Effective date: 30 October 2026
SleepStop is a two-part application: a phone app (Android) that mutes whatever audio is playing when you fall asleep, and a companion smartwatch app (currently Garmin) that senses when you have fallen asleep and tells the phone to mute. This policy explains what the apps access, why, and where that information goes. In short: SleepStop keeps everything on your own devices. It has no server, collects no analytics, shows no ads, and never sells or shares your data.
In this policy, "we"/"the developer" refers to the developer of SleepStop, and "you" refers to the person using it.
What information the apps access, and why
On the watch (smartwatch app, currently Garmin):
- Heart rate and resting heart rate - read to detect the drop and stability in heart rate that accompany falling asleep, and to calibrate the sleep threshold to your own body.
- Activity (step count / movement) - read to tell "lying still" apart from "moving/awake".
- Stress and respiration rate - read only as reference signals recorded alongside the trace; they help us understand a night, and are not used to sell or profile you.
On the phone (Android app):
- Audio focus / which app is currently playing sound - used solely to pause/mute that audio when a "fell asleep" signal arrives. The app does not read, record, or transmit the audio itself.
- Notification access (a special permission you grant separately, not a pop-up) - SleepStop asks for this so it can see which app is playing and its track title/position. With a watch, that is what lets Rewind to when I fell asleep seek the audio to roughly where you fell asleep and undo a mute you tap "I was awake" on. Without a watch, it is what lets History and Stats name the app and show where the audio was left (What you fall asleep to), and lets the "I was awake - resume" offer put the audio back where it stopped - nothing is wound back in that mode. SleepStop reads only this playback information - never the content of your notifications (messages, emails, or anything else). You can revoke this at any time in Android's notification-access settings; rewinding stops, and History and Stats can only say that something was stopped, not what, until you grant it again.
- Post notifications - a separate, ordinary permission used only to show the "sleep monitor is running" notification Android requires for a background service, and the brief "I was awake - resume" offer after a mute.
The apps do not access your contacts, location, microphone, camera, photos, messages, or any account credentials.
Where the information goes
All information stays on your own devices:
- The watch records a heart-rate/activity trace locally on the watch itself, in the watch app's own storage. It sends the phone only two things, over a local Bluetooth (BLE) connection relayed by your watch's companion app on the phone (currently Garmin Connect Mobile): a "fell asleep" event, and an hourly connection check that carries no personal data (only a number confirming which of the phone's messages arrived), so the phone can warn you if that connection stops working. The trace itself stays on the watch (beta testers' builds are the one exception - see below).
- The phone stores your settings and a history of mute events locally on the phone (Android app storage). When Notification access is granted, that history includes the app name and track/episode title read via it, and where playback was left - so History can show you what happened and Stats can tell you what you usually fall asleep to. This data powers the History and Stats screens and never leaves the phone.
- The phone sends a little information back to the watch over that same local Bluetooth link: that you tapped "I was awake" on a stop, that a stop silenced nothing, and the sleep hours you've set - so the watch can correct itself and know when to expect you to sleep. These are signals and settings, never recordings: no audio, no notification content, and nothing about what you were listening to.
There is no SleepStop server or cloud. Your data is not uploaded to us, not shared with third parties, not used for advertising, and not sold. SleepStop contains no analytics, tracking, or third-party advertising SDKs, beyond Google Play's own billing system described below.
Relationship to Garmin
SleepStop's watch app runs on the Garmin Connect IQ platform and communicates with the phone through the Garmin Connect Mobile app. Any data that your Garmin watch or Garmin Connect syncs to Garmin's own cloud (for example your heart-rate or sleep history in the Garmin Connect app) is collected and governed by Garmin's own privacy policy, not this one. SleepStop only receives Bluetooth messages through the Connect IQ SDK; it does not access your Garmin account or Garmin's cloud services.
Subscription payments (Google Play Billing)
The smartwatch-detection tier is a paid subscription, purchased and managed entirely through Google Play's billing system. Google Play collects and processes your payment details directly (for example your card information) - SleepStop never sees or has access to it. As part of running that payment service, Google Play's billing software also sends its own technical/diagnostic information to Google (for example to keep the purchase flow working and detect fraud); that is Google's data, handled under Google Play's own privacy policy, not this one, and separate from anything SleepStop itself collects. Beyond operating that payment service, no purchase or subscription information is sent to a SleepStop server - because there isn't one.
Android permissions we request, and why
- Foreground service (special use) - to keep the sleep monitor / watch receiver running while your music app is in front and the screen is off; this is what lets muting work at night.
- Notification access (see above) - optional; powers Rewind to when I fell asleep and the undo offer, and the app name in History and Stats without one.
- Post notifications - to display the required ongoing foreground-service notification, and the brief undo offer after a mute.
- Unrestricted battery use (optional, set by you) - SleepStop does not request this permission itself; it only opens its own App info page so you can choose Unrestricted there if you want to. Overnight detection is the app's whole purpose, and Android's power saving can delay a background app's timers. You may leave it as it is; the app will still run.
- Wake lock - briefly keeps the processor awake while a rewind steps back through several chapters, a few seconds at most, so the sequence cannot stall for minutes if the phone falls back asleep mid-sequence.
- Run at startup - only if you left watch muting switched on (a session in progress, or Automatic sleep detection): after the phone restarts or SleepStop is updated, the watch receiver is started again on its own, so that night is not silently lost until you next open the app. Otherwise it does nothing.
- Vibrate - for optional feedback.
- Internet - required by the Garmin Connect IQ SDK to relay the watch's Bluetooth message through the Garmin Connect Mobile app, and present as a standard Android/React Native toolchain default. SleepStop itself makes no network calls and has no server to send data to.
For opt-in beta testers only
This section does not describe the app you install as an ordinary user - that version cannot do any of it. Collecting raw traces is not a feature we ship switched off: the code for it is not built into the public app at all. It exists only in a separate build handed directly to testers.
A small number of people helping us test SleepStop before release follow instructions we send them directly to additionally collect the raw heart-rate/activity trace the watch already records, and to share that file with us - by email or another method described in those instructions - so we can improve how accurately SleepStop detects sleep.
If you are testing SleepStop and a trace file reaches us this way, we use it only to tune detection accuracy, keep it only as long as that work needs it, and can delete it on request - write to sleepstop.app@gmail.com.
Data retention and deletion
Because all data is local, you are in full control:
- Use Clear history on the phone's History screen to erase the stored mute-event history.
- Uninstalling the phone app removes its settings, history, and any received trace records.
- Uninstalling the watch app removes the locally stored trace on the watch.
We keep no copies, because we never receive any copy in the first place.
Children
SleepStop is not directed at children and is not intended for use by children under the age of 16.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we will update the "Effective date" above and post the new version at the same location. Material changes will be reflected before a new app version that relies on them is released.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your data: sleepstop.app@gmail.com