Byname Privacy Policy
Last updated 5 September 2026.
On your own, what you swipe and type never leaves the phone
Every name, meaning and popularity figure is already inside Byname™ when you install it. Used on your own, the names you swipe and anything you type stay on the handset, and there’s no copy of any of it on a server. That isn’t a setting you have to find; it’s what happens until you pair with someone. No account is created along the way either, unless you reach for the one thing that needs one: telling us a name is missing, which is described further down. Two things do leave even on your own, and they’re about the app rather than about you. If part of it breaks, a fault report is sent so we can fix it. And each time you open the app, a short record says that it started and whether the run before it ended cleanly. Both are described further down, and one switch stops them.
What the app asks Apple and Google before you pair
Two things happen when the app opens, and both are with Apple or Google rather than with us. The store is asked what the one-off unlock costs in your country, and whether you have already bought it. Apple or Google is also asked to confirm this is the genuine app rather than a tampered copy, which is what keeps strangers out of other people’s rooms. That second check gives the installation a random number so it can be recognized again, and reinstalling the app replaces it. Neither one carries a name from the app or a word you typed.
Pairing is the moment anything leaves
When you start or join a room, the app creates an anonymous account for your phone. It’s a random identifier with no name, email or phone number attached, and it identifies the handset rather than you. If you reinstall the app, it’s a different one.
What the two of you share
Inside a room we store the name you chose to show your partner, the room code, the filters you’re both swiping under, whether you told us you’re expecting a girl, a boy or would rather not say, and any names you’ve added yourselves, including your last name and any siblings’ names, if you entered them. Both of you can see all of it, because that’s what makes it a shared room. One smaller thing is kept there too: which of your lists each of you has crowned a favorite in, so the other can be told a pick is waiting for them. Which name you crowned stays hidden until you’ve both crowned the same one.
What your partner can never see
A name you pass on isn’t sent as an opinion, and no part of this app hands your passes to your partner. Only the names you say yes to are shared, and even those are only revealed once you’ve both said yes to the same one. This is enforced on our server, not by the app being polite about it. A modified copy of the app can’t get around it. There’s one exception. It covers a single name, it only happens when your partner has asked you about that name by putting it in your deck, and it’s described next.
When your partner asks you about one name
Your partner can put a single name into your deck for you to judge. Usually you never learn who sent it, and that stays the default. They can also choose to sign it, and signing changes two things once you’ve swiped that name, never before: you’re told it was them who asked, and if you passed on it, they’re told you passed. The card gives nothing away while it’s in front of you, so your answer is made knowing nothing. Both of you hear it in the same moment, so neither of you is looked at without knowing it happened. A yes doesn’t travel this way, because a yes is already a match. This reaches the one name they asked about, and nothing else about the names you passed on ever moves.
The list of names you’ve already seen
So that a new phone doesn’t show you every name again, the app stores a compressed list of which names you’ve been dealt. That list includes ones you passed on. It’s kept against your seat in the room rather than against your handset, which is what lets a reinstalled app take that seat back with the room code and carry on where you left off. Your partner is in the other seat and can’t read yours. It exists for exactly one purpose, which is to stop the app repeating itself, and it’s worth keeping the room code between the two of you for the same reason.
Notifications, if you turn them on
If you allow notifications, your phone is given a delivery token which we store in your room so your partner’s phone can reach it. A notification about a match contains the name you both agreed on. Turn notifications off and nothing is sent; nothing in the app depends on them.
Paying, if you choose to
The purchase is handled entirely by Apple or Google. We never see your payment details, and we don’t receive a name, an email or an address. All that reaches us is a note in your room saying it has been paid for, so that it unlocks for both of you.
Suggesting a missing name
If you tick the box to tell us a name is missing, we receive the name and nothing else. The message carries no room and no device, and nothing in it points back at you. Sending one does create an anonymous account for your phone if it doesn’t already have one, which is what keeps the suggestion box from being open to the whole internet, and that account’s random identifier is deliberately left off the message. We couldn’t tell you who sent it if we wanted to.
Reporting a problem is something you do, not something we do
If you tap “Report a problem” in Settings, the app opens an email draft containing the last few errors it recorded, the app version and your phone model. “Share the report” carries the same details wherever you choose to send them instead. Either way, nothing is sent until you send it, you can read and edit it first, and nothing is ever sent on its own.
What the app sends us on its own
Two kinds of message go to Sentry, a company we use for this and nothing else. The first is a fault report, sent when part of the app fails. It says what broke and where in our code, which version and build you’re running, your phone model, its operating system, and how much memory and storage were free at the time. It also carries a short trail of which screens you moved through beforehand, so we can work out how you got there, and whether you’d paired with anyone at the time. The second goes every time you open the app, whether anything breaks or not. It is a short record saying the app started, which build it was, roughly how long it ran, and whether it closed cleanly or hit an error. It exists so we can tell a build that is broken for everybody from one unlucky phone, which a pile of fault reports on its own can’t say. Both carry a random installation number, so we can count how many phones a problem reached rather than how many reports arrived, and reinstalling the app replaces it. All of this happens whether or not you’ve paired with anyone, because a fault on your own phone is still a fault we need to fix. Neither kind ever includes a name from the app, a room code, or anything you typed. Your IP address is thrown away rather than stored, so neither can say what country you’re in. Both are deleted after thirty days. The switch in Settings that stops the counts stops both as well.
Collecting counts of what gets used, never what you choose
Once you’re in a room, the app collects a count of which features get opened, how many names you swipe, and when it was open, so we can tell what’s worth building next. Each batch also carries the app version and build number, whether this is an iPhone or an Android, and the country and time zone your phone is set to. Those last two are read from your phone’s own language and clock settings, so nothing here asks for a location permission and there is no GPS, no address and no IP lookup anywhere in it. The count never includes a name, and it never includes anything you typed. It belongs to the room rather than to you, it’s deleted after six months, and nobody outside our own storage ever receives it. You can switch it off in Settings, and everything else carries on working exactly the same.
No ads, no trackers, nothing sold
There are no adverts in any part of this app and there never will be. There’s no advertising identifier, no tracking company, and nothing here is building a picture of you from what you do. Nothing about you is sold, shared or handed to a data broker. The counts above are ours alone and stay on our own storage. The only outside company that receives anything at all is the one that takes the fault reports described further up, and it receives them for that and nothing else.
Where all of this is kept
Your room and everything in it is stored on Google’s Firebase in the United States, wherever you happen to be. If you’re in the UK or the EU, that transfer is covered by Google’s standard data protection terms. Nothing is stored anywhere else.
Leaving, and deleting
Leaving a room clears your place in it. “Erase everything in this app” in Settings destroys everything the app holds locally and returns it to how it was on the day you installed it, and it reaches nothing else on the phone. “Delete this room” in the pairing screen closes the shared half: it removes you both, the code stops working, and neither phone can reach any of it again. Ask us to erase the room itself and we’ll do that by hand, within thirty days. The next section is how.
Asking us to erase the shared room
Write to the support address on this page with the room code, and we’ll delete the room and everything stored under it within thirty days. The code is the only thing that identifies it, because there’s no account in your name for us to search by. If the app is already off your phone, look for the code in whatever message you sent your partner. Without it we can’t tell which room was yours, and we won’t guess at it.
Children
This app is for adults choosing a name. It isn’t directed at children.
If this changes
This page is written against what the app actually does, and it’s updated in the same change as the code, not afterwards. If something new starts leaving your phone, it will be described here first.