Privacy Policy — Liquid Glass Launcher

Effective date: 13 October 2026
Previous version: 7 October 2026 (this one adds showing the Island above the status bar through an accessibility service, if you turn that on)
Applies to: the Android app Liquid Glass Launcher (com.awsmaps.liquidglass)

1. The short version

Liquid Glass Launcher is a home-screen replacement. It has no accounts, no sign-in, and no server of our own. Almost everything it knows about you — which apps you have installed, how you arranged them, your wallpaper, your settings — never leaves your phone.

Five things do leave your phone, and only in specific circumstances:

We do not sell your data. We do not build a profile of you. We have nowhere to put one.

2. What stays on your device

A launcher necessarily sees a lot about how you use your phone. All of the following is stored in the app's private storage and is never transmitted anywhere:

• The list of apps installed on your device, used to draw the app drawer and search.
• Your home screen layout — pages, positions, folders, dock, and widgets.
• When you last opened each app from the launcher — the last 24 times for each — so the App Library can suggest apps and put the ones you use first.
• Apps you have hidden from the App Library and search. If you turn on Require Fingerprint, Android itself checks your fingerprint, face or screen lock and tells the app only whether it matched; the app never sees or stores your fingerprint or face.
• Your settings — appearance, icon look, shape and size, grid dimensions, dock, gestures, chosen icon pack.
• Your wallpaper. If you pick a photo, a copy is stored in the app's private storage so the glass effect can refract it. The image is never uploaded.
• Your last known weather coordinates, so the forecast still works when a fresh location fix is unavailable.
• Photos you pick for a Photos widget. You choose them in Android's own photo picker (the app has no access to the rest of your photo library); a copy of each, scaled down, and the date it was taken are kept in the app's private storage. They are never uploaded, and a copy is deleted once no widget uses it.
• People you pick for a Contacts widget. You choose each one in Android's own contact picker (the app has no access to the rest of your contacts); their name, the phone number you picked and the reference that opens their contact card are kept with the widget, so it can show them and open your messages, phone or contacts app for them. They are never uploaded, and they go when you take them off the widget or remove it.
• What you write in a Note, Reminders or Countdown widget, kept with the widget and gone when you remove it.
• Your calendar events, if you allow calendar access for a Calendar widget: read from your device's calendars to draw the widget, and never stored or sent anywhere.
• The charge of your connected earbuds and watch, if you allow "Nearby devices" for the Battery widget: read from Android when the widget is drawn, and never sent anywhere.
• The last song or video something played, if you turn on notification access (below): its title, artist, the app that played it and its artwork, so the Now Playing widget can show it after the music stops.

Notification access (optional)

Notification access is off unless you turn it on in Android's settings, from Settings → Notification Badges or Settings → Island in the app, the Now Playing widget or Control Center; Android shows its own warning before it is turned on. Everything else in the launcher works without it. With it, the app uses three things Android gives it, only on your device:

• Which apps have notifications, and how many, to draw notification badges on their icons — a count or a dot. For the badges it never reads what a notification says.
• What is playing in your music or video app — the title, the artist, the artwork and how far in it is, as the playing app shares them with Android — to show it in Control Center and the Now Playing widget, and on the Island if you turn it on, and to play, pause and skip from there.
• A timer, a call, or something in progress, only while the Island is on with Timers and Live Progress or Calls switched on in Settings → Island: the app looks at each notification to tell whether it is a timer or stopwatch, a call, or something that reports its progress (a download, a recording, directions). Those it shows on the Island in the notification's own words, with its time, its picture and its buttons, for as long as the notification is there. It shows no other notification, message previews included, and it keeps nothing of any of them.

None of this leaves your phone. You can turn the access off at any time in Android Settings → Notifications → Device & app notifications (the name varies by phone).

Showing the Island over other apps (optional)

The Island normally shows only on the launcher's own screens. If you turn on Show Over Other Apps in Settings → Island, the app asks you to allow it to display over other apps, on Android's own screen for that ("Display over other apps", or "Appear on top" on some phones). It is off unless you turn it on, and everything else works without it.

