Last updated: 4 September 2026
Who this applies to
This notice applies to the What Stays mobile app. It is provided by Devector Consulting Ltd, 40 High Street, Northwood, HA6 1BN, United Kingdom. You can contact us at dev@devector.io.
Your journal stays on your device
What Stays does not require an account. Journal entries, recordings and any text created from them are stored on your device. Journal content is kept in the app's encrypted vault. The app also keeps local settings and limited technical metadata it needs to work, such as entry state and dates.
We do not automatically upload your journal content to Devector. The app does not include advertising, behavioural analytics, tracking or a Devector-hosted journal service.
Permissions you control
- Microphone: requested only when you choose to record a voice note.
- Notifications: requested only when you set a return reminder.
- Device lock: optional biometric or device-credential access can be enabled to protect the app on your phone.
Turning speech into text
If your phone can do it, a voice note may be given a written version. That work is done on your device, by the operating system's own speech recogniser: the app requires on-device recognition and does not permit a network fallback. Your recording is not uploaded to Devector, and the recording itself is never changed by it. Not every phone or language can do this, and where yours cannot, the recording is simply kept without a transcript.
Exports and support
You can choose to export a backup or share a diagnostic report. Those actions are initiated by you through your device's file picker or share sheet; the service you choose then handles the export under its own privacy terms. Diagnostic reports are designed to exclude journal content.
Optional sync through your own storage
If you enable sync, encrypted journal files are written to a folder you control, such as the app's folder in your iCloud Drive on Apple devices. Your storage provider moves those files between your devices under its own terms. The files are sealed with a separate sync passphrase that Devector never receives and cannot reset. Your device keeps that passphrase securely so sync can continue. Sync is optional and is not a Devector-hosted service. Deletions also sync; a separate, manually exported backup is different from a synced copy.
Optional on-device reflection
Some phones can offer an experimental reflection feature, a small model that may suggest a line worth keeping, a title, or a pattern across what you kept. It can also answer a question you type about one entry, and help you draft something you might want to say to someone. It is off by default and only ever runs when you ask it to. Not every phone can run it; where yours cannot, it is not offered at all.
Where it does run, it runs on your device and causes no network traffic. To be precise about the boundary: what you wrote leaves the app's own process and is passed to the operating system's model service (Android's AICore, or Apple's on-device model), which runs on the same phone. So "it stays on this device" is true; "it never leaves this app" would not be. Your device manufacturer's privacy terms may also apply. We do not use it to create a Devector account or an advertising profile.
Where you ask a question about an entry, the question you type is passed to that same on-device model service along with the entry, and the exchange is held only while that screen is open. It is never added to the entry and never written to your journal; closing the screen ends it for good. Nothing about it is kept after you close it, and nothing about it reaches Devector.
Paying for Plus
What Stays is free to use. Plus is a one-time purchase that adds sync between your devices and, on supported phones, on-device reflection. Every new install starts with fourteen days of the full product. Those fourteen days are counted by the app on your own device; they are not a store subscription or a store-managed offer, and nothing is charged when they end. The purchase is handled entirely by Google Play or the App Store under their own terms: they take the payment, and no card or billing details ever reach Devector or the app. The app only asks the store a single question, whether this device has bought it, and remembers the answer locally so it works offline. Nothing about your journal is sent to either store.
Deletion and retention
You can use Delete everything on this phone in What Stays settings to remove the app's local entries, recordings, keys, settings and schedules. Backups or files you previously exported remain wherever you chose to save them and need to be deleted there separately.
Changes to this notice
If the way What Stays handles data changes, we will update this page and its date.
Need help? Visit What Stays support.