Privacy Policy

Shift · Last updated October 27, 2026

Shift is a breathing-exercise app for iPhone, Apple Watch and Android, built to work without an account. This page describes, plainly, what the app does and doesn't do with your information on each of them. Where something differs between iPhone and Android, the section says so.

There's no account, and no server of ours

Shift doesn't ask you to sign up, sign in, or create a profile. There's no backend of ours that your data is sent to. Everything the app remembers (your chosen goals, techniques, session history, streaks, reminders, and settings) is stored locally on your device only, using standard on-device storage. We never see it. Deleting the app deletes what it stored on your phone. If your phone backs up its apps (iCloud Backup on iPhone, or Google's backup on Android, if you've turned it on), that backup can include some of Shift's data, and your phone can put it back if you reinstall Shift. The backup is kept in your Apple or Google account, and we can't see it. If you use Shift on Apple Watch, your watch sends each finished session to Shift on your paired iPhone so it counts there, as described below. Shift on Android has no watch app. Two things do leave your devices, both described below: a feedback message, only if you choose to send one, and the purchase check that keeps Shift Pro working.

Your name, if you choose to give one

During setup, Shift optionally asks for a first name so it can personalize a greeting ("Good morning, Alex"). This is entirely optional, stored only on your device, and never leaves it. Skipping it doesn't limit anything in the app.

Apple Health

Apple Health exists only in the iPhone and Apple Watch apps. The Android app has no Health integration and doesn't connect to any health service. If you turn on Apple Health sync in Settings on your iPhone, Shift writes a Mindful Minutes entry to Health each time you complete a session. On iOS 18 or later, Shift also asks "How do you feel right now?" after a session. Answering is optional. If you pick an answer, Shift saves it to Health once, as a State of Mind entry. Writing these two kinds of entries is the only thing Shift on iPhone does with Health. Shift on iPhone never requests permission to read anything from Health, and it doesn't send what it writes anywhere else. Apple's Health app stores those entries; Shift doesn't keep a copy. You can disconnect this at any time from Settings or from the Health app's own privacy controls, and any future writes stop immediately.

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch app works with Shift on iPhone. There's no watch app for Android. Shift on Apple Watch asks for its own Health access on the watch. With your permission, it reads your heart rate during a session to show how it changed from the start to the end, shows any heart rate variability (HRV) reading your watch records during the session, and saves each completed session as Mindful Minutes. To measure your heart rate, Shift runs a Mind and Body workout during the session and doesn't save the workout. Health keeps the heart rate readings your watch takes during it, as it does for any workout. Shift doesn't send your heart rate anywhere. When a session ends, your watch sends its goal, technique, length, number of breathing cycles and times (never your heart rate) to Shift on your paired iPhone through Apple's Watch Connectivity, so it counts in your history and streak there. Nothing is sent to a server of ours. You can change Shift's Health access at any time in Health's privacy settings.

Notifications

Notifications from Shift, such as the reminders you set up, are created on your device by the operating system's own local notification system, on iPhone and on Android. Nothing about them, including your reminder schedule, is sent anywhere.

Feedback

If you send feedback from within Shift, the message you type is submitted to Formspree, a form-delivery service we use to receive it. Formspree forwards it to us; we don't use it for anything besides reading and responding to your feedback. See Formspree's own privacy policy for how they handle it. You aren't asked for your name or email to submit feedback.

Subscriptions

Shift Pro is an optional subscription. Purchases are handled entirely by the store you bought Shift from (Apple's App Store on iPhone, Google Play on Android) and processed by RevenueCat, the subscription infrastructure provider we use to validate purchases and keep your Pro status in sync if you reinstall or switch devices. RevenueCat receives only what's necessary to do that (a purchase receipt and an anonymous identifier for your install), never your name, contacts, or anything else Shift stores locally. See RevenueCat's own privacy policy, Apple's, and Google's for how each of them handles that.

What Shift doesn't do

Keeping and deleting your data

Formspree and RevenueCat receive only the data described on this page and use it only to deliver feedback and confirm purchases for us. We rely on them to protect it at least as well as this policy does.

Children

Shift isn't directed at children under 13 and doesn't knowingly collect information from anyone in that age group. Apart from a feedback message someone chooses to send and the anonymous purchase ID, nothing leaves the user's own devices.

Changes to this policy

If this policy ever changes (for example, if a future feature needed to send data somewhere it doesn't today), this page will be updated and the "last updated" date above will change accordingly.

Contact

Questions about this policy or how Shift handles information can be sent to shift.layrest.dev@gmail.com, or via Settings → Send feedback in the app.

Shift is developed independently by Chase Small.