Privacy Policy — Worlds in Hand

Last updated: 21 September 2026

Worlds in Hand is free and supported by ads. A one-off in-app purchase removes the ads and unlocks a few extras. This page covers both cases, because they are the same app.

What the app itself collects

There are no app accounts or analytics services of our own. Advertising and optional online features are described below. Every world you see is generated on your device, and every track it plays is written on your device. Your preferences — which effects are on, the sound setting, your saved favourites, your kept music tracks and the world the live wallpaper is showing — are stored only on your own device and never sent anywhere.

Real weather uses online services when enabled. Advertising, consent and Google Play purchases also require network access. The microphone visualiser processes audio locally and does not upload it. Generated scenes and music work offline.

Real weather (optional, off by default)

The sand picture can match the weather where you are. Turning that on asks Android for your approximate location. If you say no, or your device cannot provide one, the app falls back to a rough location worked out from your IP address; if that fails too, it uses its own invented weather instead and nothing leaves the device.

With the feature on, your approximate coordinates are sent to these services to fetch a forecast and a place name to display:

• open-meteo.com — the forecast itself
• bigdatacloud.net — turns the coordinates into a place name
• ipapi.co — used only if no device location is available, and it sees your IP address rather than your coordinates

These are ordinary requests made from your device straight to those services. We run no server, receive nothing back ourselves, and store no location anywhere. The coordinates are used for that one request and then discarded — the app keeps only the resulting weather and place name, on your device, until it refreshes. Turn the feature off and no further requests are made.

The microphone (optional, off by default)

The music visualiser can react to whatever is playing in the room instead of to the app's own music. That needs the microphone, and Android will ask you before it is used.

Nothing is recorded, stored or transmitted. The audio is analysed on the device as it arrives, purely to work out how loud each frequency band is so the bars can move, and it is never written to a file or sent anywhere. The microphone is released the moment you leave the app or switch the source back.

Ads

Until the ad-free purchase is made, the app shows ads served through Google AdMob. To do that, Google AdMob and its advertising partners may collect and use technical identifiers such as your device's advertising ID, app set ID and IP address, along with ad interactions and diagnostic information, for advertising, analytics and fraud prevention. Where permitted by your consent choices, ads may be personalised. This works the same way as ads in most free apps.

We do not receive or see that information ourselves — it is collected and processed by Google under Google's own privacy policy. You can review or reset your advertising ID, and turn off ad personalisation, in your device's Settings → Privacy → Ads (the exact path varies by Android version).

Where required — for example in the EEA and the UK — you will be shown a consent prompt letting you choose whether to allow personalised ads.

Once the unlock has been purchased, the app stops requesting ads, and the ad identifiers are no longer used for new ad requests by the app. Information already collected by Google is subject to its own retention policies.

The purchase

The in-app purchase is handled entirely by Google Play. We never see or receive your name, payment details or billing address — the app only asks Google Play whether this device's Play account owns the product, and records the yes-or-no answer on the device so that the ads stay switched off when you are offline. There is no server of ours involved at any point.

Saving and sharing

The app can save a picture, a short video clip or a rendered music track to your device's Downloads, and hand it to Android's share sheet. Those files are made on your device and go only where you choose to send them. Nothing is uploaded to make them, and we never see them.

The live wallpaper

The live wallpaper runs the same scene on your home screen, entirely on your device. It shows no ads and plays no audio. If Real weather is enabled for the wallpaper, it uses the weather services described above. Animation pauses when the wallpaper is not visible.

Crash reports

The app keeps a limited number of diagnostic reports locally to help investigate crashes. Reports are not uploaded automatically. If you choose to send a crash report, the system sharing options let you choose its destination. A report can contain app and device information and diagnostic traces.

Children's privacy

Worlds in Hand is intended for a general audience and is not directed at children. If you believe a child has used the app and are concerned about ad personalisation, the device-level ad settings above let you opt out at any time.

Changes to this policy

If this ever changes, this page will be updated to reflect that before the change ships.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to hello@bito.ltd.