Privacy Policy

Effective November 8, 2026

Summary: There's no account to make, so Routines never asks for your name, email, phone number or Apple Account. It has no ads, analytics or tracking, and your information is never sold. Your routines stay on your device and in your private iCloud. Only one optional feature uses the Routines server: the Live Activity, which can be turned off at any time. Finding a product visits the brand's own website from your device, sending only the product's name. Other features, like Apple Intelligence, hand gestures and voice control, happen on your device.

How your data is stored

Where it's kept: Your data, like your routines and their product photos, is kept on your device, and in your private iCloud if iCloud Sync is on, which only you can access, not the developer. Routines you make in the tutorial are saved in the same way.
How to opt out: Turn off iCloud Sync in the Routines Settings, under General.

The Live Activity

When it happens: This feature only runs while a routine is playing and you've left the app, with "When You Close the App" set to Start a Live Activity. It also runs when you start a routine on your Apple Watch with Routines closed on the paired iPhone.
Why it needs a server: Your device saves battery by pausing apps that aren't in use. The Routines server sends scheduled updates through the Apple Push Notification service, so the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island can keep up when a sub-step ends.
How it works: When you leave the app mid-routine, your device sends the Routines server the times your upcoming sub-steps start, and the Live Activity's push address, an anonymous address from Apple that only lets the server update that one Live Activity. This is sent over an encrypted connection. When each time arrives, the server sends a push notification to the Apple Push Notification service, which delivers it to your device and updates the Live Activity. The server deletes everything it received when the routine ends, and keeps no logs. The times are sent as a list of times and numbers. Your device keeps the names of your steps and sub-steps, and matches each number to its name when the update arrives.
Without an internet connection: Nothing is sent, and the Live Activity still works. At the end of each sub-step, you tap the forward button on the Live Activity to move on.
How to opt out: In the Routines Settings, go to General and set "When You Close the App" to Pause the Routine, or keep Routines open while a routine plays. Either way, nothing is sent.

Done on your device

Apple Intelligence: Routines uses Apple's on-device foundation model to help write and update routines. The model processes what you've typed and found on your device, without sending it to Apple or the developer. Routines never uses Private Cloud Compute. For how Apple handles Apple Intelligence on your device, see Apple's Apple Intelligence & Privacy page.
Reading a label: When you attach a photo of a product, the words on its label are read by Apple's on-device Vision text recognition model. If the photo shows several products, each one's label is read separately.
Removing a background: Product photos are cut out from their background by Apple's on-device Vision subject segmentation model. The same model tells apart the products in a photo you attach.
Hand gestures: When Hand Gestures is on, or you try Hands-Free Controls in the Routines Plus demo, Routines uses the front camera to take low-resolution pictures, up to 24 per second. Each picture is analyzed by Apple's on-device Vision hand pose model, which tells Routines where your fingers are, and Routines works out which gesture you performed. The latest picture, finger positions and recent gestures are held temporarily in memory while the controls are being used. They aren't saved as photos, videos or a gesture history, added to your photo library, or uploaded to your private iCloud or any other server.
Voice control: When Voice Control is on, or you try Hands-Free Controls in the Routines Plus demo, Routines uses your device's microphone. What you say is transcribed by Apple's on-device SpeechTranscriber model, or Apple's on-device DictationTranscriber model when needed, and Routines checks the words for commands like "next", "pause" and "stop music". The audio and recognized words are held temporarily in memory, including recent commands and words that weren't commands. They aren't saved as audio recordings or transcript files, or uploaded to your private iCloud or any other server. The recognition history is cleared when the listening session stops. Recognition uses the language your device is set to, where Apple supports it. If the required model isn't already on your device, your device downloads it from Apple the first time it's needed, including when you try the demo.
Dictation: When you tap the microphone in Settings search, Routines uses your device's microphone until you tap it again or leave that screen. What you say is transcribed by Apple's on-device SpeechTranscriber model, or Apple's on-device DictationTranscriber model when needed, into the text box, where you can see and edit it. The audio is processed in memory and isn't saved as a recording or sent to a server. The words are used just like words you type, to search the app's settings and privacy policy on your device.

When hands-free controls are on

During a routine: Hand Gestures and Voice Control can be used while the routine is running or paused. Ending a routine leaves its finished screen open, and the controls stay on there so you can exit hands-free. They turn off when you exit the routine. The camera and microphone also stop when Routines leaves the foreground.
In the Routines Plus demo: After you've allowed camera, microphone and speech recognition access, the Hands-Free Controls page uses your camera and microphone while it's open and Routines is in the foreground. You can try it without buying Routines Plus, and it works even if Hand Gestures and Voice Control are off in General.
How to opt out: In the Routines Settings, under General, turn off Hand Gestures or Voice Control for ordinary routines. In the demo, leave the Hands-Free Controls page, close the demo or leave the app to stop the camera and microphone. Returning to that page with access still allowed can start them again.