With it, the app draws the Island on top of whatever app you are using, and, as you leave an app whose music or call the Island is showing, that app's icon moving into the Island. It draws nothing else there, and that is all the permission is used for. A window drawn this way cannot see what is under it: the app does not read, capture or record the screen or anything another app shows. Android does not tell it which app is in front either: it knows only which app you opened from Liquid Glass itself, uses that for that one animation, and keeps no record of it. A touch on the Island goes to the Island, and while one of its cards is open a touch beside it only closes the card; every other touch goes to the app you are using. Android itself hides the Island on the lock screen and over its own sensitive screens, and for as long as this is on it shows its own notice that Liquid Glass is displaying over other apps.

You can turn it off at any time in Settings → Island, or in Android Settings → Apps → Special app access → Display over other apps (the name varies by phone).

Showing the Island above the status bar (optional)

Over other apps Android draws its status bar across the Island. If you also turn on Show Above the Status Bar in Settings → Island, the app first shows you what this section says and asks you to agree, and then opens Android's own Accessibility screen, where you turn on the Liquid Glass service. It is off unless you turn it on, and without it the Island over other apps works as described above.

Liquid Glass is not an accessibility tool. It uses Android's accessibility service (the AccessibilityService API) for one purpose: Android lets only an accessibility service's window sit above the status bar, so while the service is on, that is the window the Island is drawn in.

What the service is told, and what the app does with it:

• Android tells the service when a window comes to the front and which app it belongs to. The app uses this for one thing: so the Island is not drawn over the notification panel, the lock screen and Android's other panels. It is used at the moment it arrives and is not stored, not logged and not sent anywhere.
• The service is set up so that it cannot read the content of windows, and the app does not read what is on your screen, what you type, or the title text Android attaches to those notices.
• The one thing it does on your behalf is open the notification panel when you pull down on the Island.
• It listens only while Show Over Other Apps is on.

When you turn on any accessibility service, Android warns that the service can "view and control screen" and "view and perform actions". Android shows that same warning for every accessibility service, whatever it does; the list above is what this one does.

You can turn it off at any time in Settings → Island (the service then switches itself off), or in Android Settings → Accessibility.

Backups you create yourself

The app can export your layout and settings to a JSON file. That file is written only when you ask for it, only to a location you choose in your device's file picker, and it is never uploaded. Your Pro entitlement is deliberately excluded from it.

Separately, Android's own Auto Backup may include the app's data in your Google account backup. That is a function of your device and your Google account settings, not of this app.

3. What leaves your device

3.1 Approximate location — the weather widgets

Only if both are true: you have placed a widget that shows the weather (Weather, Sun, Glance, or a stack holding one) on your home screen, and you have granted location permission when the widget asked.

The app requests coarse location only. It never asks for precise location, so Android gives it a deliberately imprecise fix rather than your exact position. That approximate latitude and longitude is sent to api.met.no to retrieve a forecast, along with a request header identifying the app and its version. No identifier of you or your device is attached.

The forecast is cached and not re-requested more often than every 30 minutes.

met.no is the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, a public body, and its handling of the request is governed by its own privacy terms.

If you deny the permission, everything else in the launcher works normally and the widget tells you what it needs.

3.2 Advertising ID and ad interactions — AdMob

Only if you have not purchased Pro. Pro removes all advertising, permanently.

The app shows banner advertisements supplied by Google AdMob, and a video advertisement only when you choose to watch one to try Pro for ten minutes. The AdMob SDK collects your device's advertising ID, ad interaction data (impressions and clicks), and technical information about your device, and uses it to select and measure ads. Google acts as an independent controller of that data under its own policies.

You can reset or delete your advertising ID at any time in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads, which is a device-level control outside this app.

3.3 Crash reports and diagnostics — Firebase Crashlytics

When the app crashes or encounters an error, a report is sent to Google Firebase Crashlytics. It contains the crash stack trace, your device model, operating system version, and an app-generated installation identifier. It does not contain your app list, your layout, your wallpaper, or your location.

We use these reports for one purpose: finding and fixing bugs.

You can turn this off. Settings → Privacy → Crash Reports. It takes effect immediately and stays off until you turn it back on.

