Play lists it as "Glint Launcher (beta)". This policy covers the app under either name. It explains what the app reads, what it stores, what it changes on your phone, and where anything goes when it leaves your phone.

2. What Glint stores on your phone

Glint saves the following in its private app storage, where other apps can't read it:

• Your Cards, the apps, shortcuts, and widgets on them, and your Dock.
• The name and icon of each shortcut you put on a Card. For a conversation, that is the contact's name and photo. Glint deletes them when you remove the shortcut.
• Your settings, including hidden apps, search options, the apps and folders you chose for search, the apps you hid from the Golden recommendation, your chosen search engine, your Audio apps, and which Cards have their Bell turned off.
• Recently opened apps, recent searches, and sites you opened from search.
• A launch history: which app or app shortcut you opened, when, from where in Glint, the search text you typed if you opened it from search, and whether you opened it from the Golden recommendation. For a shortcut to a conversation, that includes an identifier for the conversation. It also records each search you ran, including searches inside another app, and each site you opened from search. Glint uses it to rank search results and to choose the Golden recommendation, the one app search offers before you type. It makes that choice on your phone. It keeps at most a year of history and limits how many entries it holds. Hiding an app deletes that app's history. Clearing the launch history in Settings deletes all of it, along with your recent searches.
• The last weather reading, including that day's sunrise and sunset times, which hint at your approximate location at the time. Glint keeps it until the next reading replaces it, even after you turn weather off.
• Wallpapers, fonts, and icon packs you import.

Glint opts out of Android's cloud backup and device-to-device transfer, so Android doesn't copy any of this to your Google account or to a new phone. Uninstalling Glint, or clearing its storage in Android settings, deletes all of it.

Your system wallpaper. While Glint is your home screen, it also sets its current wallpaper as your phone's home screen wallpaper, so the same picture shows behind other apps and in recent apps. That includes a photo you imported. Glint doesn't change your lock screen wallpaper. The system wallpaper stays after you uninstall Glint, until you change it.

Your clipboard. If you type a sum in search, Glint shows the answer, and choosing the answer copies it to your clipboard. Glint doesn't read your clipboard.

3. What Glint reads, and why

A home screen has to know about your apps to show and open them. On your phone, Glint reads:

• your installed apps, including apps in a work profile, and the category each app declares, which Glint uses to fill your first Cards;
• the shortcuts an app offers on its icon, such as "Compose" in a mail app or a recent conversation in a messaging app, with their names and icons. Glint reads them when you hold that app, to list them in its menu, and when you open search, to list the ones that match what you type. You can turn that off with the Shortcuts switch in Glint's Let's go settings. It reads the ones on your Cards again when it starts and when their app changes them, to keep their names and icons current. It stores a shortcut's name and icon only once you put it on a Card, from that menu or when another app asks to add one to your home screen and you pick a Card for it;
• the widgets your apps offer, and the fonts and icon-pack apps you have installed, so you can pick them in Settings; and
• whether headphones, a speaker, or other audio equipment is connected, to show the Music note. This needs no permission, and Glint doesn't store it.

None of this leaves your phone.

These features are off until you turn them on. You can turn any of them off again in Glint or in Android settings.

• Notification access, for the Bell on your Cards and the list of what arrived while Glint was in Quiet. Turning it on takes you to Android's Notification access settings. With it, Glint reads the title, text, app, and time of your notifications, and which conversation a notification belongs to, so a conversation's shortcut on a Card can show its own count. It holds them in memory and doesn't write them to storage. It remembers notifications you dismissed for up to a day, so you can find them again, and forgets them when you revoke access. Glint can also act on your notifications. Tapping one in Glint opens it and clears it, as tapping it in Android's notification shade would, and Clear all dismisses those notifications from the shade.
• Calendar, to show your next event under the clock and, if you turn on Calendar events in Glint's Let's go settings, to list events that match what you type in search. Android asks for permission when you turn either on. Glint reads your upcoming events on your phone, holds them in memory, and doesn't write them to storage. Choosing an event in search hands it to your calendar app.
• Contacts, to list people whose name matches what you type in search, with buttons to call or message them. Android asks for permission when you turn on Contacts in Glint's Let's go settings. Glint reads your contacts' names, phone numbers, and email addresses on your phone when you open search, holds them in memory, and doesn't write them to storage. Choosing call, message, or the contact hands that number, address, or contact to your phone, messaging, email, or contacts app.
• Music and audio, to list music files on your phone whose title or artist matches what you type in search. Android asks for permission when you turn on Music files in Glint's Let's go settings, which is offered on Android 13 and later. Glint reads the titles and artists on your phone when you open search, holds them in memory, and doesn't write them to storage. Choosing a file hands it to your music app to play.
• Folders you choose, to list files whose name matches what you type in search. You add each folder in Android's own folder picker, from Folders in Glint's Let's go settings, and Glint reads only the folders you add. It reads the names and types of the files in them on your phone, holds them in memory, and doesn't write them to storage. Choosing a file hands it to an app that can open it. When you remove a folder in Glint, Glint stops reading it and gives up the access it kept.
• Approximate location, for the temperature under the clock. Android asks for permission when you turn it on. See the next section.
• Battery, to show a battery icon and its charge as a percentage under the clock. It's a switch in Glint's Clock strip settings, and it needs no Android permission. While it's on, Glint reads your battery level and whether your phone is charging, holds them in memory, and doesn't write them to storage.
• Accessibility, for Double-tap to lock. Glint uses Android's AccessibilityService API for this and for nothing else. Turning it on shows a notice to agree to, then takes you to Android's Accessibility settings. Glint's accessibility service doesn't read what's on your screen or anything you type, and Glint collects and shares no data through it. It only locks your screen when you double-tap empty space on Glint's home screen. Turning Double-tap to lock off in Glint turns the service off.

