Privacy Policy
Last Updated: November 7th, 2026
Okaeri (the "App") teaches Japanese through a slice of life anime: one real scene a day in Tokyo, said out loud. It is built by Mango Lab ("we", "us", or "our"). This Privacy Policy explains what happens to your information when you use the App.
The short version: there is no account and no signup, and we run no server of our own. On iPhone, your voice never leaves your phone. The App listens only while you practise a line, recognises it on your iPhone, and keeps no recording. On Android, the App never records your voice or sends it to us. Your phone recognises it: on the phone itself where it can recognise Japanese offline, and otherwise through your phone's speech service (usually Google's), which may process it online. Your progress stays on your devices and in your own private iCloud, or on Android, in your own Google Account's backup if backup is on. The App does report how it is used, under a random identifier and never under your name. Four named third parties are involved: Apple (or Google Play, on Android), RevenueCat, PostHog, and Google Analytics. The sections below say exactly what each of them receives. On Android, you can also open episodes by watching optional ads from Google AdMob; subscribers see none.
We want to be precise rather than flattering here. It would be easy to write "we collect no data at all," and it would not be true: the App reports how it is used, and the sections below say exactly what that means.
If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not use the App.
Your Voice and the Microphone
The App asks for the microphone (and, on iPhone, for speech recognition) so that you can say your lines out loud and see which words came through. How your speech is recognised depends on your phone.
On iPhone:
a) Recognition runs entirely on your iPhone, with the speech recognition built into iOS. The first time you practise, iOS may download Apple's Japanese recognition files once; after that it works with no connection at all.
b) The App listens only while the microphone button is on. It keeps no recording, and it sends no audio anywhere: not to us, and not to any other company.
c) What you said appears on screen while you speak, and is compared with the line piece by piece. It is not saved. The only thing reported about it is described under Analytics below: which line you practised and how many of its words came through, never your voice and never the words you said.
d) You can turn off microphone or speech recognition access in iOS Settings at any time. The App keeps working, and you can skip the speaking in any episode.
On Android:
e) The App uses Android's speech recognition, which your phone provides. Where your phone can recognise Japanese on the device (Android 12 and later), recognition runs entirely on your phone and no audio leaves it.
f) On Android 14 and later, the first time you start an episode with speaking, the App may ask your phone to download Japanese so that it can recognise it on the device. Your phone may ask you first, and the download comes from your phone's speech service, not from us.
g) Where your phone cannot do this on the device, the App hands the listening to your phone's default speech recognition service (on most phones, Google's) and asks it to work offline. If that service cannot recognise Japanese offline, it may send your speech to its provider's servers to turn it into text. This is handled by that provider under its own privacy policy, such as Google's Privacy Policy. Mango Lab never receives your voice.
h) Either way, the App does not record or keep your voice. What you said comes back to the App only as text, is compared with the line piece by piece, and is not saved. The only thing reported about it is described under Analytics below: which line you practised and how many of its words came through, never your voice and never the words you said.
i) You can turn off microphone access in Android's settings at any time. The App keeps working, and you can skip the speaking in any episode.
Data Stored on Your Device
All of the following is stored on your iPhone and, if you are signed in to iCloud, mostly mirrored into your own iCloud as described under iCloud Sync below. On Android, all of the following is stored on your phone and, if Android backup is on, included in your phone's backup to your Google Account, as described under Android Backup below:
★ Your progress: the episodes and kana days you have finished, which evening you chose in episode 27, the days you studied and your streak, how many lines you said each day, the texts you answered, and your review cards and how you did on them.
★ Your answers and preferences: why you are learning Japanese, when you are coming to Japan and the date of your flight if you gave one, your age range if you gave one, whether you can read kana, whether you play the story as Mia or as Ben, the hours when the people in the story may text you, and your settings.
★ Your room and collection: the things in your room, one from each episode you finish, your coins, and your photocards. Coins are earned by learning and are counted from your progress.
