Privacy Policy

Effective September 30, 2026

WordCatch learns how one person with limited speech says their words. It does that on the device. There are no accounts, no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and the developer, ColeCustomWorks, never receives your recordings or data.

What WordCatch stores on your device

Recordings of the person it’s learning from (the “communicator”), which you record, import, or which WordCatch saves while listening.
Words and labels: the words you add, how the person says them, pictures you choose or take, and which recording is which word.
A profile: the name, pronouns, age range and emoji you enter for the communicator.
Short notes about how a word was learned, such as “Someone said ‘Cookie?’ and they stopped repeating.” These can include the text of what another person said at that moment.
Which words tend to follow each other, from the communicator’s words and the “What next?” suggestions you tap, so it can suggest the next word.
A diagnostics log (optional, on by default, kept for two weeks): text and numbers about what WordCatch heard and guessed, how long it took, and what you answered. It never includes audio or what other people said, only which of the communicator’s words was matched. You can turn it off or clear it in Settings › About › Diagnostics.
Settings, and voiceprints of family members or caretakers you enroll (a numeric summary of how a voice sounds, not a recording). If you add voices from a video, the video is read on the device and left unchanged; its sound is used only to make those voiceprints and is then deleted.

This data stays in WordCatch’s storage on your device. It is included in your device’s own backups (iCloud or your computer) according to your device settings, and in any WordCatch backups you choose to make to a folder you pick, such as in iCloud Drive.

iCloud Sync

If your device is signed in to iCloud, WordCatch keeps the communicator’s words, recordings, pictures, folders, family voiceprints and profile the same on your iPhones and iPads signed in to the same iCloud account. It uses your own private iCloud storage (Apple’s CloudKit): the data sits in your iCloud account, and the developer cannot see or access it. You can turn it off in Settings › iCloud Sync; what’s already in iCloud stays there until you delete it in the app or remove WordCatch’s data from iCloud in your device’s iCloud settings. A deleted recording is kept in iCloud for 30 days before it’s removed. Diagnostics, downloaded models and device settings are not synced.

Sharing with caretakers

You can choose to share a communicator with specific people who use their own iCloud account, such as a parent, grandparent, teacher or therapist (Settings › People and Sharing). This uses Apple’s iCloud sharing: the data stays in the iCloud account of the person who shared it, and only the people they invite can see it, either to view or to add to it. The person who shared it can remove anyone or stop sharing at any time; someone who was invited can stop receiving it. Nothing is shared unless you invite someone, and the developer is never among them.

Other people’s voices

When listening is on, WordCatch hears everyone nearby. Speech from anyone other than the communicator is turned into text on the device so WordCatch can notice when someone says the communicator’s word back. That audio is not saved. Only the short notes described above may keep a few of their words.

Please tell the people around you when listening is on. In some places, recording a conversation requires everyone’s consent.

Permissions

Microphone: to record the communicator and to listen.
Speech recognition: to turn other people’s speech into text on the device.
Camera and photos (optional): to picture words, and to learn from videos you choose. WordCatch sees only the photos and videos you pick.
Notifications (optional): a daily reminder to review what it heard.

WordCatch does not use your location. Places such as “Home” or “School” are chosen by you in the app.

What leaves the device

Recordings never go to the developer or anyone else. They leave the device only in backups you set up yourself and, if iCloud Sync is on, in your own iCloud and with the caretakers you choose to share with (above). WordCatch connects to the internet only for these optional features:

Model downloads. WordCatch downloads its on-device speech and voice models, and, if you choose them, the Whisper speech model, natural AI voices and the on-device sentence model, from Hugging Face. No personal data is sent; as with any download, the host sees your device’s IP address.
Find a Symbol. When you search for a picture for a word, the search word is sent to Global Symbols (globalsymbols.com), and the pictures you see are downloaded from it. Nothing else is sent.
Sharing you start. Send to Another Device, Share Diagnostics and Share Progress Report create a file that goes only where you send it (for example with AirDrop, Messages or Mail). A diagnostics file sent to the developer is used only to improve WordCatch.
Natural sentences with Claude, only if you add your own Anthropic API key. When WordCatch speaks for the communicator, it sends Anthropic the recognized word, the place and time of day you’re in, the last few words recognized, and the profile’s age range and pronouns. In the “helper” sentence style it also sends the profile name. No audio is sent. Anthropic handles this under its own privacy policy and the terms of your API account. The key is kept in the device’s Keychain and is never included in backups.

This website

wordcatch.app has no ads, analytics or tracking. If you vote on the opening-animation page, your choice, and the first name and comment you add if any, are saved so the results can be counted, along with a random ID kept in your browser so you can change your vote.

Children

WordCatch is often used by families of children and teens. It collects no information for the developer from anyone, of any age. Everything described here is stored by and for the family, on their own devices and in their own iCloud.

Deleting data

You can delete any recording, word or picture in the app. Deleting WordCatch removes everything it stored on the device. Backups you made to your own folders stay there until you delete them.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new effective date. Questions: [email protected]