Felt

Privacy Policy

Effective August 2, 2026

Operator: Blue Goat Studios ("we," "us") · App: Felt (iOS)

Summary

Felt helps trusted people share quiet presence without chat pressure. Care is shared only with people you invite through Apple's iCloud/CloudKit systems—not through Blue Goat Studios servers.

  • We do not run a social feed, sell ads, or profile your relationships for marketing.
  • We do not show senders whether you are in Rest, have muted their care, or have opened care.
  • Release builds do not use experimental nearby device relay (Debug builds only).

Who this applies to

This policy applies to the Felt iPhone app, its Apple Watch companion, and its widgets when distributed by Blue Goat Studios.

Information we collect

Information we do not collect on our servers

We do not operate servers that receive your care signals, bond list, or presence settings. Care signals you send are not uploaded to Blue Goat Studios for storage or processing.

Information stored on your devices

Felt stores the following locally on your iPhone:

  • Names and settings for people you connect with ("bonds")
  • Your presence / orb preferences, including your Signature and current Mood, Energy, Openness, and Focus choices
  • Whether you are in Rest, and per-person care-muting settings you choose
  • A short local history of care you have sent (for your own reference—not shown as delivery receipts to others)
  • A protected local retry queue for care that has not yet been handed to iCloud; unsent items expire after 24 hours
  • A pseudonymous installation/device sync identifier used for CloudKit care routing (not used for advertising)

Felt stores bonds, blocks, Rest state, held care, accepted-invite handoffs, staged incoming care, replay protection, retry state, and your current Mood, Energy, Openness, and Focus choices in versioned files protected by Apple's complete file-protection class. These choices shape one global orb rather than per-person requests. Felt's on-device App Group stores only coarse companion state: whether warmth is present, whether Rest is active and when a timed Rest ends, orb preset/style identifiers, and a revision token used to prevent stale dismissal. It does not store those four choice labels, bond names, or a friend list.

This data may be included in your device's encrypted backup (e.g. iCloud Backup) if you enable backup. That backup is controlled by Apple and your Apple ID settings—not by Felt's servers.

Information shared between your Apple devices

If you use Felt with Apple Watch or widgets, WatchConnectivity and the App Group synchronize only abstract glance state such as warmth, rest, orb style, and the local Reduce Motion preference. The payload does not include sender names, care-signal content, read status, or live activity. Blue Goat Studios does not receive these device-to-device syncs.

Information shared through iCloud/CloudKit

When you create or request access to a Felt connection, the app uses a private iCloud/CloudKit share. Opening a Felt invitation submits an access request; the owner approves one named requester before that person becomes a participant. The app may then store records needed to share care with that invited person:

  • Private pair/share metadata and access-request state for the 1:1 connection
  • The display name you choose, so the person accepting your invitation can identify you
  • Pseudonymous device sync identifiers used to route care between the two participants
  • Care-event records such as the care signal type, creation time, and a coarse snapshot of the orb you deliberately chose to send

The invitation URL does not grant public read or write access to the care hierarchy. The snapshot is attached only to an explicit care send and is not live activity or availability. Incoming care remains staged locally until Felt confirms that its protected local state was committed, which reduces loss or duplicate presentation after interruption. These records are used for app functionality and are not read receipts. Felt does not store whether the recipient opened care, is resting, muted a sender's care, or blocked someone in records visible to the sender.

Information we do not collect

  • Contact list import or address-book scraping
  • Precise location
  • Health records or clinical diagnoses
  • Chat transcripts (Felt is not a messaging app)
  • Advertising identifiers for cross-app tracking
  • Analytics or crash reporting sent to Blue Goat Studios (none integrated in current builds)

How we use information

We use information only to provide the app experience you asked for: showing your orb, pairing with people you invite, delivering care to people you select, holding care during rest, and showing identity-free warmth/rest glance surfaces on your Watch and widgets. We do not use your data for advertising or sell it to data brokers.

What senders and recipients see

  • Senders see only that care is on its way—not whether you are resting, have muted their care, or have opened care.
  • Recipients see care as orb warmth and arrivals, not as an inbox with read receipts.

Your data and deletion choices

  • Rest — temporarily hold incoming care without notifying senders.
  • Mute care — discard care received from a specific person during the muted interval without telling the sender.
  • Pause — discard care during the paused interval; resuming applies only to future care.
  • Block — prevent a participant from reconnecting or delivering care until you explicitly unblock them.
  • Delete unsent signals — remove the protected local retry queue from Settings before its automatic 24-hour expiry.
  • Remove a connection — remove its local relationship state and ask iCloud to remove or leave the private shared hierarchy; failed remote cleanup retries without restoring the local connection.
  • Delete the app — removes local app data from your device; does not delete data on someone else's device or records already shared through iCloud.

Settings provides direct links to this policy, support, and this data-and-deletion section. Felt does not create a separate Blue Goat Studios account, so there is no separate account-deletion request inside the app.

Children

Felt is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Security

We use Apple's complete file-protection class for sensitive local app files and rely on Apple's platform security for data at rest on your device and Apple's iCloud/CloudKit security for records shared through iCloud. We do not add a Blue Goat Studios server for care delivery in this version.

Crisis resources

Felt is not a medical device, therapist, crisis line, or emergency service. In the United States, call or text 988 for suicide, mental-health, or substance-use crisis support. Call 911 for immediate physical danger. Outside the United States, contact the appropriate crisis line or emergency service where you are.

International users

If you use Felt outside the United States, you are responsible for ensuring your use complies with local law. iCloud/CloudKit processing is provided by Apple and may depend on your Apple ID region and Apple's terms.

Changes

We may update this policy. We will post the new version at this URL and update the effective date. The updated effective date will identify when the revised policy applies.

Contact

Questions or requests: support@bluegoatstudios.com

Apple's handling of iCloud data is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.