★ Your lock screen: the phrases you pin to your lock screen, and the countdown to your flight, written to a container on your iPhone that the App's widgets can read. They never leave the device.
★ Your home screen (Android): the phrases shown in the App's home screen widget and the countdown to your flight, kept with your progress on your phone. Unlike on iPhone, they are part of your Android backup.
The App does not ask for your real name, email address, phone number, date of birth, or any other detail that could be used to contact or identify you. When Haruko asks for your name, you choose to play the story as Mia or as Ben; you never type a name of your own. The age question offers ranges, not a date of birth, and "Prefer not to say". There is no user profile, because there are no user accounts.
iCloud Sync
If you are signed in to iCloud, your progress and your answers go into the small storage that iCloud keeps for the App's settings (key value storage), so that a new iPhone picks up where the old one left off. The phrases on your lock screen and the texts waiting to arrive stay on each device.
This is Apple infrastructure, tied to your Apple ID and governed by Apple's Privacy Policy. The data lives in your iCloud account, not ours. It is not sent to a Mango Lab server, because we do not operate one.
We cannot read, access, or recover data stored in your iCloud. Neither can we restore it for you if it is lost. Apple does not grant developers access to a user's private data.
You can stop sync at any time by turning off iCloud for Okaeri in iOS Settings → your name → iCloud, or by signing out of iCloud. If you do, the App keeps working and your progress stays on that one device only.
Android Backup
On Android, the App uses Android's own backup instead of iCloud. If backup is on for your phone, Android includes the App's data (your progress, your answers including the date of your flight if you gave one, your settings and the phrases for the widget) in your phone's backup to your Google Account, so that a new phone, or the App installed again, picks up where you left off. The backup also holds the random identifiers described under Subscriptions and Analytics, so the App installed again may keep them. The texts waiting to arrive are not part of the backup.
This is Google infrastructure, tied to your Google Account and governed by Google's Privacy Policy. The backup is in your Google Account, not ours. It is not sent to a Mango Lab server, because we do not operate one, and we cannot read, access, or recover it.
You can turn backup off in your phone's settings, under Backup. If you do, the App keeps working and your progress stays on that one phone only.
Subscriptions
The kana prologue and the first two episodes are free from your first day. Without a subscription, episodes 3 to 10 each open free the day after you finish the one before, and on iPhone the story from episode 11 on is for subscribers. (On Android, ads can open these episodes too, as described under Ads (Android).) An Okaeri subscription opens each next episode as soon as you finish the one before.
Payment is processed entirely by Apple. The App never sees or handles your card details, your billing address, or your Apple Account credentials. On Android, payment is processed entirely by Google Play. The App never sees or handles your card details, your billing address, or your Google Account credentials.
We use RevenueCat to validate purchases and to check whether you have a subscription. RevenueCat is a data processor acting on our behalf. It receives:
a) a random identifier that RevenueCat creates for this installation of the App
b) purchase and transaction data from Apple, or from Google Play on Android, including which plan, whether a free trial is running, and whether the subscription is active
c) basic device and country information that Apple or Google Play provides with the purchase
d) the PostHog identifier described under Analytics, so that a purchase can be matched to the usage that led to it
e) on iPhone, the Apple Ads information described under Analytics, which RevenueCat gets from Apple with a token the App passes on, so that a trial or a purchase can be matched to the ad that led to it
RevenueCat reports purchase events (a trial started, a purchase, a renewal, a cancellation) to PostHog under that identifier. RevenueCat does not receive your voice, your answers, or your progress.
Analytics
This App is made by one person, and there is no other way to find out whether it actually helps anybody speak Japanese. So it reports how it is used to PostHog, which is hosted in the United States.
