The short version
You do not need an account. The app is fully usable the moment you open it: no name, no email address, no password, nothing to sign up for. Everything below about signing in is optional, and most people will never do it.
There is no advertising, and no third-party analytics or tracking SDK of any kind.
What we collect without an account
This is what the app collects for everyone, whether or not you ever sign in.
| What | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| An anonymous device id | A random identifier the app generates on your device the first time you open it. It is how we remember your likes and your premium status without asking you to create an account. | Until you uninstall the app or clear its data |
| Play history | Which experience you played, when, for how long, and whether it ran to the end. Powers "Recently played" and the "Popular this week" list. | Rolling; used for the last 7 days of popularity |
| Liked and saved items | The places you tapped the heart on. | Until you unlike them |
| Offline list | Which places you chose to keep for offline listening: the list only, never the media itself. | Until you remove them |
| Playlists | Playlists you make: their names and which places are in them. Made on your device, and kept on our servers so they follow you to a new phone. | Until you delete them |
| Purchase status | Whether you have premium, and when it expires if it does. Verified with Google Play. | While the entitlement is active |
| Platform and app version | Sent with requests so we can support older versions and diagnose problems. | With the device record |
That is the complete list for an anonymous user.
Signing in with Google (optional)
Premium users can sign in with Google so their library follows them to a new phone and survives reinstalling the app. This is entirely optional. If you never sign in, nothing in this section applies to you and nothing in it is collected.
If you do sign in, we receive from Google and store:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your Google account identifier | An opaque, stable id Google issues for our app. It is what matches you to your library when you sign in again. We key on this, never on your email. |
| Your email address | Shown in the app so you can tell which account you are signed into, and used to contact you about your account if we ever need to. |
| Your Google display name and profile picture | Kept with your account and only ever sent back to your own device. They are never shown to other people. |
We do not receive your Google password, and we cannot access your Gmail, Drive, Contacts, Calendar or anything else in your Google account. Signing in requests your basic profile and nothing more.
Your public profile
When you sign in, you pick a username and a profile picture: one of the app's own nature pictures, or a photo of your own. These two things are public: other Nature Ambience users may see them, for example next to a playlist you share. Nothing else about you is. Your Google email, name and picture are never shown to anyone but you.
The app tells you this on the screen where you choose them, and your profile is not visible to anyone until you have confirmed it there. You can change your username or picture at any time in Settings → Edit profile.
If you use a photo, you choose it with Android's photo picker, which gives the app that one picture and no access to the rest of your gallery. Before it leaves your phone the app shrinks it to a small square and saves it again, which removes the hidden details a phone camera attaches to a photo, such as the place it was taken, the time, and the camera model. Our server removes any that remain. Removing the photo, or deleting your account, deletes it.
Playlists you share
Playlists are private. You can choose to share one, and then, and only then, other people can see its name, the places in it, and your username and picture. You can stop sharing it at any time, and anyone can report a shared playlist they think should not be there.
Data you created before signing in
If you had likes, history or an offline list on the device before you signed in, the app offers to move them onto your account. You choose. If you decline, that data stays where it was and is not copied.
What we do not collect
- No password: signing in is handled by Google and we never see one
- No phone number or postal address
- No contacts, files, microphone or camera access
- No access to your photos, only the one photo you pick for your profile, if you pick one
- No precise or approximate location
- No advertising identifier, and no advertising of any kind in either the free or paid tier
- No third-party analytics, attribution or tracking SDKs
- No health or biometric data: the breathing exercises run entirely on your device and nothing about them is recorded
Payments
Purchases are processed by Google Play. We never see or store your card details. Google tells our server whether a purchase is valid; the only thing we keep is the resulting entitlement and its purchase token.
Google's handling of your payment is covered by their own privacy policy.
Where the data lives
Data is stored on servers we operate. Audio and video files are served from Cloudflare R2 over encrypted connections using short-lived, single-purpose links.
Media files are cached on your own device so playback works without a connection and does not re-download every night. This cache is private to the app, is managed automatically, and never leaves your device. Places you keep for offline listening are stored the same way: the app's own private storage, never your gallery, Downloads folder or SD card, and never visible to other apps.
Children
Nature Ambience is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them.
Deleting your data
Step-by-step instructions, including how to request deletion without the app, are on the account deletion page.
If you never signed in. Uninstalling the app, or clearing its data in Android Settings, discards the anonymous id. Once it is gone, the records tied to it are no longer associated with you or any device, and are deleted on the next cleanup cycle. You can also remove everything the app has stored on the device from Settings → Offline → Remove all downloads.
If you signed in. Your account outlives the install, so uninstalling is not enough. Two ways to delete it:
- In the app: Settings → Your library → Delete account. This permanently deletes your account, your username and profile picture, your likes, your play history, your offline list, your playlists and the link to your Google identity. It cannot be undone.
- By email: write to ambientappstudio.app@gmail.com from the email address on the account and ask for deletion. We will confirm and complete it within 30 days.
Deleting your account does not cancel a Google Play subscription, if you have one: cancel that in the Play Store. We keep the purchase record itself where we are required to for tax and accounting purposes, with the account link removed.
Your choices
- Sign out: removes the account and its downloads from that phone. Nothing on the server is deleted, and signing back in restores your library.
- Notifications: every reminder is off by default. You turn them on and off in the app, and Android's own notification settings override us either way.
- Purchases: manage them at any time in the Google Play Store.
Changes
If this policy changes materially, the updated date above changes and the new version appears here before it takes effect.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or a data deletion request: