Splash — Privacy Policy
Effective date: 2026-05-10
Last updated: 2026-07-26
Splash ("the app") is a personal plant care reminder app. This policy describes what information the app handles, where it goes, and your choices. The policy is written in plain language because the privacy story is short: almost everything stays on your device.
If you have questions, contact: contact@descriptivetech.com.
1. What the app does, in short
Splash lets you keep a list of houseplants on your device and set reminders for care tasks (water, fertilize, and so on). Optionally, you can ask an AI service to identify a plant from a photo or name and suggest a care schedule, or to assess a plant's health from a photo and suggest a treatment plan. You can also export your plant library to a file and import it on another device. Splash has no account, no login, and no server of its own.
2. Information the app stores on your device only
The following data is created and stored locally on your phone. It is not transmitted to Splash's developers (we have no server) and is not shared with anyone except where you opt to use the AI features described in Section 3 or the export feature described in Section 4.
- Plant entries — the nickname you give a plant, its species and common name (if identified), care notes, your own free-text notes, scheduled reminder tasks, and timestamps of when you last marked a task done.
- Plant photos — photos you take or pick from your library, stored in the app's private documents directory. This includes photos you submit for AI identification or health diagnosis.
- AI results — the care text and health diagnoses returned by the AI are stored locally on the relevant plant so the app does not have to re-query. Identification results for plant names you have looked up are also cached locally for the same reason.
- Your Gemini API key — if you choose to use AI features, the API key
you paste into Settings is stored using the operating system's secure storage
(
expo-secure-store, which uses the Android Keystore / iOS Keychain). It is never sent anywhere except to Google when making AI calls.
This data is deleted when you uninstall the app, use Settings → Wipe all data, or clear the app's storage from your phone's system settings.
3. Information sent to third parties (only when you use these features)
3.a Google Gemini API (only when you use an AI feature)
Splash contacts Google's Gemini API in exactly two situations, both of which require you to tap a button first:
- Identify with AI — you submit a plant name and/or a photo to identify the plant and generate a care plan.
- Diagnose plant — you submit a photo of a plant to assess its health and generate a treatment plan. If the plant already has a species recorded, that species name is sent along with the photo as context.
In both cases:
- What is sent: the photo and/or plant name or species you provided, along with your Gemini API key for authentication.
- Where it goes: Google's Generative Language API
(
generativelanguage.googleapis.com). - Purpose: to receive a structured identification, care plan, or health assessment, which the app stores locally.
- Provider's terms: Google's handling of this data is governed by Google's Privacy Policy and the Gemini API terms. When using the Gemini free tier, Google may use submitted content to improve their models; if you do not want that, you must use a paid Gemini tier and review Google's current policy for paid usage.
- Your control: Splash does not call Gemini unless you explicitly tap "Identify with AI" or "Diagnose plant". Clear or remove your saved API key in Settings to disable all AI features.
3.b Wikipedia (only when you identify a plant by name)
When you identify a plant by typing its name, Splash sends the AI-suggested search term
to Wikipedia's public REST API (en.wikipedia.org) to look up a representative
image. The image, if found, is downloaded and stored locally.
- What is sent: the search term (a plant name).
- No personal data (no account, no identifier) is sent.
- Provider's terms: Wikimedia's privacy policy applies.
3.c Push / local notifications
Splash uses local scheduled notifications, generated and delivered entirely by your device. No notification content is sent to any server.
4. Export and import (data you move yourself)
Splash can export your plant library so you can back it up or move it to another device. This feature does not send anything to us or to any third party — you choose the destination.
- What the export file contains: every plant's name, species, common name, care notes, your own notes, reminder schedules, task history timestamps, saved health diagnoses, and each plant's photos embedded inside the file. The file is plain, unencrypted JSON.
- What the export file does not contain: your Gemini API key. The key is deliberately excluded so that a file you share cannot leak your credentials. You re-enter your key on the new device.
