Privacy Policy — Pixelings (Android)
Last updated: 14 October 2026
Pixelings is an app with a small pet that lives on your screen. It has no accounts of its own, no ads and no analytics, and the developer does not collect, store or share any personal data. If you choose to, you can sign in with Google to keep a copy of your data in your own Google Drive: see Saving to Google. Three of Google's libraries inside the app send Google technical information: two about how they work, one to ask Google Play whether a newer version of the app is out. What and why is under What Google's libraries send to Google.
What stays on your phone
- Pets you make from photos, videos, GIFs or images are processed on the device and saved in the app's private storage. Taking a new photo or video opens your phone's camera app; Pixelings itself has no camera permission.
- Sounds you record with the microphone are saved in the app's private storage, and only for the pet you recorded them for. The app asks for microphone access only when you choose to record a sound.
- Settings, your pet's care state (hunger, mood and so on), its journal (a line about each time it was out on your screen), your badges, the game's coins and what they bought, your quests, the garden and the pantry are kept in the app's private storage.
None of this is sent to the developer or to anyone else. The app keeps itself out of Android's own backup (Settings > Google > Backup), so Android does not copy its data anywhere, not even when you move to a new phone: the only copies are the ones you make yourself, with "Export" or "Save to Google" (see below). Uninstalling the app deletes it from the phone.
- Backups: "Export" saves your pets (their pictures, both the pixel art and the smooth "original" look made from your photo, their sounds, names, progress, how they are doing right now, costumes and journals), the rooms of the house and the colour of its walls, your badges, coins and shop purchases, quests, the garden and the pantry, your settings and the name you battle under to one file, in the place you choose, such as your Downloads or a cloud drive you use. The file is sealed so it can't be read or edited by hand, but it has no password: anyone with Pixelings can open it with "Import", so share it only with people you'd show those pictures and sounds to. The app doesn't send it anywhere; where it goes from there is up to you. "Import" reads a file you pick; the badges in it are added to yours.
- Sharing a pet: "Share" draws a picture of the pet (the look it has in the app, its name, level, element, how fond of you it is, and the app's name) and hands it, with a line of text naming the pet, to the app you pick in Android's share sheet, such as a messenger or your gallery. The app itself sends it nowhere; where it goes from there is up to you and the app you picked.
Saving to Google
This is optional, and off until you use it. "Save to Google" in Settings puts a copy of your data in your own Google Drive, in the folder Drive keeps for this app alone: it is not shown among your files in Drive, and no other app can open it. The copy is the same file "Export" makes (your pets with their pictures and sounds, the house, your badges, your settings and your battle name), sealed the same way. "Restore from Google" brings it back, on this phone or a new one, through the same steps as "Import".
The first time, Google asks you which account to use and whether the app may use that folder; the app asks for nothing else of the account. It keeps the account's email address on the phone, only to show in Settings which account the copy is in, and it keeps the date and size of the last copy. The developer cannot see the copy, the account, or that you made one: everything passes between your phone and Google under Google's privacy policy and the Google Drive terms. It counts towards your Drive storage.
"Save to Google automatically" writes the copy once a day, over Wi-Fi unless you also allow mobile data, as long as your phone lets the app run in the background. Settings always show when the copy was last written, and, if it has not been for a while, why. If a week passes without one, the app tells you once with a notification. There are at most two copies: the last one saved and the one before it, from whichever of your phones saved them. If the copy there was saved from another phone (or before the app was installed again), the app asks before saving over it.
To remove it: "Delete from Google" in Settings deletes the copy; "Disconnect" takes back the app's leave to use the folder and forgets the account on this phone. You can also do both from your Google account, under Security > Third-party apps & services: removing Pixelings there removes the app's folder too.
Battles with a friend nearby
Battles connect two phones directly, with Google's Nearby Connections (Bluetooth to find each other, then Wi-Fi Direct or Bluetooth). Nothing of the battle goes over the internet and nothing passes through a server. While you host a battle, phones nearby that are looking for one can see the name you battle as. The phone you connect to receives only what the battle needs: that name, the app's version, how many of your pets can battle, and for each pet in your team its name, level, element, gender, training points and pixel-art picture. The smooth "original" look made from your photo is never sent. After the battle the other phone keeps nothing. The app asks for the Nearby devices permission and for Location (on older Android versions, Bluetooth and Location) only when you host or join a battle. Android requires Location for finding phones nearby, because Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scanning could reveal where you are; the app does not use, store or send your location. Nearby Connections itself sends Google diagnostics about how well finding and connecting went: see What Google's libraries send to Google.
