Privacy Policy
Last updated: 1 November 2026
Sleep Sonar ("the app") records your night on your iPhone: it listens for snoring and sleep talk, and follows your breathing with an inaudible sonar. This policy explains, in plain language, what the app does and does not do with your information.
The short version
Sleep Sonar does not collect, store, transmit, or share any personal data. There are no accounts, no servers, no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking. Everything the app hears is analysed on your iPhone, and everything it keeps stays on your iPhone. The app has no network code and makes no network connections.
The microphone
With your permission, the app uses the microphone only while a night or a placement check is running. iOS shows the microphone indicator then. The microphone serves two purposes:
- it listens for snoring, sleep talk, coughs and other sounds, which Apple's built-in sound classifier labels on the phone;
- it hears the echo of the app's sonar: a sweep between 18 and 20 kHz, above what adults can hear, played from the phone's speaker. The echo from your chest shows your breathing and your movement. The sonar can be turned off.
The night is not stored as a recording. The app keeps a short clip of each sound it recognises, from three seconds before the sound to two seconds after it (at most 45 seconds), so you can play it back in the morning. Everything between those moments is analysed and discarded as it happens. Clips are never uploaded, transmitted, sold, or shared with the developer or anyone else.
You can turn off microphone access at any time in Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone.
What the app saves
The app keeps, in its own storage on your iPhone:
- one record per night: for each minute, the breathing rate and distance the sonar measured, seconds of movement, the sound level, the volume and the strength of the sonar echo; the sounds it recognised, with their times; any breathing pauses; and a few lines describing the audio setup (sample rate, microphone, speaker);
- the clips described above, in a folder per night;
- your settings: whether the sonar is on, whether nights are saved to Apple Health, whether you have seen the introduction, and the dates on which the app asked you for a rating.
None of this is sent anywhere or accessible to the developer.
Apple Health
If you turn on Save to Apple Health (it is off until you do), the app adds each night to the Health app on your iPhone through Apple's HealthKit framework: the time in bed, the sleep estimate as time asleep and awake (Sleep Analysis), and the breathing rate minute by minute (Respiratory Rate). A night can also be added on its own from its report. These entries are then Apple Health's: you can see and delete them in the Health app, and deleting a night in Sleep Sonar removes its entries too. You can withdraw the permission at any time in Settings › Health › Data Access & Devices › Sleep Sonar.
The app never reads anything from Apple Health. Health data is never used for advertising or marketing, and is never shared with anyone.
Ratings and email
Now and then the app may ask you to rate it, using Apple's standard rating prompt; Apple handles any rating you give. Rate Sleep Sonar opens the App Store, and Email the developer opens a new message in your mail app with the app and iOS version filled in. The app itself sends nothing: an email reaches the developer only if you send it.
Analytics, advertising, and tracking
The app contains no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking of any kind. It does not use the Advertising Identifier (IDFA), does not include any analytics or advertising SDKs, and does not follow you across other apps or websites.
Data retention and deletion
Because all data stays on your device, you are always in control of it:
- Touch and hold a night in the list to delete it together with its clips.
- Cancel within the first ten seconds of a night and nothing is kept.
- Deleting the app from your iPhone permanently removes everything it saved.
The developer holds no copy of your data and so cannot access, restore, or delete it for you.
Not a medical device
Sleep Sonar is not a medical device and does not diagnose sleep apnea or any other condition. Breathing pauses are shown for your information only. If you are worried about your breathing during sleep, talk to a doctor.
Children's privacy
Sleep Sonar does not collect any personal information from anyone, including children.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this same address with a revised date.
Contact
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact: