Who we are
ReelCount is made by Livomind, an independent app studio based in Pilani, Rajasthan, India. In this policy “we” and “us” mean Livomind, and “the app” means the ReelCount app for Android.
This policy covers the app and this website, reelcount.livomind.com. If you have a question about it, write to contact@livomind.com and a person will answer.
The Accessibility permission
ReelCount uses Android’s Accessibility Service. It’s the only way an app can tell that a new short video has appeared inside another app, so the whole product depends on it. Because the permission is powerful, here is precisely how it’s used.
The apps it is allowed to see
The app’s own configuration tells Android the complete list of apps ReelCount may be notified about. Android doesn’t tell it about anything else on your phone: not your messages, not your bank, not your camera. This is the whole list:
- Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat
- TikTok (both of its regional versions)
- Moj, Josh, Snack Video and Kwai
Counting is reliable today in Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. The others are on the list so the app can learn to count them, and the app doesn’t claim to count them until that’s confirmed.
What it looks at, inside those apps
- Which of those apps is open, and whether its short-video player is on screen.
- That you’ve scrolled, so it knows to look for a new clip.
- Enough of the text on screen, such as the creator’s name and the caption, to tell one clip apart from the next.
What happens to that text
The moment it’s read, the text is turned into a short fingerprint using a one-way hash (a shortened SHA-256). The text itself is never written to storage, never shown to anyone and never sent anywhere. A fingerprint can’t be turned back into the caption, the creator or the clip it came from.
The fingerprint is kept on your phone, with the app it came from and the time it was counted, until the end of the day. That’s what stops a clip being counted twice when you scroll back to it, even if your phone restarts ReelCount in between. The next day those fingerprints are deleted, because yesterday’s clips are allowed to count again.
The counter and the block screen
The floating counter and the block screen are drawn by ReelCount on top of the app you’re using, through the same permission. ReelCount doesn’t need the separate “display over other apps” permission.
If you turn on blocking and reach your limit, the block screen covers the reel player. When you tap Close reels, ReelCount uses the permission to press Back once for you, to step out of the player. That’s the only action it ever takes in another app, and it only happens when you tap that button.
What it never does
- Read your messages, chats or comments.
- Read passwords, payment details or anything you type.
- Record, keep or send what any video was about.
- Take screenshots or capture your screen.
- Watch any app that isn’t on the list above.
You can withdraw the permission at any time in Android Settings, under Accessibility. Counting stops immediately. If you force-stop ReelCount, Android withdraws the permission itself, and the app will ask you to turn it back on.
What’s kept, and where
Everything ReelCount keeps is stored in the app’s private storage on your phone. Other apps can’t read it, and neither can we.
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your reel count for each day, split by app | To show today’s number, your week and your stats | Until you delete it or uninstall |
| The daily limit that applied on each day | So raising your limit later can’t rewrite a day you’d gone over, and your streak stays honest | Until you delete it or uninstall |
| Your settings: limit, blocking, strict mode, any five-minute snooze, and language | To behave the way you set it | Until you change them or uninstall |
| A note of when counting last ran | To tell you if your phone has quietly paused ReelCount | Replaced as it runs |
| Clip fingerprints, with the app and time | So the same clip isn’t counted twice | Until the end of the day |
Uninstalling ReelCount removes all of it. You can also clear today’s count, or delete everything it has kept, today’s fingerprints included, from Settings inside the app. Here’s how.
What leaves your phone
Nothing, from ReelCount itself. This version of the app doesn’t request Android’s internet permission, so it can’t connect to us, to an analytics company, to an advertiser or to anyone else. We receive no data from the app at all.
Two features of Android itself can still copy the app’s data, as they do for most apps. Both are controlled by you and by Google, not by us:
- Your phone’s backup. If backup is turned on, Android may include ReelCount’s counts, settings and that day’s fingerprints in your phone’s backup to your Google account, so they come back if you set up a new phone. That backup is made and held by Google under your account, and we can’t see it. You can turn backup off, or delete it, in your phone’s settings.
- Moving to a new phone. When you copy your apps across to a new phone, the same data may be copied with them.
If you’ve allowed your phone to share usage and diagnostics with Google, Google Play may also send us crash reports and anonymous performance figures for ReelCount, which help us fix it. They don’t include your counts or anything about what you watched.
Downloading ReelCount through Google Play is covered by Google’s own privacy policy.
Other permissions
Apart from Accessibility, which you turn on yourself, Android grants a few permissions when you install the app:
- Seeing whether those apps are installed. ReelCount tells Android in advance which apps it may look up: the short-video apps listed above, and nothing else. Android hides every other app on your phone from it. It uses this only to show which of them you have, with their real icons.
- Background housekeeping. The libraries Android provides for the home screen widget can resume after your phone restarts and briefly keep the phone awake to finish an update. One of them can check whether your phone is online. None of these lets ReelCount use the internet.
Scroll Battles
Comparing your count with friends, which the app calls Scroll Battles, would need a connection between phones. This version deliberately has no network access, so battles can’t share your count, your name or anything else with anyone.
If a future version ever adds them, it would need internet access first. We’d update this policy before that version was released, and the app would ask you before anything was shared.
Ads, payments and analytics
ReelCount doesn’t show ads. Ads need the internet, and we chose to keep the app off it rather than sell your attention to an ad network. There are no analytics or tracking tools in it either.
This version has no in-app purchases. If a version adds them, payment will be handled by Google Play and we’ll never see your card details. This policy will say exactly what’s involved before that version is released.
This website
reelcount.livomind.com sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads nothing from other companies. Even the fonts are served from this site.
The site is hosted by GitHub Pages. Like any web host, GitHub receives your IP address when you visit, and may keep it in server logs for security. That’s covered by GitHub’s privacy statement.
If you email us, we use your message only to reply, and keep it only for as long as we need to help you.
Children
ReelCount isn’t directed at children under 13. Because the app doesn’t send anything to us, we don’t receive personal data from anyone who uses it, children included. If you’re a parent with a question, write to us and we’ll help.
Your choices and rights
- Stop counting: turn off ReelCount in Android Settings, under Accessibility.
- Delete your history: use Settings, Your data, Delete all history in the app, or uninstall it.
- Remove backed-up copies: manage or delete your phone’s backup in your Google account settings.
Depending on where you live, data protection laws such as the GDPR in Europe and the UK, India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act and California’s privacy laws give you the right to ask what personal data a company holds about you, and to have it corrected or deleted. Because the app doesn’t send us anything, we normally hold nothing about you beyond any email you’ve sent us. Ask, and we’ll tell you what, if anything, we have, and delete it if you want.
You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.
Security
Your data stays in ReelCount’s private storage, which Android keeps separate from other apps. Anyone who can unlock your phone can open ReelCount and see your counts, and the home screen widget shows today’s number to anyone who can see your screen. If that matters to you, don’t add the widget.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes in a way that affects what the app reads, keeps or shares, we’ll publish the new version here before the app changes, and the app will tell you. The date at the top always shows the current version.
Contact
Livomind
Pilani, Rajasthan, India
contact@livomind.com