Privacy policy

Effective date: October 19, 2026

Grow offline ("we", "us") runs the Grow offline app and this website.

Questions: support@getgrowoffline.com

The short version

Grow offline helps adults pause the apps they choose on their own phone and ask friends they trust, or Fern, our AI, for more time. We keep only what the app needs to work. We never see which apps you pause, which apps you open, or how long you use any app. Your friends see the minutes you asked for, the reason you wrote, and whether your phone is in contact with us. They never see which apps you pause or how many. Fern sees only the reason you wrote. A friend who does not have the app can answer your requests by text, but only after they say YES to a first invitation, or by email, with a link to stop in every email (see "Friends who do not have the app"). After a free period the app costs a monthly fee, billed by Apple or Google; we never see your card details. We do not sell your information, show ads, or use trackers.

Who Grow offline is for

Grow offline is for adults aged 18 or over, in the United States. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has an account, email us and we will delete it. Grow offline is not a parental control app and must not be used to monitor another person.

What we collect and why

Information you give us

Your phone number. You sign in by entering your number and a one-time code. Google Firebase sends the code by text message and verifies it for us. We store your number so we can sign you in and match invitations that friends send to your number.

Your friends' names, numbers and email addresses. When you add a friend, you type their name and their phone number or email address, or you pick one contact with your phone's own contact picker. When you use the picker, your phone shows you your contacts, and the app receives only the one name and number or address you tap. The app never asks for permission to read your contacts and cannot read, list or store your address book. We use what you typed to deliver your invitation and your requests to that friend. If the friend does not have the app, we use the number to text them or the address to email them (see "Friends who do not have the app"). Your friend sees the name you typed for them only as the label on their own invitation; they never see a name you did not type.

Your requests. The minutes you ask for (10, 20 or 30) and the reason you write, up to 280 characters. Friends who have the app see both, word for word. If you ask Fern, our AI, the reason you wrote is sent to our AI provider so Fern can answer, and we store Fern's yes or no and any context you add after a no (see "Fern"). A request never names an app; friends and Fern see the words "your paused apps".

Your friends' answers. Whether each friend approved or denied, and an optional note they write in the app, up to 280 characters.

In the app, we do not ask for your name, your email address, or anything else about you. The website waitlist is the one place we ask for an email address (see "Website waitlist").

Information the app creates

Device details. A random install identifier the app makes itself (not a hardware or advertising identifier), whether your phone is an iPhone or an Android phone, the app version and the operating system version. We use these to recognize your phone and to keep one phone active on your account at a time.

Device secret. A secret that proves a message really came from your phone. Your phone keeps it in its secure storage. Our server keeps only a hash of it, not the secret.

Check-ins. Short "still here" messages from your phone, with a sequence number, the time your phone sent it, a protection state, and a one-letter reason (the app opened, or it reconnected). In the current version the protection state is always "unknown"; the app does not yet report whether blocking is switched on.

Requests, countdowns and escape hatches. When a request was sent, answered and ended, when a countdown started and ended, and when you used an escape hatch.

Push address. A token from Google Firebase that lets us send a notification to your phone, for example when a friend answers. If you turn off notifications, we cannot deliver them, and the app still works.

Pause on and off records (your tree). To grow your tree and count your days, the app sends short records of when your pause was switched on or off: a timestamp, a sequence number, whether blocking was on, and whether there was a gap in coverage. It never sends which apps you paused, which apps you open, or how long you use them. Your friends do not see your tree or your stats in the beta.

Information we never collect

• The names of the apps you pause, or any list of them. On Android the list stays in a file on your phone. On iPhone, Apple gives the app opaque tokens, not names, and the selection stays on your phone.
• Which apps you open, or how long you use any app.
• What your notifications say, or who they are from.
• What is on your screen or what you type.
• Your contacts or address book.
• Your location.
• Your camera, microphone, calendar, photos or health data.
• Advertising identifiers. There are no ads, and the app does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
• Payment details. Your subscription is billed by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play). They handle your card and send us only what we need to know that your subscription is active. We never see your card number.
• Crash reports or analytics. The app contains no crash-reporting or analytics software.

Phone permissions the app asks for, and what each one does

Android accessibility service. When you turn it on, Android tells the app which app has just come to the front. The app reads only the package name of that app, on your phone, to decide whether to cover an app you paused. It does not read what is on your screen, what you type, or your messages, and it does not send the names of the apps you open to anyone. You can switch it off in Settings at any time. If you do, your paused apps stop being covered.

Android notification access. When you turn it on, the app notices which app a notification comes from and hides it while that app is paused, so a paused chat app cannot be used from the notification shade. It reads only the name of the app that posted the notification and the notification's system key. It does not read what the notification says, who it is from, or what you reply, and it sends nothing off your phone. The notifications come back when the app is no longer paused. You can switch it off in Settings at any time.

Android usage access. Used on your phone only, to show you where your time goes on the "Your time" screen (today's total, a seven-day chart and your top apps), to suggest which apps to pause, and to sort the app list. This information stays on your phone. We never see it: no app name or amount of time is sent to us, written to a log, or used for analytics. Blocking works without it.

iPhone Screen Time (Family Controls). Used to pause the apps you choose. Apple keeps the details of your selection on your phone, and the app's "Your time" screen is drawn by an Apple extension that cannot reach the internet.

Notifications. Used to tell you when a friend answers or when a request needs your attention.

Fern

Fern is a free AI that can answer a request instead of, or before, your friends. It reads the reason you wrote and answers yes or no, usually in about 20 seconds. You can get up to 30 minutes a day through Fern. After a no, you can add context once and Fern answers again.

What Fern sees. Only the reason you wrote, and the context you add after a no. Fern does not see which apps you pause, which apps you open, or how long you use them.

Who runs it. Fern's answers come from TypeSafe AI, our AI provider. We send the reason to TypeSafe AI only so Fern can answer.

What we store. Fern's answer, when it was given, and the context you added, alongside the request it belongs to.

Your choice. Asking Fern is optional. You can send every request to your friends only.

Friends who do not have the app

Some friends will not have Grow offline. You can still add them, and they can answer your requests by text or by email. This section is for you, and for anyone who gets one of these texts or emails.

Emails to friends who do not have the app

When a friend is emailed. We email a friend only after you add them with their email address. They get your requests by email, and each email lets them answer in one tap: Yes, No, or offer half the time. Every email from us has a link to stop getting requests. Using it stops all request emails from us to that address.

What we store. The friend's name and address, as you typed them, in your account; each answer they give, with the time; and the address, if they ask us to stop, so we never email it again.

What they see. Who is asking and how many minutes. Never which apps you pause or how many.

Texts to friends who do not have the app

When a friend is texted. We text a friend only after you add them as a friend with their phone number. The first text is one invitation. It says who is asking, tells them they can reply YES to accept or STOP to opt out, says that message and data rates may apply, and links to the app. If they have not replied, we may send one more invitation. We never send more than two invitations to the same number in 30 days. An invitation is open for 7 days.

Nothing more until they say YES. We send request texts only after the friend replies YES to the invitation. If they never reply, or reply NO or STOP, they get no request texts.

What they get after YES. One short text when you ask for more time, saying who is asking and for how many minutes. One reminder if they have not answered after an hour. A short thanks that confirms their answer. They answer by replying YES to approve or NO to deny. How often a friend is texted depends on how often the person who added them asks for time. We never send more than six texts an hour to one number.

How to stop or get help. Reply STOP to any text to stop all texts from us to that number. Reply HELP for help, or email support@getgrowoffline.com. Message and data rates may apply.

What we store.

• The friend's name and number, as you typed them, in your account.
• A consent record: when the friend replied YES, the identifier of their reply message from our texting provider, and the version of the invitation wording they agreed to.
• A record of each text sent or received: when, what kind it was, whether it was delivered, and a one-way scrambled form of the number. We do not keep the words of the texts in our database.
• A do-not-text list of one-way scrambled numbers that replied STOP, so we never text them again.

Who sees it. We send these texts through Twilio, our texting provider, only to deliver these messages. Mobile numbers and consent are never shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.

Erasing a friend's number or address. After STOP, or after you use the stop link in an email, we stop contacting you right away. The number or address stays in the friend list of the person who added them until that person removes the friend or deletes their account. To have it erased sooner, email support@getgrowoffline.com.

Website waitlist

While the app is being built, this website has a waitlist. If you join it, we collect the email address you type and the time you joined. We use it to email you once, when the app opens, and for nothing else. We do not use it for advertising and we do not share it, except with Cloudflare, which hosts this website and stores the list for us. The form sets no cookies and loads no trackers.

We keep your address until we have sent you that one email, or until you ask us to remove it. To be removed sooner, or to see what we hold, email support@getgrowoffline.com from the address you signed up with.

How we use information

• To sign you in and run requests, approvals, countdowns and escape hatches.
• To show your friends the request details they are allowed to see.
• To let Fern answer a request you send to it.
• To send you and your friends notifications, and to text or email friends who do not have the app, about requests you are part of.
• To know whether your free period or subscription is active, using what Apple or Google tells us.
• To keep the service safe, for example to refuse repeated or forged requests and to let a friend block someone who should not have invited them.
• To grow your tree.
• To answer your emails.

We do not sell your information. We do not use it for advertising or tracking. We do not train machine-learning models on your information. Our AI provider receives the reason you wrote only when you ask Fern (see "Fern").

