Free · Habits and focus, on-device

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 26 September 2026

HabitFocus (“the app”) is a free Android habit and focus app, published as com.dip.habitfocus. This policy explains what stays on your phone, what advertising software may collect, and how to contact us.

The short version

Everything you create in HabitFocus — habits, check-ins, momentum, goals and milestones, focus sessions, scheduled focus windows and screen-time history — stays on the device. There is no HabitFocus server and you have no account. None of it is uploaded.

The app shows one ad (Google AdMob) on the Stats screen. That service is operated by Google, not by us. We do not sell your information.

What we store on the phone

Your habits, check-ins, momentum, goals, milestones, focus sessions and focus windows are kept in a database in the app’s private storage. Other apps cannot read it. Uninstalling deletes it, which is why Settings offers an export file you save yourself.
Pictures you add to a goal. You choose one with Android’s photo picker, so the app never gets access to the rest of your photos. It keeps a copy of that one picture in its private storage to show on the goal. The copy never leaves the phone and is not included in the export file.
Screen-time history, if you grant usage access, is stored on the phone to show trends.

Where the screen-time data comes from

HabitFocus reads Android’s Usage Stats API only after you grant usage access in system settings, and only for the Screen time tab; the rest of the app works without it. The app uses no accessibility service and no VPN. It does not read the contents of your screen, your notifications, your messages or your network traffic.

Focus sessions and the pause screen

To let you pick which apps to pause, the app asks Android for the list of apps with a launcher icon. If you grant display over other apps, it shows a dismissible reminder when you open one of those apps during a session. It only knows which app came to the foreground; it cannot see anything inside it. Without that permission, sessions run as a plain timer.

Notifications and scheduled windows

Reminders you set, and focus windows you schedule, are delivered by your phone. If you grant Alarms and reminders, they arrive at the minute you chose; otherwise Android may deliver them late. A running focus session shows a notification while it lasts. Nothing about any of this is sent anywhere.

Advertising

The app uses Google Mobile Ads (AdMob), with Google’s User Messaging Platform (UMP) for consent.

One native ad may appear on the Stats screen. There are no ads for the first three days after install, and never on the Today screen, on goal pages, during a focus session, on the pause screen, on the celebration screen, during onboarding, or in any notification or widget.
There are no full-screen ads, no ads that open when you launch the app, and no rewarded ads.
Google may use an advertising identifier, approximate location derived from your IP address, device and network information, and your interaction with ads, as described in Google’s advertising privacy policy.
Where required, including the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, UMP asks for your consent before personalised ads are shown. You can change your choice from Settings in the app, and reset your advertising identifier in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads.
Your habits, goals and screen time are never sent to Google or used to target ads. The ad request carries no data from inside this app.

Debug builds of the app use Google’s sample ad units and never request live ads.

Analytics

The app contains no analytics software of our own. We do not measure which screens you open.

Export

If you export a backup, you choose where it is saved through the system file picker. We do not upload it and we never see it.

Permissions

Permission	Why
`PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS`	Usage access, granted by you in system settings, for the Screen time tab. Read on-device only. Optional.
`SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW`	Shows the dismissible pause reminder during a focus session you started or scheduled. Optional.
`FOREGROUND_SERVICE`, `FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SPECIAL_USE`	Keeps a focus session’s countdown and pause screen working after you leave the app. Runs only while a session is on.
`POST_NOTIFICATIONS`	Habit reminders, the running session’s notification, and a one-tap start if a scheduled window could not begin by itself.
`SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM`, `WAKE_LOCK`, `VIBRATE`	To deliver a reminder or start a focus window at the time you chose. `WAKE_LOCK` is added by Android’s background-work library.
`RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED`	To restore reminders and focus windows after a reboot.
`INTERNET`, `ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE`	Only to load the ad described above. None of your data is sent over it.
`AD_ID`	So AdMob can use the advertising identifier where you have allowed it.
`ACCESS_ADSERVICES_AD_ID`, `ACCESS_ADSERVICES_ATTRIBUTION`, `ACCESS_ADSERVICES_TOPICS`	Added by the Google Mobile Ads library for Android’s Privacy Sandbox. Used by Google’s ad serving, not by any code of ours.

The app does not ask for contacts, SMS, location, camera, microphone, or access to your photos or files.

Not a monitoring app

HabitFocus is a self-directed tool. It reports only to the person holding the phone, and there is no way to send its data to anyone else. It is not a parental-control, employee-monitoring or surveillance product.

Children

HabitFocus is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

This policy is published here. If it changes, this page is updated and the date above changes with it. Material changes will also be noted in the app’s release notes on Google Play.

Contact

Questions about this policy or about privacy in the app: please open an issue at github.com/diptendulkar/diptendulkar.github.io/issues.