When the app uses the internet
- "From a URL": when you ask for a pet or a sound from a link, the app downloads that file directly from the address you typed. The site at that address sees your IP address, as with any web page you open. Nothing else is sent.
- Cutting animals out of photos: this uses Google's ML Kit subject segmentation. It runs on the device; your photos and videos are not uploaded. The model is downloaded once through Google Play services, which may contact Google to get model updates. See the ML Kit terms.
- Checking for a newer version: each time you open the app, it asks Google Play whether a newer version is out. If there is, the home screen says so, with a button that opens the app's page in the Play Store; the app itself downloads nothing. What Google Play receives for this is under What Google's libraries send to Google.
- Checking whether this policy or the terms have changed: no more than once a day, when you open the app, it reads a small file from pixelings.app that holds two dates: when this policy and the terms of use were last updated. If one is newer than the one you have seen, the home screen says so once, with a button that opens the page. The app sends nothing with this request; the site sees your IP address, as with any web page you open.
What Google's libraries send to Google
The developer gets none of this and cannot see it. Three libraries from Google that the app is built with send Google technical information over an encrypted connection: two send diagnostics to measure and improve those libraries, one asks Google Play a question.
- ML Kit (cutting animals out of photos): the phone's make, model and Android version, the app's name and version, an ID for the installation that, as Google describes it, does not identify you or your phone, how long the work took, the size and format of the picture (never the picture), and error codes. See Google's ML Kit data disclosure.
- Nearby Connections (battles): how fast and how reliably phones were found and connected, with the phone's model, country and Android build and the app's name. You can turn this off in your phone's Settings > Google > Usage & diagnostics. See Google's Nearby Connections overview.
- Play In-App Update (checking for a newer version): details of your phone, the app's version and the list of the app's installed modules, so Google Play can tell whether an update exists and how big it would be. Google says this is encrypted, not passed to third parties, and deleted after a fixed time. See Google's In-app updates data safety.
None of them sends your pets, photos, sounds, names or location. Google handles this under Google's privacy policy.
Purchases
Pal and one pet of your own are free; the full version (up to 100 pets, battle teams of up to four, and a visitor in the house's rooms) is a one-time in-app purchase. Seasonal packs (things for the house and costumes for the pets, such as the Halloween pack) are separate one-time purchases, on sale only while their season is on and kept for good. Every purchase is handled entirely by Google Play: the app never sees your card or payment details. The developer only sees the transaction in the Google Play Console, as for any purchase on Google Play. The app asks Google Play what was bought, so it can unlock it again after a reinstall. Without the full version (for example after a refund), pets beyond the free ones stay on your phone but are locked; without a pack, what you already put in the house or on a pet stays, but no more of it can be added.
While a pack's season is on and you don't have it, the app tells you about it once a year in the app and once with a notification. This is worked out on the phone from the date; nothing is sent to do it, and you can turn these notifications off in Android's settings for the app. See Google's privacy policy.
Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Display over other apps | To show the pet on top of other apps |
| Notifications, foreground service | To keep the pet on screen, to tell you when a pet needs something, has run away or has hatched, to show the focus timer, to remind you of the day's quests and when the garden is ready, to tell you once if saving to Google has stopped for a week, and to tell you once a year when a seasonal pack is on sale |
| Alarms (Android 12) | To end the focus timer on time |
| Microphone | Only when you record a sound for a pet |
| Internet | Downloads from a link you give, the ML Kit model, asking Google Play whether a newer version is out, asking pixelings.app whether this policy or the terms have changed, and saving to Google if you choose to |
| Nearby devices (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi) and Location | Only when you host or join a battle with a phone nearby |
| Google Play billing | The one-time purchases: the full version and the seasonal packs |
| Run at startup | To keep checking on your pet's care after a restart, and to bring the pets that were out back on screen |
Children
The developer does not collect data from anyone, children included. The information that Google's libraries send (see What Google's libraries send to Google) are the same for everyone, are not used for ads, and are not tied to a name or an account. Saving to Google needs a Google account and is something you choose to do.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be published at this address with a new date, and the app will say so once on its home screen: it checks the date at this address about once a day, so it doesn't wait for an update.
Contact
Questions: contact@pixelings.app
"Report a problem" in the app's settings opens your email app on a message to this address, with the app's version, your Android version and your phone's model already written at the end. You see the message before it goes and can change or delete any of it; nothing is sent unless you send it.