What PostHog receives:
a) a random identifier that PostHog creates for this installation. It is not connected to your name, your email, your Apple ID or Google Account, or any identifier belonging to your phone. Deleting the App discards it, and a reinstall starts a new one. On Android, if backup is on, your backup may bring it back when the App is installed again
b) when the App is installed, opened, updated, and closed
c) how far through the opening questions you get, and your answers: why you are learning Japanese (one of six choices, such as "Anime & manga" or "A trip to Japan"), when you are coming to Japan (one of six choices, such as "Within a month") and whether you gave a flight date, never the date itself, your age range (one of four ranges, or "Prefer not to say"), whether you can read kana, whether you play as Mia or as Ben, and the hours when texts may come
d) your learning: the kana days you finish, which episode you start and finish, each step of an episode you reach or skip, which evening you choose in episode 27, how many phrases you pin to your lock screen (on Android, to your home screen widget), and your evening review (how many cards, and how many you got right)
e) for each line you practise out loud: which line it was, whether you said it in practice, in the conversation, or as a reply to a text, and how many of its words came through. Never your voice, and never the words you said
f) whether you opened the App from a phrase on a widget or from a text sent by someone in the story, and which line it was; whether you changed the hours for texts; and whether you opened the guide to adding a widget
g) if you buy something for your room with coins, which thing it was and its price in coins, and whether you tapped Share on a photocard. Where you shared it is not known to us
h) your standing in the App: free, trial, or subscriber, your answers from (c), how many kana days and episodes you have finished, your streak, how many review cards you have, whether you have a widget on your home or lock screen and which kind, and the country of your App Store account, which decides the prices you see (on Android: the widget is on your home screen, and the country is that of your Google Play account)
i) whether the subscription screen was shown and why, which plan was chosen, and whether a purchase was started, finished, cancelled, failed or restored; on Android also whether you tapped to watch an ad, for which episode, and whether it played through, was closed or did not come
j) whether this copy of the App came from the App Store or Google Play, or is one of our test builds, and whether it runs on iPhone or Android
k) your device model, iOS or Android version, app version, and language and time zone settings; on Android also your phone's maker, its screen size, the name of your mobile network operator, whether you are on Wi-Fi or mobile data, and whether the App runs on an emulator
l) your IP address, which PostHog uses to estimate your approximate location, at most to the level of a city. This is not a precise location, and the App never asks for or uses location services
m) on iPhone, whether an Apple Ads campaign led to this installation and, if one did, which: the ID numbers of the campaign, ad group and keyword, whether it was a download or a redownload, how the ad was counted, the country, and when it was tapped. The App gets this from Apple once, through Apple's AdServices, which does not identify you or your phone
The App does not record your screen. PostHog's session replay is switched off, and so is its automatic capture of taps. The events above are the only ones the App sends.
On iPhone, the App does not track you across other companies' apps or websites and shows no ads. On either phone, it sells nothing. Analytics does not collect Apple's advertising identifier (IDFA) or Google's advertising ID. (On Android, the optional ads described under Ads (Android) do use Google's advertising ID.)
This analytics collection is a standard part of the App and cannot currently be turned off from within it. If you would prefer not to be included, you may stop using the App and delete it. Data handled by PostHog is subject to PostHog's privacy policy.
The App also uses Google Analytics for Firebase for basic counts: how many people open the App and for how long, the country and city estimated from the IP address, the device model, system version and app version, and purchases made through the App Store or Google Play. It identifies an installation of the App by a random number, never by your name or account. The App sends it no events of its own, so what you say or study never reaches it. Google Analytics does not use Apple's advertising identifier (IDFA) or Google's advertising ID or use this data for ad personalisation, and Google processes this data as our service provider. How Google uses this information.
Ads (Android)
On Android, a learner without a subscription can open an episode by watching a short video ad from Google AdMob, instead of waiting for it or subscribing, up to three a day. An ad shows only when you tap to watch one: there are no banners and no ads between screens, and subscribers never see an ad.
To show and measure ads and to prevent fraud, Google receives your IP address (from which it estimates your country and city), how you interact with the ad, information about how the App and the ad perform, and identifiers of your device: Google's advertising ID and the app set ID.
In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Google's consent form asks you first, and where the law gives you a choice you can change it any time in the App's Settings, under Ad privacy. If you told us in the App that you are under 18, your ads are not personalised, and every ad is limited to content suitable for teenagers.
