Last updated: August 23, 2026

Tethers is designed to help you stay close to people without turning your relationships into a data product. There is no Tethers account, no advertising, no third-party analytics, and no tracking across apps or websites.

What Tethers stores

Tethers can store the information you choose to add, including names, contact details, photos, birthdays, relationship notes, tiers, reminders, and check-in history.

By default, this information is stored on your device. If you enable iCloud for Tethers, it can sync through your private iCloud database so it is available on your Apple devices. The Tethers developer does not operate a relationship-data server and cannot browse your local or private iCloud relationship database.

Your data remains until you delete individual records, delete Tethers and its data, or remove the corresponding iCloud data using Apple’s controls. iCloud retention and account security are governed by Apple’s terms and privacy policy.

Contacts and photos

Tethers requests Contacts or Photos access only when you use a feature that needs it.

• Contacts access lets you choose a person to link or import. Tethers may copy the fields you select into its local database and, if you use iCloud sync, your private iCloud database.
• Photos access lets you choose profile or contact images. Selected images are stored with the corresponding Tethers record and may sync through your private iCloud database if iCloud sync is enabled.

Tethers does not upload your Contacts address book or photo library to a developer-operated server.

Notifications, widgets, Shortcuts, import, and export

Reminders are scheduled through Apple’s notification system. Widgets, the share extension, and Shortcuts use Apple platform features and a private App Group container to exchange the minimum state needed for the action you request.

If you export a Tethers backup, the exported file contains the data shown in the export confirmation. You control where that file is saved or shared. If you import a backup, its contents are added to Tethers only after you confirm.

On-device Message Ideas

Tethers can use Apple’s on-device language model to read the notes you have chosen to store and create message ideas. The on-device reading, drafting, validation, and ranking happen on your device. Tethers never sends a message automatically.

Optional Private Deep Read

On supported iOS 27 devices, Tethers can offer Private Deep Read for a relationship with enough history. This feature is optional and does nothing until you tap Deepen privately.

For that request, Tethers sends Apple Private Cloud Compute:

• redacted fragments from the selected relationship’s notes and note-bearing check-ins;