Photos and the camera

Choosing a photo: Routines uses Apple's photo picker, which runs separately from Routines. You pick a photo there, and only that one photo is handed to Routines. Routines can't access your entire photo library and can't see any other photo in it.
Taking a photo: When you use the camera to photograph a product, Routines asks for camera access if you haven't already given it. The camera screen uses that access while it's open, and the photo you take is never added to your photo library. The same camera permission is also used for Hand Gestures, as described above.
What happens to your photo: A photo you choose or take is used to read the words on the product's label, on your device. The photo isn't uploaded to any website or the Routines server. A temporary copy may be kept on your device while the lookup is running, or waiting to resume after you close the app, so it can finish later. Routines removes that copy when the lookup finishes or is discarded. A photo you chose stays in your photo library, untouched. The step's photo comes from the product's website instead, once it's found.

Finding a product

When it happens: When you look up a product, type a product's name, or attach a photo of one, in which case the words read from its label are used. Sharing a web page into Routines also reads that page's name and picture from your device. While you edit a routine, Routines may also look for alternative photos of its products, ready for Switch Photo.
How it works: Routines opens a background browser inside the app, which you don't see. It visits the website of the brand those words name and searches its shop for them, then reads the product's name and directions from its page. Routines only uses brands' own websites: it doesn't use search engines or shops' websites. Once the right product is found, your device downloads its photo from the brand's website.
What those websites see: These are ordinary visits from your device, the same as visiting those websites normally on the web. They see your device's internet address, which gives them your approximate location, and the words that were searched for. When Routines reads their pages, it describes your device as a standard iPhone, not your exact model or iOS version, along with your preferred language, so the page shows correctly. When it downloads a product's photo, the request says it comes from Routines. These visits are handled under their own privacy policies.
What Routines doesn't add: Routines doesn't add your name, email, Apple Account or an advertising ID to these requests. It doesn't upload your routines or source photos to those websites. Searches use the words for the product being looked up, including words you typed or words read from its label.
Cookies: The background browser and Search the Web keep no cookies or website data between visits. When Routines reads a page or downloads a photo directly, a website can save a cookie on your device, which is only ever sent back to that same website on its next visit. Routines never reads these cookies or sends them anywhere else.

Music controls

When it happens: When you use Music Controls during a routine, try them in the Routines Plus demo, or view the Music Controls feature preview in Settings. Routines only reads Apple Music information after you've allowed access.
What Routines uses: The current song's name, artist, album artwork, playback position and length, so the controls can show what's playing. Routines reads this through Apple's music APIs on your device. It doesn't send this information or a listening history to the Routines server.
How it works: Play, pause, skip and seeking control Apple Music, and volume controls can change your device's volume. These can affect your real playback while you're trying the demo too.
Your choice: The demo asks for Apple Music access before you try its music page if access hasn't already been allowed. In General, Show Music Controls controls whether the music card appears during ordinary routines. The demo and the Music Controls feature preview in Settings can use Apple Music access even when that switch is off.

Your Apple Watch

How it works: Apple's Watch Connectivity framework sends routines, settings and updates directly between your Apple Watch and its paired iPhone. Your private iCloud is also used for synchronization, and Apple's iCloud key-value storage can pass playback updates between your devices.
What's sent: The routines, product photos and completion history needed on your watch, the settings the devices share, and which routine is playing, which step and sub-step you're on, whether it's paused, and when the sub-step ends. This device synchronization doesn't use the Routines server.

In-app purchases

How it works: Purchases in Routines are made through Apple's App Store, using Apple's StoreKit. The price shown is Apple's price for your country. When you tap to buy, Apple's own purchase sheet appears, and Apple handles the payment with the payment method on your Apple Account.
What Routines receives: Only a signed confirmation from Apple, on your device, of what your Apple Account owns. Routines checks it on your device to unlock what you bought. Nothing about the purchase is sent to the Routines server.
What the developer sees: Apple gives the developer sales totals, like how many purchases were made in each country. The developer never sees who bought it, or your name, email, Apple Account or payment details.
Your other devices: A purchase unlocks on every device signed in to the same Apple Account. If it doesn't, tap Restore Purchases, which asks Apple again what your account owns.
Refunds: Refunds are handled by Apple, at reportaproblem.apple.com. If Apple refunds a purchase, you lose access to what was refunded on your devices.

Crash reports

When it happens: Apple shares crash reports when you've allowed sharing with app developers in your device's privacy settings.
How it works: If Routines crashes, Apple may send the developer a technical report of what went wrong, such as the device and system version and where the app failed.
How to opt out: Open the Settings app on your device, go to Privacy & Security, then Analytics & Improvements, and turn off Share With App Developers.

Deleting your data

Deleted routines: They stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days, then are deleted permanently, unless you choose to delete them from Recently Deleted sooner.
Everything in your private iCloud: In the Routines Settings, under General, turn off iCloud Sync. Routines deletes its data from your private iCloud and turns off iCloud Sync on all your devices. Everything stays on each device.
Everything on your device: Deleting the app deletes everything it kept on your device.

Other things

Children: Routines doesn't ask for a child's name, age or contact details. The protections described in this policy apply to everyone using Routines.
Changes: If this policy changes, the new version will be here, with a new date at the top.
Contact: Questions about privacy: Jordnrdrgz@gmail.com