3.4 Usage statistics — Firebase Analytics

We measure a small, fixed set of things about how the app is used, so that we can tell which parts of it are working:

• whether the first-run walkthrough was finished or skipped, and which step you were on;
• whether a widget was added, and if it was one of ours, which of our widgets it was;
• a change to one of our own widgets' settings, as a choice from a fixed list or a count (a clock's dial shape, how many photos a Photos widget holds) — never what you wrote or picked;
• whether the app is set as your home screen;
• whether you are on the free or the Pro version, and whether the ten-minute Pro trial was started and how it ended;
• how many of our own widgets are on your home screen (as a range, not an exact figure);
• whether Settings, Control Center or the Add Widget sheet was opened;
• which icon look (Colourful, Dark, Clear or Tinted) and which appearance (Light, Dark or Automatic) you use, and for Tinted its colour as one of thirteen colour names, never the exact colour;
• which of our own wallpapers you chose. A photo of yours, your phone's own wallpaper or a live wallpaper is recorded only as "photo", "system" or "live".

Alongside these, Google's SDK records the usual technical context: your device model, operating system version, coarse country, and an app-generated installation identifier.

What we deliberately do not record. We never send which apps you have installed, which apps you open, the names or icons of anything on your home screen, your folder names, your search terms, a wallpaper photo of yours, or the contents of any widget. This is enforced in the app's source code, not just by policy: the only usage events that can be sent are a fixed list written into the app, and a third-party widget is counted without recording which one it was.

We do not use this data for advertising, and it is not shared with anyone. Google processes it on our behalf as our service provider.

You can turn this off. Settings → Privacy → Usage Analytics. It takes effect immediately and stays off until you turn it back on. It is a separate switch from crash reporting, so turning one off does not turn off the other.

If you are in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland and you decline the consent form described in §4, usage analytics is switched off for you as well.

3.5 Your purchase — Google Play Billing

If you buy Pro, the transaction is handled entirely by Google Play. We never see your payment details. We receive only the fact that the purchase exists, which is what unlocks the paid features.

4. Advertising consent in the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, the app shows a consent form the first time it runs, using Google's User Messaging Platform. Ads are not requested at all until you have answered it, and the advertising SDK is not even initialised before then.

You can change or withdraw your answer at any time: Settings → Privacy → Ad Privacy Options.

That answer covers usage analytics too. If a form was shown to you and you declined it, the usage statistics in §3.4 are switched off along with personalised advertising — the app mirrors your answer into Google Consent Mode rather than treating measurement as exempt from it.

5. Permissions, and what each one is actually for

The app does not request permission to read your contacts, messages, call logs, files, photos library, microphone, or camera. With notification access on, Android would let it see notifications' text, including message previews; the app looks at it only for the Island's timers, calls and progress, only while those are switched on, and keeps none of it (see §2).

6. How long data is kept

We hold no user data on any server, so there is nothing for us to retain or delete.

• On your device: everything is kept until you clear the app's data or uninstall it. Uninstalling removes all of it.
• Google AdMob, Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Analytics: retained according to Google's own retention policies, which we do not control.

7. Children

This app is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect data from children.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict the processing of your personal data.

Because we operate no server and hold no account, the practical routes are:

• Advertising data: reset or delete your advertising ID in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads, and change your consent via Settings → Privacy → Ad Privacy Options.
• Crash diagnostics: turn off Settings → Privacy → Crash Reports.
• Usage statistics: turn off Settings → Privacy → Usage Analytics.
• Location, calendar, nearby devices: revoke the permission in Android Settings → Apps → Liquid Glass Launcher → Permissions. The stored last-known coordinates are cleared when you clear app data.
• Notification access: turn it off in Android's notification settings (see §2). The last played track the app kept is cleared when you clear app data.
• Everything else: uninstall the app, or clear its data.

For anything else, or to ask a question about this policy, contact ahmedmustafa503@gmail.com.

Where we rely on a legal basis under the UK/EU GDPR: advertising is processed on the basis of your consent (§4); crash diagnostics and usage statistics on the basis of our legitimate interest in keeping the app working and knowing which parts of it people can actually use, and in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland on the basis of your consent as well (§4); location on the basis of your consent, given through the Android permission prompt.

9. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, the updated version will be published at this address with a new effective date.