MetroGnome Get the app

Privacy Policy

Effective July 26, 2026 · MetroGnome for iOS, published by Polite Cactus, LLC

The short version: MetroGnome has no accounts, no logins and no server-side content. Your settings and saved patterns live on your device. The tuner's microphone audio is analyzed in memory and never recorded, stored or transmitted. The free version shows ads, which involves the advertising services described below — and a one-time purchase removes them entirely.

What the app collects

Nothing, for the core features

The metronome, pattern editor, pattern library and tuner all run entirely on your device. We do not require an account and we cannot see your patterns, settings or usage of these features on any server of ours.

Microphone (tuner only)

The tuner uses the microphone solely for real-time pitch detection, performed on your device. Audio is analyzed in memory and immediately discarded. It is never recorded, stored or transmitted — audio never leaves your phone. The microphone is not used by any other part of the app.

Advertising (free version) — Google AdMob

The free version shows banner and occasional interstitial ads served by Google AdMob. Like most mobile ad networks, AdMob may collect device identifiers (such as the advertising identifier), coarse technical information about your device, and ad-interaction data to serve and measure ads. If you grant the iOS App Tracking Transparency permission, the advertising identifier may be used to show fewer, more relevant ads; if you decline, ads still work but are not personalized using that identifier. In the European Economic Area and the UK, Google's consent dialog (UMP) asks for your choices before personalized ads are shown, and you can change those choices any time from within the app's settings. See Google's privacy policy for details on Google's processing.

Purchasing Remove Ads Forever stops ad serving entirely, and with it the advertising data collection described above.

Crash reporting — Bugsnag

If the app crashes, a diagnostic report is sent to Bugsnag so we can find and fix the bug. Crash reports contain technical information — stack traces, device model, OS version, app version and app state at the time of the crash. They do not contain your patterns, your audio, or anything you typed.

Analytics — PoliteIQ

We use PoliteIQ, our own analytics service, to understand which features are used — events like "app opened", "pattern saved" or "tuner used", together with app version and device-type information. This helps us decide what to build next. These events are about feature usage, not content: they never include your audio, your pattern contents, or personal identifiers like a name or email address.

Purchases

The Remove Ads purchase is processed entirely by Apple. We never see your payment details. Apple provides us only an anonymous receipt used to unlock the purchase on your devices.

What the app never collects

  • No account, name, email address or contact information
  • No recordings — tuner audio is analyzed in memory and discarded
  • No location data
  • No contacts, photos or files

Your choices

  • Ad personalization — decline the App Tracking Transparency prompt (or change it later in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking), and, in the EEA/UK, update your consent choices from within the app.
  • Remove ads entirely — the one-time Remove Ads Forever purchase ends ad serving for good.
  • Microphone — revoke access any time in iOS Settings; everything except the tuner works without it.
  • Delete your data — deleting the app deletes your on-device settings and patterns, which is all the personal data there is.

Children

MetroGnome is rated 4+ and does not knowingly collect personal information from children. There are no accounts, no chat and no user-generated content that leaves the device.

Changes

If we change this policy, the new version will be posted at this address with an updated effective date. Material changes will be called out in the app's release notes.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email [email protected] — or see support for more ways to reach us. MetroGnome is published by Polite Cactus, LLC (politecactus.com).