You can reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's settings (Settings › Privacy › Ads). How Google uses this information.
Notifications
If you allow them, the App sends these notifications, and no others:
a) texts from the people in your episodes, during the hours you choose. You can choose other hours or turn texts off in the App's Settings
b) a reminder for your evening review, within those same hours
c) during the kana prologue, a text from Haruko the next day about the letters
d) if you gave the date of your flight, a few texts from Hina counting down to it: 30, 14, 7, 3 and 1 days before, and on the day
e) if you ask for it when you start a free trial, one reminder the day before the trial ends, so that you can decide whether to keep the subscription
These are local notifications. They are scheduled and delivered by your own device. No server is involved and no message is sent to us. If you tap a text to open the App, that is reported as described under Analytics.
You can turn them off in iOS Settings at any time. On Android, you can turn them off in your phone's settings for the App, all together or one kind at a time: texts from the story, quiet texts, and reminders.
Sharing
When you share a photocard, the App draws the picture on your iPhone and hands it to the iOS share sheet. Where it goes from there is your choice, and we do not receive a copy. We only learn that Share was tapped, and for which episode.
On Android, the App draws the picture on your phone and hands it to Android's share sheet, and the same applies.
Network Requests
The App makes only these kinds of network request, and no others:
a) RevenueCat's API, for purchase validation and checking your subscription, as described above.
b) PostHog's API, which receives the usage events described in the Analytics section.
c) Apple's App Store, or Google Play on Android, to show prices and to make and restore purchases.
d) Apple iCloud, which carries your progress to and from your own iCloud. This goes to your Apple account rather than to any server of ours.
e) Apple's Japanese speech recognition files, which iOS may download from Apple once, the first time you practise speaking. Your voice is not part of this download.
f) Google Analytics for Firebase, for the basic counts described under Analytics.
g) Apple's ad attribution service, once per installation, to learn whether an Apple Ads campaign led to it, as described under Analytics.
On Android, these take the place of d), e) and g):
d) Android's backup, which carries your progress to and from your own Google Account if backup is on. Android does this, not the App, and it goes to your Google Account rather than to any server of ours.
e) Your phone's speech recognition service, as described under Your Voice and the Microphone. It may download Japanese to recognise it on the device, and if it cannot recognise Japanese offline, it may send your speech to its provider's servers. The service does this, not the App.
g) Google AdMob, for the optional ads described under Ads (Android), and Google's consent form where it applies.
The App contacts no other server. The episodes, their recordings and pictures, and the kana prologue are inside the App itself, so lessons work with no connection at all. On Android, speaking practice needs a connection if your phone cannot recognise Japanese offline. You can skip the speaking, and the rest of the lesson works with no connection.
What We Do Not Do
We never hear your voice. It is recognised on your iPhone and never recorded or sent anywhere. On Android, it is recognised by your phone's speech recognition as described above, and the App never records it or sends it to us.
On iPhone, the App contains no advertising and no tracking across apps. There we serve no ads, we do not collect Apple's advertising identifier, and we do not track you across other companies' apps or websites. This is why the App never shows you an App Tracking Transparency prompt: it has nothing to ask you for.
On Android, the App does show ads, but only ones you choose to watch: a short video that opens the next episode instead of waiting or subscribing. Subscribers never see an ad. These ads come from Google AdMob and use Google's advertising ID, as described under Ads (Android).
We do not sell, rent, or share your information with a data broker.
The App does not ask for access to your location, contacts, photos, or camera. It asks for the microphone and speech recognition, only for speaking practice, and for notifications, only for the texts and reminders above. On Android, it asks only for the microphone and for notifications.
