Privacy Policy

Timely is created and maintained by Rowan Strang. For privacy questions, data requests, or support, contact me through the Timely Support page.

Timely does not sell your personal information. Timely does not use your data for third-party advertising or cross-app tracking.

Timely uses Apple services for app distribution, purchases, iCloud, notifications, Live Activities, calendars, maps, Shortcuts, Siri, and Apple Intelligence features where available. Where available, Timely Plus also uses Firebase and Google Cloud services to provide backend identity, device routing, Cloud Functions, backend Cloud Firestore storage, and Firebase Cloud Messaging delivery.

Apple handles payments and payment information. Timely can see StoreKit purchase and entitlement information needed to unlock paid features, but Timely does not receive your payment card details.

Regional Availability of Paid Features

Timely Plus and paid Shortcuts unlocks are not available for purchase in some regions, including Europe and mainland China. Where Timely Plus is unavailable and no active Timely Plus entitlement exists, Timely does not use the Timely Plus Firebase/Google Cloud backend for that user. When Timely Plus is not active, countdowns, saved locations, and app settings remain on your device and, if iCloud sync is enabled for Timely, in your iCloud account.

Countdown Information

When you create, edit, view, or delete countdowns, Timely may handle:

• Countdown title.
• Countdown date and time.
• Countdown emoji and theme color.
• Countdown identifier.
• Whether a countdown has an alarm or Live Activity.
• Travel time estimate and transport mode.
• Optional route origin, stops, and destination, including place names, addresses, Apple Maps Place IDs, latitude, longitude, preparation and stop buffers, segment estimates, estimate times, and route order.
• Device identifiers associated with alarm or Timely Plus routing.

This information is used to show countdowns, power widgets and Live Activities, schedule reminders and alarms, support Shortcuts actions, and sync your countdowns through iCloud or Timely Plus where applicable.

Shared Countdowns and the Timely App Clip

When you choose to share a countdown, Timely creates a self-contained App Clip link on your device. The link contains a newly generated share identifier, display title, effective deadline, emoji, and theme. Anyone who receives or can access the link can read those values, so share it only with intended recipients. The link contents are not separately encrypted or authenticated.

Creating the link does not upload the shared countdown to the Timely Plus backend. Opening the link can disclose its URL to the recipient’s browser, the Timely website and its hosting infrastructure, and any service the recipient uses to handle or forward the link. The link does not include locations, addresses, coordinates, route details, transport mode, travel duration, the sender’s original countdown identifier, alarm registrations, purchase state, account information, or device identifiers.

When the original countdown has travel lead time, the shared title is prefixed with “Time to Leave —” and the shared deadline is the calculated time to leave. The original event time is not included.

Recipients can use the Timely App Clip to view the countdown and use supported local Live Activity or alarm functionality. A recipient who installs the full app can migrate unexpired shared countdowns from the App Clip’s Apple shared container into the full app.

ChatGPT Plugin

The free Create Countdown skill in the Timely ChatGPT plugin prepares a countdown link and live preview. ChatGPT sends the countdown title, date or time, timezone, emoji, colour and identifier (if already supplied) to Timely’s service hosted on Cloudflare. The service uses these fields to prepare the link and preview, generating an identifier when needed. It does not request your full conversation, connect to a Timely account, or read existing countdowns.

The service processes these fields for the request without saving a countdown database or deliberately logging countdown contents. Cloudflare processes requests and technical information, including IP addresses used for rate limiting, to deliver and protect the service; infrastructure records are handled under Cloudflare’s policies. The live preview ticks on your device without repeatedly contacting the service.

The link contains readable, unencrypted countdown details. Anyone with access to it can read them, and opening or sharing it may expose them to browsers, hosting providers and services that handle or preview links. Avoid including sensitive information you do not want in a shared link. When you open it, Timely or its App Clip handles the countdown under the other sections of this policy.

ChatGPT may retain the conversation, tool results and link according to OpenAI’s privacy policy and your ChatGPT settings. Review the details before opening the link. For questions about Timely’s processing or your privacy rights, use the Timely Support page.

Local App Settings and Saved Locations

Timely stores settings such as selected theme preferences, calendar display preferences, Apple Intelligence preferences, keyboard and interface preferences, synced-device display state, widget snapshots, purchase entitlement cache, and similar app configuration values.

If you save a location for later use, Timely stores its name, place name, address, coordinates, symbol, favorite status, placement preference, and creation date. Saved locations are separate from countdowns. They are held in Timely’s CloudKit-backed app store and may sync through your personal iCloud account when iCloud sync is available and enabled.

These settings and saved locations are used to remember your choices and make the app work consistently across launches, widgets, extensions, and Shortcuts.

Calendar Information

If you grant calendar access, Timely can read event information from calendars you select. This may include calendar names, event titles, event dates and times, event locations, and related EventKit identifiers.