What your friends can see

Friends you invited, who accepted, can see:

• each request you send them: the minutes, when you sent it, the words "your paused apps" in place of any app name, and, for friends who have the app, the reason you wrote;
• whether they, your other friends and Fern have answered;
• whether our server is in contact with your phone. If your phone stops checking in, friends who have the app may be told that contact was lost and later that it is back. A loss of contact can have many causes, and the message says so;
• that you closed your account, if you delete it (friends who have the app).

Friends cannot see which apps you pause or how many, which apps you open, how long you use them, your location, your other friends, your tree or your stats, or that you used an escape hatch. Telling friends that you switched protection off is planned and is not live in the beta.

Who we share information with

We share information only with the companies that run Grow offline for us, only so they can do that job, and never for advertising.

• Google Firebase (Authentication and Cloud Messaging). Receives your phone number to send and verify your sign-in code, issues your sign-in token, and delivers push notifications. Firebase also receives technical signals it needs for sign-in and delivery, such as an app-verification token and an installation identifier.
• Apple and Google (billing). When you subscribe, the App Store or Google Play takes your payment and tells us whether your subscription is active. They have their own privacy policies.
• TypeSafe AI (Fern). Receives the reason you wrote, and any context you add after a no, only when you ask Fern, and only so Fern can answer.
• Render (hosting and database). Our server and database run on Render, in the United States.
• Cloudflare (this website and its waitlist). Hosts the website and stores the email addresses of people who join the waitlist, only so we can email them once when the app opens.
• Twilio (text messages to friends who do not have the app). Receives the friend's number and the text, only to deliver the messages described above.
• Our email delivery provider (emails to friends who do not have the app). Receives the friend's address and the email, only to deliver it.

Nothing else receives your information, except as the law requires. We do not sell your information and never have.

How long we keep information

Today our server keeps your records for as long as your account exists, and deletes them when you delete your account (see "Delete your account" below), with these exceptions:

We plan to shorten some of these periods, for example blanking request reasons and notes 90 days after a request ends and removing request history after 12 months. That is not in place yet. We will update this table when those schedules are running.

Your choices and rights

Change your mind about a friend. You can remove a friend at any time. Your remaining friends are told. Removing a friend never approves a pending request.

Block someone. If someone you do not know invites you, you can decline and block them in the app.

Switch protection off. You can turn off the accessibility service, notification access, usage access or Screen Time at any time in your phone's settings.

Turn off notifications. In your phone's settings. The app still works; you will just have to open it to see answers.

Stop texts. If you are a friend who gets our texts, reply STOP.

Stop emails. If you are a friend who gets our emails, use the stop link in any email.

Cancel your subscription. In your Apple or Google account settings, like any app-store subscription. We cannot cancel or refund it for you; the terms explain how it works.

See, correct or delete your information. Email support@getgrowoffline.com from the phone number on your account, or tell us the last two digits of it. We will confirm it is you before we act, and we will not treat you differently for asking. These choices are available to everyone who uses Grow offline.

Delete your account. Open Grow offline, go to Account, tap "Delete my account", type the confirmation and confirm. You may be asked to sign in again first. Deletion starts right away; we do not hold it to give you a chance to cancel. Deleting your account:

• cancels any pending request and ends your active countdown;
• ends your partnerships, and tells friends who have the app that you closed your account;
• removes your sign-in, your phone number and its history, your requests, approvals, Fern's answers, sessions, escape-hatch uses, check-ins, devices, push address, tree records, friend records and text consent records;
• removes your name, number and address from your friends' records;
• keeps only the records listed in the table above.

If you cannot open the app, email support@getgrowoffline.com and we will delete it for you.

If a friend invited you and you never installed the app. Your name and number, as your friend typed them, sit in their account until the invitation expires or they remove you, and they are removed when their account is deleted. To have them removed sooner, email support@getgrowoffline.com.

Security

• All traffic between the app and our server uses HTTPS, and our server tells browsers and apps to use it only.
• Your device secret and install identifier live in your phone's secure storage, set to stay on that phone and not move to another through a backup.
• On Android, backups skip the secure storage and the blocking settings.
• Our server never writes phone numbers to its logs.
• No system is perfectly secure. If a security incident affects your information, we will tell you and any authorities the law requires, without undue delay.

Where information is processed

Our server and our database are hosted in the United States. Grow offline is offered in the United States only.

Changes to this policy

We will post changes here and update the effective date. If a change matters to you, for example if we start collecting something new or sharing with someone new, the app will show you a notice the next time you open it before the change applies to you. For smaller changes, continuing to use the app after the new date means you accept them.

Contact

Email: support@getgrowoffline.com. We reply to the address you write from.