Data Retention and Deletion
How to ask us to delete your data (Okaeri, by Mango Lab). Email mangolab120@gmail.com with the subject "Delete my data". If you ever subscribed or started a free trial, add your Google Play order number (it starts with GPA. and is in your Google Play receipt email) or your Apple receipt, so we can find your records. Within 30 days we delete your purchase record at RevenueCat and your usage records at PostHog, and we tell you by email when it's done. If you never subscribed, your records are filed only under a random identifier we cannot connect to you, as explained under Everything else below. What stays: Google Play's and Apple's own records of your transactions, which they keep under their own policies; Google Analytics counts, which are filed under a random number we cannot connect to you and which Google deletes after 14 months; and ad data that Google AdMob keeps under Google's retention policy (Android). Deleting the App removes everything it stored on your phone.
★ Local data: Deleting the App from your iPhone or Android phone removes all of its local data.
★ iCloud data: Deleting the App does not by itself remove what is already in your iCloud. That data is managed by you through iOS Settings → your name → iCloud. Because it is private to your Apple ID, we cannot delete it for you.
★ Android backup: Deleting the App does not by itself remove what is already in your Google Account's backup. That backup is managed by you through your Google Account and your phone's backup settings. Because it belongs to your Google Account, we cannot delete it for you.
★ Google Analytics: Google keeps this data for the retention period we set in Google Analytics (14 months), then deletes it.
★ Ads (Android): Google keeps ad data under its own retention policy.
★ Our systems: We hold nothing of yours on any server of ours, because we operate none.
★ Everything else: Your purchase record at RevenueCat and your usage records at PostHog are filed under the random identifiers described above, not under your name or email, and the App does not currently show those identifiers. That means we cannot pick out your records from a name or an email address. Deleting the App discards the identifiers from your phone, and from then on the old records are no longer connected to your device. On Android, if backup is on, your backup may bring the identifiers back when the App is installed again. If you would like us to delete records, write to us and we will do everything we can to find and remove them.
Note that deleting the App does not cancel a subscription (cancelling is done in your Apple Account subscription settings, or on Android in the Google Play app under Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions), and that Apple and Google each separately retain their own record of every transaction.
Children's Privacy
The App is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. It requires no account and collects no name, email address, photograph, contact, or precise location from anybody of any age. The optional age question offers broad ranges only, and its youngest answer is "Under 18", so we have no means of determining whether a user is under 13.
Third Party Providers
Four third parties are involved in the operation of the App: Apple on iPhone or Google on Android, RevenueCat, PostHog, and Google Analytics for Firebase.
• Apple: Apple processes your subscription through the App Store, stores your synced progress in your own iCloud, provides the speech recognition and the Japanese voice that run on your iPhone, and says whether an Apple Ads campaign led to this installation. Your relationship for this data is with Apple, under your Apple ID. We have no access to it.
• Google Analytics (on iPhone): Google Analytics for Firebase counts basic use of the App, as described under Analytics.
• Google (on Android): Google Play processes your subscription; Google Analytics for Firebase counts basic use of the App, as described under Analytics; Google AdMob shows the optional ads described under Ads (Android); Android's backup stores your progress in your own Google Account if backup is on; and on most phones, Google provides the speech recognition and the Japanese voice. Your relationship for the backup, the speech services and your payments is with Google, under your Google Account and Google's Privacy Policy. If your phone's maker provides its own speech recognition instead, that maker's privacy policy applies to it. We have no access to that data.
• RevenueCat: RevenueCat validates purchases and manages access to the subscription. It receives its own random identifier, the PostHog identifier, purchase and transaction data, and basic device information. It receives no voice, no answers, and no progress. RevenueCat acts as a processor on our behalf and honours data deletion requests.
• PostHog: PostHog processes product usage on our behalf: the random identifier, the events listed in the Analytics section, device and app version information, and your IP address for approximate location. It is hosted in the United States. It receives no voice and no words you said.
Links to Other Sites
The App may contain links to sites we do not operate, such as the App Store or Google Play for reviews or your email app to contact us. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content or privacy practices of any site run by someone else. We encourage you to review their policies.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with a revised "Last Updated" date. Continued use of the App after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.
Who We Are
Okaeri is built by Mango Lab, a small indie studio. You can reach us about any privacy question at: