Privacy Policy

What babbl3 processes

• Account information used by identity and authentication services to sign you in, including your email address and account identifier.
• Your generated or chosen username, display name, avatar emoji, optional profile photo, and any optional date of birth or gender you choose to save. Your date of birth and gender are visible only to you and are not used for matching, personalization, analytics, or age gating.
• Voice recordings you choose to send, complete transcripts created on supported devices and submitted to babbl3 when you send, invented babbl3 text derived from sent transcripts and generated audio, and message metadata.
• Chat membership, per-note babbl3 Code state, emoji reactions, blocks, reports, deletion requests, and notification details you enable.
• A device installation identifier and push token when you enable notifications.
• Anonymous message-deletion diagnostics record a short sequence of operation stages, timings, counts, finite app and screen states, safe HTTP failure categories and request IDs, and random per-operation and per-runtime correlation IDs. A short-lived local marker can identify an interrupted capture on a subsequent launch. These reports contain no message content or account, device, chat, thread, or draft identifiers. They are operational diagnostics and continue when Product analytics is off.
• Sanitized production JavaScript crash and error reports needed to find bugs, including a safe error category, feature and operation, source-code locations, and app/build/platform version. Anonymous transcription health attempts also report start and outcome, attempt kind, chat or thread surface, coarse latency, recording-finalized and transcription-attempt timestamps, cancellation reason, safe error category, and app/build/platform/OS version. These diagnostics exclude audio, transcripts, message text, codes, invitation tokens, names, usernames, emails, account, device, chat, thread, draft, and contact identifiers, storage paths, credentials, and raw error messages.
• Only after you choose Share analytics in the account prompt or turn Product analytics on in Settings, coarse production events for app, invitation, chat, voice-note, and message-action outcomes, linked to an app account identifier. Analytics excludes audio, transcripts, message text, codes, invitation tokens, names, usernames, emails, contact identifiers, storage paths, and raw errors.
• After the same opt-in, an installation count includes the installation day, app version, platform, and build type. It uses a random event identifier and is not linked to your account. A local receipt prevents repeated counts across app updates and sign-outs.

Voice notes and Voice AI

After a recording is finalized, supported devices transcribe it on the device. On-device transcription is separate from Voice AI. babbl3 uploads each voice note you send to private, access-controlled cloud object storage and may submit the complete transcript to a private, access-controlled cloud database.

When you enable Voice AI, choose babbl3 speech, and tap Send, babbl3 turns the complete on-device transcript into invented, nonsense-word babbl3 text. ElevenLabs receives that derived text plus voice and model settings to create stock-voice audio. It does not receive the original recording, complete transcript, account details, or recipient details. You can decline Voice AI and still send Original notes.

If on-device transcription is unavailable, you can still send the original without a transcript, but the babbl3 option is unavailable for that draft. Turning Voice AI off stops new stock-voice generation by ElevenLabs, not on-device transcription.

Submitted transcripts remain in the private, access-controlled cloud database until deletion under babbl3's product rules. When notifications are enabled, babbl3 may include up to 120 characters of recipient-visible Original transcript or invented babbl3 text in message and thread-reply notifications sent through the push delivery service. Missing or unsafe previews use generic text. Transcripts are not placed in public message rows, live data updates, or operational logs. babbl3 does not send old recordings to another speech provider to create missing transcripts.

babbl3 applies its phrase filter to the transcript submitted by the app. Because the server cannot prove that client-produced text matches the audio, this is a best-effort check, not verification of the recording itself.

On-device chat cache

While you are signed in, current versions keep an account-scoped SQLite copy of the authorized conversation directory and, for warmed main chats and opened threads, the newest message page and selected transcripts on your device. This lets a known cached chat or thread open while babbl3 refreshes it from the server. The read cache contains no voice audio and cannot queue sends or other offline actions. Each account has one bounded directory snapshot. Its ordinary timeline cache keeps the newest 64 rows and up to 32 MiB of serialized content; rows older than 30 days by cached timestamp are removed during cache maintenance. Reporting leaves the message and its authorized transcript in the cache. Relocking clears the affected Original transcript copy. Block, chat deletion, membership or access loss, account deletion, sign-out, or account switch clears the applicable timeline and directory data after the connected device learns of the change. An offline device may keep cached content until its next successful authorization sync.

Photos in messages

You can send one still photo alone or with a voice note. babbl3 resizes and re-encodes a copy, removes image metadata including embedded location data, and keeps the draft on your device until you tap Send. The prepared copy is stored in private, access-controlled cloud storage and is not sent to ElevenLabs.

Participants can view an attached photo immediately, even when the accompanying Original audio is locked. Downloaded photos are kept in an account-scoped device media cache for faster viewing. The app checks chat access before reusing cached files, clears them on sign-out or account changes, and removes affected copies when deletion or loss of access is detected. Photo pixels are not stored in the chat read cache. Message and account deletion apply to stored message photos under the same deletion rules as other message content.

Profile photos

Profile photos are optional. babbl3 asks for photo-library access only when you choose a photo, crops and re-encodes the selection as a 512-pixel JPEG, and uploads only the copy you approve. Your library original stays on your device.

The approved copy is stored in private cloud object storage. Short-lived read access is issued only after babbl3 confirms that the requester is you or someone with whom you share an eligible chat.

Username invitations

Sending a username invitation shares your current username with the intended recipient while the request remains available. It shares no profile photo, display name, messages, or media before acceptance. Submitting a request does not confirm that an account exists or received it. babbl3 provides no public username directory, global search, or live availability check.

Username requests expire after 24 hours. Submitted usernames and ordinary request presentation data are erased within 24 hours after that deadline. Private retry records, including account and chat identifiers, request timing, a keyed input fingerprint, and outcome, are kept for 90 days after submission to prevent duplicates. Request data stays in account-scoped memory in the app and is excluded from durable chat caches, analytics, diagnostics, and raw logs.

