Privacy Policy

MessageStage keeps your messages on your Apple TV. There is no account, nothing is uploaded, and there is no company on the other end of a connection reading what you wrote. The app collects no data, has no analytics or tracking of any kind, and its App Store privacy label is “Data Not Collected.” This policy covers both MessageStage for Apple TV and the MessageStage Companion app for iPhone and iPad, and it says the same things the privacy page inside the app says.

What is stored, and where

Your messages, your settings, which message was shown last, and the Screen Care screen map are saved in the app's own storage on your Apple TV. Deleting the app removes all of it. If a saved message ever cannot be read, it is set aside rather than deleted, so nothing you wrote is thrown away.

What leaves the Apple TV

Nothing you type. The app has no server, no cloud storage and no remote logging, and it never sends a message anywhere. The one exception is on your own network and only if you switch it on: with Companion enabled, the Apple TV announces itself so a paired iPhone or iPad can find it, and talks to that device over an encrypted local connection. Turn Companion off — it starts off — and the app makes no network connection of its own at all.

iCloud sync, if you turn it on

iCloud sync is off, and nothing in the app needs it. If you switch it on, your messages, folders, tags, saved looks, playlists, schedules and the photos those messages use are kept in your own private iCloud storage, under your own Apple Account — not on our servers, because there are none, and never in a place other people can see. It never carries your paired-device secrets, your Display Lock code or anything about your purchase, and turning it off again leaves every message on the Apple TV exactly where it is.

The Companion app on iPhone and iPad

The companion uses your local network for one thing: finding and talking to the MessageStage app on your own Apple TV. iOS asks your permission for that the first time. Every pairing is approved on the television itself, with matching codes on both screens, and any device can be revoked from the TV at any time. The only identifier the companion creates is a random per-install pairing ID that never leaves your home network. A photograph you choose to send goes only to the Apple TV you sent it to; the app never reads your photo library on its own. Scene packages you export are ordinary files that stay in the Files app, or wherever you share them.

Purchases

Buying or restoring MessageStage Pro is handled entirely by the App Store. The app never sees your payment details, and the only thing it remembers afterwards is whether the unlock is yours.

No tracking, no advertising

There are no third-party trackers, no advertising, no analytics and no telemetry of any kind, in either app. Nothing about how you use the app is collected, by anyone, and no data is used for tracking.

Crash reports

If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device's privacy settings, Apple may send anonymous crash reports. That is Apple's system, you control it, and it never includes anything you wrote.

Your words stay your words

The app never rewrites, corrects, translates or reformats what you typed unless you ask it to.

Children

MessageStage collects no personal information from anyone, including children under 13.

Changes to this policy

If this policy ever changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new revision date.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email shawn.dowler@gmail.com or use the MessageStage support form.