Shwssh
Privacy policy
Shwssh collects nothing about you. There is no account, no analytics and no advertising, and nothing the app makes or reads is ever sent to us. Your own recordings can travel to your other devices through your own iCloud account, and you can switch that off.
Last updated 9 October 2026, for Shwssh 2.2.
What stays on your device
All of the following is stored in the app's own private storage on your iPhone or iPad:
- Sounds you record and heartbeats you make, including their audio files.
- Which sounds are in your mix and the level each one is set to.
- Your settings, such as the sleep timer, the season and the moon.
- The times you start sounds, kept so the lock screen card can learn your bedtime. Only the times are kept, and each is forgotten after four weeks.
- Tonight's list of cries, if you use the cry setting described below. It is cleared the next time you set a sleep timer, eight or more hours later.
If you have iCloud Backup switched on, your device backup is handled by Apple under Apple's terms, not by us.
Your recordings in iCloud
With Recordings in iCloud on in Settings, the sounds you record and the heartbeats you make, with their names and lengths, are stored in your own private iCloud database so they appear on your other iPhones and iPads signed in to the same Apple Account. That database belongs to your account: Apple stores it under Apple's terms, and we cannot see it, read it or reach it. Turning the setting off or signing out of iCloud never removes anything from your device. The built-in sounds, your mixes and your settings are not sent to iCloud.
The microphone
Shwssh uses the microphone for two things, and only when you ask it to:
- Recording your own sounds. While you hold the Record button, or between tapping it to start and tapping it to stop, the microphone is recorded into a sound in My Sounds.
- Bringing the sounds back for a cry. This setting is off unless you turn it on. With it on, after a sleep timer has faded out, Shwssh listens for up to four hours using Apple's sound recognition, which runs entirely on your device. It decides only whether the sound is a baby crying. Nothing it hears is recorded, saved or sent anywhere.
Your heartbeat
Make My Heartbeat turns your own heart rate into a sound. It can use any of three sources, and only the one you choose:
- Health. Shwssh reads your resting heart rate and heart rate from the Health app, with your permission. It never writes to Health.
- Apple Watch. The watch measures your heart rate for 30 seconds and sends the readings to your iPhone. It needs permission to run a short workout to do that; the workout is thrown away when the measurement ends and is never saved to Health.
- The camera. With a fingertip over the back camera and its light on, each camera frame is reduced to a single brightness number to find your pulse and then discarded. No photo or video is taken or kept.
Health readings and camera frames never leave your device. The heartbeat sound that results is kept like any of your recordings, including in iCloud if that setting is on.
Your Apple Watch and Apple TV
Your iPhone and Apple Watch share what is playing, the controls and your heartbeat readings directly with each other. On your home network, the iPhone also offers your recordings to the Shwssh app on an Apple TV, so you can play them there. These go straight between your own devices and never through us.
No third parties
There are no advertising networks, no analytics providers, no crash reporting services and no social or tracking software development kits in this app. No data is sold or shared, because none is gathered in the first place. Nothing is used for tracking as the App Store defines it.
Children
Shwssh is made for parents and carers of small children and is intended to be operated by an adult. It collects no personal information from anyone, of any age. Because nothing is collected, there is nothing to request, correct or delete from any server of ours.
Your control
Delete a recording or heartbeat by swiping it away in My Sounds. With Recordings in iCloud on, your other devices set it aside for thirty days in case the deletion was a mistake, then remove it. Switch Recordings in iCloud or the cry setting off at any time in Shwssh's Settings. Revoke microphone, camera, Health or local network access at any time in the iOS Settings app. Deleting the app removes everything it has stored on that device.
Changes
If this policy changes, the revised version will be posted here with a new date above. If a future version of the app ever collects anything, that will be said here plainly and before it happens.
Contact
Questions about this policy: [email protected]