Timely uses calendar access to show upcoming calendar items and help create countdowns from them. Calendar event data is processed locally by the app unless you create a Timely countdown from that event. The resulting countdown may sync through iCloud. If you use Timely Plus, where available, countdown scheduling information and any saved route are handled as described in this policy. Timely does not send the original calendar record or its EventKit identifier to the Timely Plus backend.

Timely stores the identifiers of calendars you choose to show so it can remember your calendar visibility preferences.

Location and Maps Information

If you grant location access, Timely can use your current location, with the precision allowed by your iOS permission, to estimate travel time. A saved route may include a current or selected origin, intermediate stops, and a final destination. If you choose Current Location as the origin, the coordinate used to calculate and save the route can be stored with that route.

Timely may store place names, addresses, Apple Maps Place IDs, coordinates, preparation and stop buffers, segment estimates, estimate timestamps, and transport modes with a countdown. Timely can also store places you save independently of a countdown, as described above.

Timely uses Apple MapKit and related Apple location services for place search, reverse geocoding, map previews, and directions. Apple may process search queries, locations, and route requests according to Apple policies and system settings.

Current location is used for travel features and is not used for advertising. CloudKit is the canonical synced store for countdowns, saved routes, and saved locations in your personal iCloud account. When Timely Plus activity-plan support is used, Timely also sends the countdown’s saved route snapshot—including any saved origin coordinate, place names, addresses, Place IDs, other coordinates, transport mode, buffers, and frozen estimates—to Timely’s Firebase backend. This lets route-aware scheduling changes be versioned consistently.

The backend route is operational data. The full route is removed from the activity plan record when that plan is cancelled, ended, or reaches scheduled dismissal. Limited lifecycle and audit information may remain without the full route.

Notifications, Alarms, Widgets, Live Activities, Shortcuts, and Siri

Timely uses system features to provide countdown behavior outside the main app. Depending on what you enable, Timely may handle:

• Local notification content such as countdown title, due time, reminder time, and deep link.
• AlarmKit alarm metadata such as countdown identifier, title, scheduled alert time, and optional Maps action details.
• Live Activity content such as countdown title, emoji, date and time, theme color, travel time, and alarm state.
• Widget snapshot data such as upcoming countdown title, date and time, emoji, and theme color.
• Shortcuts, Siri, App Intents, and widget configuration data needed to run requested actions.

These features are provided through Apple system APIs. Timely uses them to display countdowns, start and update Live Activities, open Timely to the correct countdown, schedule alerts, and run user-requested automations.

Purchases and Entitlements

Timely uses StoreKit to offer Timely Plus subscriptions and optional paid Shortcuts features, where available. Timely may handle:

• Product identifiers.
• Active entitlement and transaction status.
• A signed AppTransaction proof used to confirm eligibility for Timely Plus backend features.
• A local purchase cache used to unlock features.

Apple processes payments, billing, refunds, tax, and payment method information. Timely does not receive your payment card number, bank account details, or Apple ID password.

For Timely Plus backend access, where available, Timely sends a signed StoreKit AppTransaction proof to the Timely backend. The backend verifies it with Apple and stores a derived, hashed purchase identity so eligible Timely installations can be associated with the same Timely Plus account. Timely does not receive or store your payment card details.

Device and Timely Plus Backend Information

Where available, Timely Plus provides remote Live Activity scheduling, update, wake, and cleanup behavior. To do that, Timely may send or store backend records including:

• Firebase account identifier generated for Timely.
• Installation identifier generated by Timely.
• App attestation information, such as Firebase App Check data, used to help confirm requests come from a genuine Timely installation.
• Device trust information, such as a public key and related credential metadata.
• Device display name, device model, device category, system version, app version, and Live Activity capability.
• Last-seen and registration timestamps.
• Whether Live Activities are available and enabled.
• APNs device token, Firebase Cloud Messaging token, ActivityKit push-to-start token, and Live Activity update tokens.
• Countdown scheduling metadata needed to start, update, or end Live Activities, such as title, emoji, event time, theme color, travel time, alarm state, countdown ID, activation time, dismissal time, and routing preferences.
• For a countdown with a saved route, the route snapshot described above, including precise coordinates and route or waypoint identifiers.
• Routing health, retry state, task status, failure information, and operational logs used to keep Timely Plus reliable.

Where available, Timely Plus uses this information to authenticate devices, route Live Activity pushes, wake eligible devices, attach Live Activity update tokens, avoid duplicate work, retry failed operations, deactivate removed devices, and diagnose service reliability. The saved route is held with the backend activity plan; its full place and coordinate details are not needed in Live Activity push content.

Diagnostics and Operational Logs

Timely and the Timely backend may create limited diagnostic information, such as backend task status, route health, failure class, error summaries, timestamps, and technical metadata. These logs are used to operate, secure, debug, and improve reliability.

Timely does not currently use Firebase Analytics, Firebase Crashlytics, third-party advertising SDKs, or App Tracking Transparency tracking. Firebase and Google Cloud infrastructure used for authentication, app installation identity, messaging, Cloud Functions, security, and data transport may process limited technical and service metadata, such as app instance identifiers, device and app information, request metadata, delivery status, timestamps, error information, and abuse-prevention or security signals. Timely uses this information for app functionality, service reliability, security, and provider-required service analytics, not for advertising or cross-app tracking.

Apple Intelligence and Emoji Suggestions

If Apple Intelligence emoji suggestions are available and enabled, Timely may use Apple’s Foundation Models framework on-device to suggest emoji and theme colors from your countdown title. The prompt is processed on your device by Apple’s on-device model through system APIs. Timely uses the result to help select countdown presentation details.

If Apple Intelligence is unavailable or disabled, Timely can use local emoji matching instead.

Timely receives information from:

• You, when you create countdowns, save locations, share countdowns, choose settings, buy features, grant permissions, or contact support.
• Your device, through Apple APIs such as SwiftData, UserDefaults, Keychain, ActivityKit, AlarmKit, WidgetKit, EventKit, Core Location, MapKit, StoreKit, App Intents, Shortcuts, Siri, and notifications.
• Apple, for purchase entitlement and AppTransaction verification.
• Firebase and Google Cloud services, where Timely Plus is available and active, for Timely Plus backend authentication, storage, messaging, and Cloud Functions.
• Timely backend systems, where Timely Plus is available and active, when they generate routing, scheduling, retry, and operational records.

If you contact me through the Timely Support page for support or a privacy request, Timely may handle the information you choose to provide, such as your name, email address, message contents, screenshots, diagnostic details, device or app information, and any identifiers needed to understand or respond to your request.

I use this information only to respond to you, troubleshoot issues, process privacy requests, keep records of the request, and protect Timely and its users. Please do not send sensitive information unless it is needed for your request.

Support and privacy-request communications may be retained as needed to respond to you, maintain records of the request, resolve disputes, comply with legal obligations, and improve support reliability.

Timely uses information to:

• Create, display, edit, delete, and sync countdowns.
• Save places for later use in routes and countdowns.
• Show countdowns in widgets, Live Activities, Dynamic Island, Lock Screen, StandBy, Shortcuts, and Siri.
• Schedule local notifications and alarms.
• Estimate travel time and open directions.
• Show calendar events and create countdowns from calendar items.
• Provide remote Live Activity scheduling and cleanup for Timely Plus where available.
• Route Timely Plus activity pushes to eligible devices where available.
• Verify purchases and restore entitlements.
• Remember app settings and user preferences.
• Protect the service from replay, unauthorized access, and invalid device registration.
• Maintain reliability, diagnose issues, and respond to support requests.
• Comply with legal, security, and App Store obligations.

Where privacy law requires a legal basis for processing personal information, I rely on one or more of the following:

• Performance of a contract: to provide the app, paid features, subscriptions, synced countdowns, Live Activities, purchases, and support.
• Consent: when you grant permissions such as calendar access, location access, notifications, Apple Intelligence preferences, or optional Timely Plus actions.
• Legitimate interests: to secure the app and backend, prevent abuse, troubleshoot problems, maintain service reliability, and improve the app in ways that do not override your rights.
• Legal obligations: to comply with tax, accounting, consumer protection, App Store, platform, dispute, and legal process requirements.

You can withdraw many permission-based choices in iOS Settings or within Timely settings, although some features may stop working if the related permission is removed.

Timely shares information only as needed for the purposes described in this policy.

Apple

Timely uses Apple services and frameworks for iCloud, StoreKit purchases, App Store distribution, calendars, maps, location, notifications, alarms, widgets, Live Activities, Shortcuts, Siri, and Apple Intelligence where available. Apple may process related data under Apple’s own privacy policies and system settings.

Google Firebase and Google Cloud

Where available, Timely Plus uses Firebase and Google Cloud services, including Firebase Auth, App Check, Cloud Functions, backend Cloud Firestore storage, and Firebase Cloud Messaging. These services process Timely Plus account, device, routing, push-token, countdown scheduling, saved-route, and operational data so Timely Plus can work.

People You Share a Countdown With

A person who receives or accesses a shared-countdown link can read the countdown details included in that link. The App Clip uses those details to show the shared countdown. You control whom you give the link to, but a recipient can forward it.

Service Providers

I may use service providers for website hosting, backend infrastructure, monitoring, security, and support. Service providers are expected to process information only for the services they provide to Timely.

Legal and Safety Disclosures

I may disclose information if required by law, legal process, governmental request, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of users, Timely, service providers, or the public.

Business Transfers

If ownership or operation of Timely changes, information may be transferred as part of that change, subject to appropriate protections and this policy or a successor policy.

Timely does not sell personal information. Timely does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. Timely does not use your information for third-party advertising. Timely does not currently use dedicated third-party behavioral analytics or crash-reporting products. Firebase and Google Cloud infrastructure may process limited technical and service metadata as described above.

Timely uses push tokens and device identifiers to provide app functionality, not to track you across apps or websites owned by other companies.

Timely does not keep personal information longer than needed for the purposes described in this policy. Some retention depends on your choices, such as whether you delete a countdown or saved location, remove the app, manage iCloud sync, cancel Timely Plus, remove a synced device, or make a privacy request.

Countdowns, saved locations, and local settings remain on your device until you delete them, reset the app, remove the app, or change related settings. If iCloud sync is enabled, countdown and saved-location data may remain in iCloud according to your iCloud account settings and Apple’s retention practices.

The installation identifier and device trust key are stored using the iOS Keychain and may persist across an app reinstall unless they are removed by iOS or replaced by Timely’s identity-repair process.

Calendar data read from EventKit is used to display calendar items and create countdowns, but Timely does not maintain a separate long-term copy of all calendar events. If you create a Timely countdown from a calendar event, the resulting countdown data is retained like any other countdown.

Timely Plus backend records are retained while needed to provide Timely Plus, route Live Activity pushes, maintain security, process retries, diagnose operational issues, support account and device association, satisfy legal obligations, or resolve disputes. The full saved route is removed from an activity plan record when the plan becomes terminal through cancellation, ending, or scheduled dismissal. Limited lifecycle, retry, and audit records may remain without the full route. Copies in provider backups may persist according to the provider’s backup retention practices.

Unexpired App Clip countdowns remain in the Apple shared container until they reach their encoded deadline, are migrated to the full app, are removed by you, or the system removes the App Clip’s data. Timely does not create a Timely Plus backend activity plan merely because someone opens a shared link.

Support and privacy-request communications may be retained as described above.

You can control many categories of data through iOS and Timely settings:

• Delete countdowns in Timely.
• Delete individual saved locations or use Timely’s option to delete all saved locations.
• Choose whom to send a shared-countdown link to, and remove a received shared countdown from the App Clip.
• Disable Timely Plus features by not subscribing, cancelling the subscription, or not using Timely Plus-enabled Live Activity features.
• Manage synced devices from Timely settings where available.
• Change notification permissions in iOS Settings.
• Change location permissions in iOS Settings.
• Change calendar permissions in iOS Settings.
• Choose which calendars Timely shows.
• Disable Apple Intelligence features in Timely settings where available.
• Manage Live Activity permissions in iOS Settings.
• Manage iCloud behavior through iOS and iCloud settings.
• Restore or cancel purchases through Apple systems.

Some deletion or permission changes may not immediately remove data from backups, logs, records required for security, or records retained for legal obligations. A shared link already sent to someone else cannot be recalled from that person’s device or messages.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, portability, restriction, objection, withdrawal of consent, or an appeal of a privacy decision.

To make a privacy request, contact me through the Timely Support page. I may need information sufficient to verify your request, identify the relevant installation or Timely Plus account, and protect against unauthorized access. I will respond as required by applicable law.

If your request concerns data controlled by Apple, such as App Store purchases, Apple ID account information, payment details, iCloud data, or Apple Maps data, you may also need to use Apple’s privacy tools or contact Apple directly.

Timely is a general-audience app and is not directed specifically at children. Timely does not knowingly collect personal information from children in a way that requires parental consent. If you believe a child has provided personal information to Timely in a way that requires deletion or parental consent, contact me through the Timely Support page.

Timely, Apple, Google Firebase, Google Cloud, and other service providers may process information in countries other than the country where you live. Those countries may have different data protection laws. Where required, I rely on appropriate safeguards such as contractual protections, standard contractual clauses, service provider data processing terms, or other legally recognized transfer mechanisms.

Timely uses technical and organizational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information processed. Examples include iOS sandboxing, iCloud and Keychain storage where applicable, Firebase App Check, Firebase Authentication, device trust keys, signed StoreKit proof verification, server-side authorization checks, backend database rules that restrict direct access, and limited backend access through Cloud Functions.

No method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure. Timely cannot guarantee absolute security, but I work to protect information and limit collection to what is needed for the app and Timely Plus features where available.

I may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If I make material changes, I will update the effective date and provide notice where required. Continued use of Timely after an updated policy takes effect means the updated policy applies to your use of the app.

For privacy questions, data requests, or support, contact me through the Timely Support page.