- Where it goes: the file is written to the app's temporary storage and handed to your operating system's share sheet. From there you decide — save to your device, put it in a cloud drive, email it, send it to another phone. Once it leaves the share sheet it is outside Splash's control and subject to whatever service you chose.
- Import: you pick a file with your device's file picker. Splash reads it, adds those plants to your existing library, and schedules their reminders. Imported plants are added alongside what you already have; nothing is overwritten.
Please treat export files as sensitive if your notes are sensitive. They are unencrypted and contain your photos. Anyone who obtains the file can read it.
5. Information we do not collect
Splash does not collect, transmit, or store:
- Account information, email addresses, names, phone numbers, or social-media identifiers.
- Location data.
- Advertising identifiers.
- Analytics or telemetry (no Google Analytics, no Sentry, no Firebase, no third-party SDKs of any kind beyond those listed in Section 3).
- Contact lists, calendar entries, or other personal data on your device.
- Payment information.
If this changes in a future version (for example, adding crash reporting), this policy will be updated and the change noted at the top of this document.
6. Permissions the app requests, and why
| Permission | Why it is requested | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Notifications | To deliver your scheduled plant care reminders. | Required for the app's core function. |
| Camera | To let you take a photo of a plant for the "Identify with AI" or "Diagnose plant" features. | Optional — only requested when you tap "Take photo". |
| Photo library | To let you pick an existing photo for AI identification, health diagnosis, or as the plant's photo. | Optional — only requested when you tap "Pick from library". |
| File access | To read an export file you select when importing, and to hand an export file to the share sheet. | Optional — only used when you export or import. |
| Internet | To call the Google Gemini API and Wikipedia (see Section 3). | Required only if you use AI features. |
You can revoke any of these permissions in your phone's system settings at any time. If you revoke notifications, the app keeps working but reminders will not fire.
7. Data retention and deletion
- All plant data, photos, cached AI results, saved diagnoses, and your stored API key remain on your device until you delete them in the app or uninstall the app.
- Deleting a plant in the app cancels its scheduled reminders and removes that plant's photo from app storage.
- Settings → Wipe all data cancels every scheduled reminder and deletes all plants, photos, cached AI results, and your saved API key in one action. There is no undo.
- Clearing your Gemini API key in Settings removes it from secure storage. Past content already sent to Google is governed by Google's retention policies — Splash cannot delete data on Google's servers on your behalf.
- Export files you have already shared are outside Splash's reach. Deleting data in the app does not delete copies you sent elsewhere; you must delete those yourself.
- Uninstalling Splash deletes all local data the app created.
8. Children
Splash is not directed to children under the age of 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your jurisdiction). The app does not knowingly collect personal information from children. Note that Google's Gemini API has its own minimum-age requirements; check Google's terms before allowing a minor to use the AI features.
9. Security
- Your API key is stored using the platform's hardware-backed secure storage (Android Keystore / iOS Keychain), and is excluded from export files.
- Communication with the Gemini and Wikipedia APIs uses HTTPS.
- No data passes through a server operated by Splash's developers, because there is no such server.
- Export files are not encrypted. This is a deliberate trade-off for portability — see the warning in Section 4.
No system is perfectly secure, but Splash minimizes risk by minimizing what it transmits.
10. Your rights
Because Splash does not collect or hold any of your data on its own infrastructure, requests for data access, correction, or deletion can be fulfilled entirely by you on your device:
- Access: all your plant data is visible inside the app.
- Correction: edit any plant or task in the app.
- Deletion: delete individual plants, clear your API key, use Settings → Wipe all data, or uninstall the app.
- Portability: use Settings → Export plants to get a complete copy of your data as a JSON file (see Section 4).
For data already sent to Google or Wikipedia under Section 3, please use those providers' own data-subject request processes.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, the new version will be posted with an updated "Last updated" date at the top. Material changes will be highlighted in the app's release notes.
12. Contact
Questions about this policy or about how Splash handles data: contact@descriptivetech.com.