Why softPause never asks you to sign up
Updated for softPause 1.1.
Open almost any calm app for the first time and you meet a wall: create an account, pick a goal, answer six questions about your sleep, see a paywall. Somewhere behind all of that is the thing you actually came for.
That sequence is a strange thing to put in front of someone who is already struggling. The moment you need a breath is the moment you have the least patience for a form.
So there is no form
softPause asks one thing: how do you feel right now? You pick a level, and softPause picks the breath. No email, no password, no name, no goal to set. Anything else it asks can be skipped.
What this actually means for your data
No account also means no server holding your history. Your levels, your pauses and your reminders stay on this phone. They are not synced, not backed up to us, and not readable by us, because there is no “us” on the other end to read them.
Nothing you record leaves the phone. If you buy softPause+, Apple handles the payment, and we use Adapty to know that you bought it, under a random ID that isn't your name or email. Anonymous usage analytics are described in the privacy policy, and a switch in Settings controls them. They never include your levels or your pauses.
You can also erase everything at once in Settings → Your data → Delete all data, or just delete the app, which does the same thing. A purchase stays with your Apple ID and can be restored.
The trade-off, honestly
Local-only has a real cost: your record is not synced anywhere, so it does not follow you to a new phone. We think that is the right side of the trade. A place you go when you're not okay should not need a login, a network, or trust in a server.
The full details are in the privacy policy.