Blocking someone from a request keeps a historical "Invited as @username" label and the block date in your Settings while the block exists. Only you can see that label. It is erased when you unblock or either account is finally deleted. Unblocking does not revive the request.

Links and video previews

babbl3 stores link drafts on your device and publishes them only when you choose Send. After Send, babbl3 may contact the linked site and its preview-image host to obtain a bounded title and thumbnail. The site receives the requested URL and the server connection information. babbl3 stores the shared URL and accepted preview privately; authorized participants may keep the URL and title in their account-scoped chat cache. Preview images are served through babbl3 and held in memory while displayed. Message and account deletion apply to stored links and previews.

YouTube links load an embedded player after you add them to a draft and when sent messages load in an open chat. Loading the player contacts YouTube from your device, including before Send, and shares connection information, such as your IP address and the selected video, under YouTube’s own terms and privacy policy. Videos play only when you choose Play. Your draft recording and photos stay on your device until Send. Opening a source link likewise contacts that website. Links and previews are not sent to Voice AI or included in product analytics.

Forwarding messages

You can forward sent or received messages to another chat. Locked voice notes cannot be forwarded. A forwarded voice note uses its Original audio and existing transcript, with any attached photo or link. Forwarding creates an independent message labeled Forwarded and does not identify the original sender or source chat. Deleting or relocking the source, or deleting its sender's account, does not remove a completed copy. The copy follows the destination chat's normal access and deletion rules. Names or other identifying details already in the content remain part of the copy.

Technology services

babbl3 requires every service provider that receives user data, including ElevenLabs, to provide the same or equivalent protection described in this policy and required by applicable platform rules. External services process data under their own terms and retention practices. babbl3 does not promise zero third-party retention.

• Identity and authentication services handle account creation and sign-in.
• Third-party services provide the managed database, server compute, and private object storage used for chats, transcripts, audio, and optional profile photos.
• On-device speech technology transcribes finalized recordings on supported devices.
• ElevenLabs receives invented, nonsense-word text derived from a sent Voice Note transcript, plus voice and model settings, only after you enable Voice AI and choose babbl3 speech. It creates stock-voice audio. It does not receive original recordings, complete transcripts, account details, or recipient details.
• A push delivery service processes notification titles and recipient-visible previews when you enable notifications.
• Resend processes transactional account-deletion completion emails. Recovery prevents a completion email from being prepared. At final deletion, babbl3 encrypts the current verified sign-in email and keeps that encrypted copy for no longer than seven days while attempting delivery. It erases the copy sooner when Resend accepts the email or delivery becomes terminal. These emails contain no marketing and use no open or click tracking.
• An operational diagnostics service processes the sanitized production JavaScript crash, error, and anonymous transcription health reports described above. This reporting is separate from optional product analytics.
• A product analytics service processes the coarse production analytics described above only after you opt in. Screen recording, session replay, broad interaction capture, and development or test analytics are disabled.

Security and babbl3 Codes

Messages are not end-to-end encrypted. A babbl3 Code is a playful access switch that lets the other participant request the retained original for one selected babbl3 voice note. It does not unlock the rest of the chat and is not encryption or a security guarantee.

babbl3 and the technology services it uses may process message content to operate the app. babbl3 support may access a reported original voice note to review a safety report.

Retention and deletion

Delivered messages, private transcripts, reactions, and stored audio remain available until they are deleted under babbl3's product rules. A sender can delete selected voice notes for both participants, and a chat creator can permanently delete a chat for all participants. A non-creator can permanently delete their own access to a joined chat.

Deleted content becomes inaccessible in the app immediately. babbl3-controlled physical copies, replaced or removed profile photos, and failed or abandoned processing artifacts are purged within 24 hours. The service that processes sanitized production JavaScript diagnostics and opted-in product analytics currently specifies one year of event retention on its free plan. Non-content deletion receipts are kept for 90 days. Safety reports and bounded moderation audit metadata are retained for up to 30 days.

Requesting account deletion locks the account immediately and begins a 30-day recovery period. After that period, babbl3 deletes the sign-in identity, optional personal details, clears the username, de-identifies the profile, and makes authored messages, stored audio, and the active profile photo inaccessible. babbl3-controlled physical copies are purged within 24 hours. When a verified sign-in address is available, babbl3 attempts to send a completion email only after that purge finishes. For an account connected through Sign in with Apple or Google, babbl3 attempts to revoke that sign-in authorization before deleting the sign-in identity. If babbl3 cannot retrieve a token to revoke, you can remove babbl3 from your Apple Account or Google Account linked-app settings, as applicable. Copies held by external services may remain under their policies or legal requirements.

Your choices and tracking

Settings lets you add, change, or remove your optional date of birth, gender, and profile photo; turn Voice AI off or on; turn Product analytics off or on; manage notifications; block people; open archived chats; delete chats; request account deletion; and open this policy. Turning Voice AI off stops new stock-voice generation by ElevenLabs. It does not stop on-device transcription on supported devices. Turning Product analytics off immediately stops new analytics events from that account on this device. It does not stop essential sanitized crash, error, or anonymous transcription health reports. During the account-deletion recovery period, sign in and choose Recover account to cancel deletion.

babbl3 shares data only with the technology services above as needed to operate the app, or when required by law. babbl3 does not sell personal data and does not use data for cross-app advertising tracking. Sanitized operational diagnostics are used to find production crashes, failed actions, and interrupted transcription attempts. Optional product analytics is used only to understand whether core product flows work.

Contact

Questions or privacy requests can be sent to chris@babbl3.com.