4. What leaves your phone

Weather, if you turn it on

About once an hour, and only while Glint is on screen, it asks Open-Meteo for the current weather. It also asks right away when you turn weather on or change the temperature unit, and tries again after about ten minutes if a request fails. The request contains the approximate location Android already has for your phone and whether you want Celsius or Fahrenheit. Glint doesn't ask Android for a new location fix. Like any website, Open-Meteo also sees your IP address. The request goes straight from your phone to Open-Meteo, not through us. Open-Meteo's terms and privacy policy apply to it. When weather and Web suggestions are both off, Glint itself makes no network requests.

Web suggestions, if you turn them on

With Web suggestions on in Glint's Let's go settings, Glint sends what you type in search to the search engine you picked, as you type, and shows the searches it suggests. It's offered when your search engine is DuckDuckGo or Brave, and that service's privacy policy applies to what it receives. Like any website, it also sees your IP address. The request goes straight from your phone to the search engine, not through us. Glint doesn't keep what you typed or what was suggested unless you choose a result. Turn Web suggestions off and Glint stops sending what you type. They also turn off if you change your search engine or turn off Web results, and stay off until you turn them on again.

Searches you send to another app

Typing in Glint's search matches your apps and Cards on your phone. Unless Web suggestions are on, nothing you type leaves your phone until you choose a result. If you choose a Web, Maps, or Play Store result, Glint hands what you typed to your browser, your maps app, or the Play Store. If you choose to search inside another app, such as Contacts, Glint hands what you typed to that app. Web searches go to the search engine you picked in Settings, which is Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, or Brave. From there, that app's or service's privacy policy applies.

If what you typed is a web address, such as github.com, Glint offers to open it. Choosing that hands the address to your browser, or to an app that handles that site's links. From there, that app's or site's privacy policy applies. You can turn this off with the Sites switch in Glint's Let's go settings.

Apps and widgets

The apps you open and the widgets you place on a Card are separate apps with their own privacy policies. Glint shows them; it doesn't control what they collect.

Feedback you email us

Settings has a Send feedback button that opens an email to us in your email app, with Glint's version number filled in. The email goes out only if you send it. If you do, we keep your message and email address to reply and to fix what you reported. Ask us and we'll delete them, unless the law requires us to keep them.

5. What we don't do

The app contains no advertising, analytics, tracking, or crash-reporting code, and there's no account to create. Apart from email you choose to send us, we don't receive any information from Glint, and we don't sell or share data.

6. Children

Glint isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone, including children.

7. Your choices

You control Glint's data from your phone. You can turn features off in Settings, revoke permissions in Android settings, clear the launch history and recent searches, or uninstall the app to delete everything. Apart from feedback emails, we hold no data about you, so there's nothing else for us to access, correct, or delete on request. Email us with any questions about how Glint handles data.

If you're in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, the legal basis for the weather request and for Web suggestions is your consent. You give it by turning the feature on and withdraw it by turning it off. We reply to feedback emails based on our legitimate interest in supporting Glint. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

8. Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top of this page. Glint has no account or email address to reach you through. For material changes, including anything that sends new data off your phone, we'll also say so in the app or in its Play Store release notes before the change takes effect.

9. Contact

Bryson Alef LLC
2501 Chatham Rd, Suite N, Springfield, IL 62704, USA
me@brysonalef.com