Privacy Policy

Last updated: 15 July 2026

This policy covers the Couples mobile app ("the app") and this website. By using either, you agree to the practices described here.

1. What the app collects

Nothing about you reaches us. Couples has no sign-up, no user accounts, and no profile. You connect with your partner by scanning each other's QR code in person, which performs a key exchange directly between your two devices.

Your content — chat messages, voice notes, photos, shared lists, calendar entries, important dates, memories, budgets and game moves — is end-to-end encrypted and stored only on your and your partner's devices. It is never uploaded to, or stored on, our servers in readable form.

What our relay server can see

To reach your partner when you're on different networks, encrypted envelopes are passed through a relay server. That server acts as a blind courier:

• It cannot read your messages, photos, voice notes or any content.
• It has no name, email, phone number or account for you.
• It addresses your pair only by a random, unguessable code your two phones derive privately — it never learns who you are.
• It does not store your content. It forwards sealed envelopes and, briefly, holds undelivered ones so they arrive after a reconnect.

Being a courier, it does necessarily see some connection metadata: the IP addresses your phones connect from, the fact that your two devices belong to one pairing (so it can route between them), and when each of you is connected. It does not learn who you are, and it doesn't see your conversation's contents or even its message sizes — your messages travel directly phone-to-phone, not through the relay; only the brief connection setup passes through it.

2. What we do NOT collect

• No names, email addresses or phone numbers (in the app).
• No message, photo, voice-note, calendar, task or financial content.
• No advertising identifiers, no third-party ad or tracking SDKs.
• No analytics or behavioural profiling.

3. Encryption & security

Pairing performs a key exchange directly between your two phones — no server ever holds the keys. Your content is end-to-end encrypted, and the keys rotate as you chat, so even if a key were ever exposed your past messages stay unreadable. Encryption keys are generated and held in your device's secure hardware and never leave it. Connection-setup messages are signed by each phone, so a malicious server cannot impersonate your partner or read the connection.

4. Push notifications

To let your partner wake your phone for a new message, the app registers a contentless push token with the platform's standard push-notification service, and sends only a contentless wake signal through it when a message is waiting. That service sees only that a contentless ping occurred, and roughly when — never any message content, and no message data passes through it. Because that timing hints at when you're active, the wake is rate-limited.

5. Device permissions

The app requests permissions only for features you use, and the resulting data stays on your device:

• Camera — to scan your partner's QR code when pairing.
• Microphone — to record voice notes you send.
• Photos / media — to attach images you choose to a chat or your shared story.
• Calendar — to show your own device calendar events alongside your shared calendar. Read on-device; not uploaded.
• Notifications — to alert you to new messages and your turn in a game.

6. Data retention & deletion

App data lives on your devices for as long as you keep it. Using Unpair in Settings permanently erases all chats, media and shared data on that phone — there is no cloud copy for us to delete. Uninstalling the app removes its data from the device.

If you email us, we keep only that correspondence, and only for as long as needed to help you — email us to have it deleted at any time.

7. This website

This website has no sign-up form and no accounts — browsing it sends us nothing about you. If you choose to email us (for a question or a request), we receive the email address and message you send, and use it only to reply. We never sell or share it, and we delete it on request.

The site uses no advertising or tracking cookies. Some assets such as web fonts may be served by a third-party provider, which can receive your IP address when a page loads; our hosting provider keeps standard access logs (including IP address) for security and diagnostics, as is typical for any website.

8. Children

Couples is intended for adults in a relationship and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under the age required by their local law.

9. Your rights

Under laws such as South Africa's POPIA and the EU/UK GDPR, you have rights to access, correct and delete personal information we hold about you. Because the app holds none of your personal data on our side, in practice this applies only to an email you may have sent us — which we will delete on request. Contact us to exercise any right.

10. Changes

We may update this policy as the app evolves. Material changes will be reflected here with a new "last updated" date.

11. Contact

Questions or requests: hello@thecouples.app.