Who we are
Malachi Speaks is developed by Hunter Barnett, an independent developer. It is a free, tap-to-speak picture communication board (AAC — Augmentative and Alternative Communication) built to help nonverbal and minimally verbal individuals communicate.
Data we collect
None. Malachi Speaks does not have user accounts, does not use analytics, does not show ads, and does not use any crash-reporting or tracking services. We have no server that stores your information — there is nothing for us to collect.
Where your information lives
Everything you set up in the app — tiles, categories, spoken phrases, custom photos, voice recordings, saved typing phrases, the caregiver PIN, and your settings — is saved only in local storage on your own device. It is never uploaded to us or to any third party. If you uninstall the app or clear its data, this information is deleted along with it.
If you turn on profiles, each person's board and settings are kept separately on the same device. All of it stays local in the same way, and deleting a profile deletes its board, photos, and recordings with it.
Camera and photo access
If you choose to add a custom photo to a tile, the app will ask for permission to use your camera or photo library. Any photo you select is copied into the app's local storage on your device only. It is not transmitted anywhere.
Microphone and voice recordings
A tile can speak in a recorded voice instead of the built-in synthetic one. If you choose to record, the app will ask for permission to use the microphone. The app only records while you are on the recording screen and have pressed record, and it stops on its own after ten seconds.
The recording is saved as a file in the app's local storage on your device and nowhere else. It is not transmitted to us or to any third party, it is not used for speech recognition, and nothing you record is analysed or sent for processing. You can play a recording back, replace it, or remove it at any time from the tile's edit screen. Removing a tile or deleting a profile removes its recordings too.
If you never record anything, the app never asks for the microphone.
Typing to speak
If Type to Speak is turned on, the messages typed on that screen are spoken and then kept only in the device's memory for that session, so they can be repeated during a conversation. They are never written to storage, never included in a backup, and are gone when the app is closed. Only phrases deliberately saved to the phrase list are kept, and those stay on the device like anything else on the board.
Symbol search (Global Symbols)
When a caregiver searches for a picture to add to a tile, the app sends only the search word you type (for example, "water") to Global Symbols, a free third-party symbol library service, in order to fetch matching images. No personal information, device identifiers, or account information is included in that request. You can review Global Symbols' own privacy practices for how they handle search requests to their service.
If you paste a direct image URL into the app instead of searching, the app fetches that image directly from the address you provided.
If you have downloaded the offline picture symbols (below), matches from that download are found on the device itself and no search word leaves the device for them at all.
Offline picture symbols
The app can download a one-time pack of picture symbols so that searching for a picture works without an internet connection. This is entirely optional — the app never downloads it on its own, only when a caregiver taps Download in Settings.
The pack is a single file hosted on GitHub. Downloading it sends no personal information, no device identifier, and no account information. As with downloading any file from any website, GitHub can see the network request itself, including the IP address it came from; you can review GitHub's privacy statement for how they handle that.
Once downloaded, the symbols are stored on the device and are never sent anywhere. You can remove them at any time from Settings to free up the space; pictures already placed on tiles are copies and stay on the board.
The picture symbols are by ARASAAC (arasaac.org), author Sergio Palao, owned by the Government of Aragón (Spain), licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Backup and export
The app lets you export a backup of your board to a file, either as its own backup file or in Open Board Format (.obz) for use in another AAC app. It also lets you print a board to a PDF. Each of these only happens when you choose to do it, and the file is shared using your device's own share/export/print screen — the app does not automatically send any of them anywhere.
That file contains the board itself along with any custom photos and voice recordings on it, so treat an exported backup the way you would treat those photos and recordings: wherever you send or store it, they go with it. The app can also keep automatic backups on a schedule you choose; those are written to the device's own storage and are not sent anywhere.
Children's privacy
Malachi Speaks is built for use by and with children as an assistive communication tool, and it is designed with that in mind: there are no ads, no in-app purchases, no accounts, no social features, and no data collection of any kind for users of any age, including children under 13.
Changes to this policy
If this policy ever changes, the update will be posted on this page with a new "Last updated" date.
Contact
Questions about this policy or the app can be sent to hbarnett@malachispeaks.com.