What Narrate collects about you
Meantime Studio receives nothing. There is no sign-in, no user account, and no profile. Meantime Studio runs no server for Narrate and does not receive your books, your listening, your notes, or any identifier for your device.
One exception, only if you turn it on. If you connect Narrate to your own Hardcover account, the books you listen to and your progress are sent to Hardcover, linked to that account. That is why Narrate's App Store privacy label lists Usage Data: Product Interaction, linked to you, for app functionality. If you never connect Hardcover, nothing is sent.
No tracking, no advertising
Narrate contains no analytics, no crash-reporting service, no advertising, and no third-party tracking SDKs of any kind.
What stays on your device and in your iCloud
Your books, listening positions, highlights, notes, saved books and settings are kept on your iPhone and, when iCloud Drive is on, in your own iCloud Drive, where only you can see them.
The text is made on your device
Narrate transcribes audiobooks and lines the words up with the book using Apple's on-device speech recognition. Translations use Apple's on-device translation. Your audio is not uploaded anywhere.
Who Narrate talks to
- Free book sources. Audiobooks, ebooks and covers are fetched directly from LibriVox, the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg and Open Library, and from any catalogue you add. Those servers see your IP address and what you download, as they would in a web browser.
- Public libraries. If you look for a library, Narrate reads the Palace Project's public directory. If you sign in with a library card, the card number and PIN are kept in your iPhone's Keychain and sent only to that library.
- Hardcover, if you connect it. With your own Hardcover API key, the books you listen to and your progress are sent to your Hardcover account. The key stays in your iPhone's Keychain. You can stop sharing or disconnect at any time in Settings.
- Apple. iOS downloads its speech and translation models from Apple when they are first needed.
Each of those services' own privacy policy covers what it keeps.
Children
Narrate asks no one, including children, for personal information. Nothing about you leaves your device unless you connect a Hardcover account or sign in to a library yourself.
Changes
If this policy changes, the revised version will be posted on this page with a new date below.
Contact
Questions about privacy: hi@meantime.work
Meantime Studio · Last updated 18 October 2026