Notifications for Android (com.stevepxyz.notifications). Last updated 28 September 2026.
Notifications is a household app. Phones register with a gateway that the household runs on its own home network, and receive alerts and messages from it (for example doorbell alerts, or messages from other people in the house). This policy explains what information the app handles, where it goes, and how to remove it.
In short
- The only personal information the app asks for is the name you choose for your phone.
- No advertising, no analytics, no crash reporting, no tracking, and no account sign-up.
- Nothing is sold or shared for marketing.
- Messages and photos you send go to the other phones in the household, through the household gateway and Google Firebase, which delivers them.
Information the app handles
Your phone’s name
When you register, you pick a name for the phone (for example “Steve’s phone”). It’s sent to the household gateway so that other phones in the household can see who a message is from and send messages to you. It is shown to the other people in the household who use the app.
Device identifiers
To deliver notifications, the app sends the gateway two technical identifiers:
- An install ID, a random number the app makes up the first time it runs. It isn’t linked to your identity, your Google account or your phone’s hardware.
- A Firebase Cloud Messaging token, which Google’s Firebase issues so that messages can be delivered to this copy of the app.
Messages and photos
When you send a message, its text, its priority, the recipients, and any photo you attach go to the household gateway, which delivers them to the other phones. The gateway keeps a log of the messages it has sent, so the household can see what was delivered to whom. Photos are stored in Google Firebase Storage so phones can download them when they’re away from home, and are deleted automatically after 7 days.
You choose photos with Android’s photo picker or take them with your camera app. The app only sees the photo you pick; it does not have access to the rest of your photos or to the camera. A photo taken for sending is deleted from the app’s temporary storage once it has been sent.
Stored on your phone
The history of messages you’ve received and sent, with their photos, is stored on your phone only. You can delete single messages, whole conversations, or all history from within the app.
Third-party services
Google Firebase
The app uses Firebase Cloud Messaging, provided by Google, to deliver notifications. To do this, the Firebase SDK in the app creates a Firebase installation ID and a messaging token, and sends them with basic technical information (such as the app version) to Google. Message content, including a preview-size copy of any photo, passes through Firebase on its way to your phone. The gateway also uses Firebase Storage to hold photos for up to 7 days. Google handles this data as described in Privacy and Security in Firebase and the Google Privacy Policy.
The app does not include Google Analytics for Firebase, Crashlytics, or any other analytics or advertising SDK.
Open-source libraries
The app is built with the following open-source libraries. They run entirely on your phone and do not send any information to their authors or anyone else:
- Android Jetpack (Core, Activity, Compose, Material 3, Navigation, Lifecycle): the app’s screens
- Room: the message history database on your phone
- DataStore: remembering your phone’s registration
- WorkManager: downloading full-size photos and keeping the messaging token up to date in the background
- Retrofit, OkHttp and kotlinx.serialization: talking to the household gateway
- Coil: loading and showing photos
- Telephoto: zooming into photos
The only network connections the app makes are to the household gateway, to Google Firebase, and to download photos attached to messages.
Permissions
- Notifications, to show the messages you receive.
- Internet, to register with the gateway, send messages and receive them.
The app does not ask for location, contacts, microphone, camera or storage permissions.
Backups
If Android backup is turned on, your message history may be included in your phone’s backup to your own Google account, as with other apps. Your phone’s registration is left out of backups, so a restored phone registers again.
Removing your information
- Delete messages or all history in the app to remove them from your phone.
- Unregister in the app’s settings to remove your phone and its name from the gateway.
- Uninstall the app to remove everything it has stored on your phone.
- Ask the household gateway’s administrator (contact details below) to delete messages you’ve sent from the gateway’s log.
Security
Registering and sending only work on the household’s home network: the gateway isn’t reachable from the internet. Connections to the gateway and to Firebase are encrypted.
Children
The app is meant for members of a household, set up by an adult who runs the gateway. It isn’t directed at children and doesn’t knowingly collect information from children.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new “Last updated” date.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your information: hello@stevep.xyz