The short version
Soundscape Studio turns a place you describe, photograph or speak into an ambient sleep soundscape. There is no account, no sign-in, no ads, no analytics and no tracking. Your scenes, mixes, wind-down scripts and settings are kept in the app's own storage on your iPhone.
Text only leaves your phone when you use a cloud feature after you tap Allow on the "Cloud sound coaching" sheet. If you decline, the app keeps working on your device: it drafts scenes from your photo locally and builds the mix with its on-device synthesizer.
What leaves your phone, and when
| Feature | What is sent | Sent to |
|---|---|---|
| Coach | The scene brief you typed, plus short notes the app keeps about earlier mixes for that scene (for example "Generated mix for Rainy rails"). | DeepSeek (api.deepseek.com) for text suggestions |
| Photo → scene | Never the photo itself. Your iPhone reads the photo on device and only the resulting text is sent: up to eight scene labels, up to six lines of any text visible in the picture, and a light/colour note. | DeepSeek |
| Speak it | The text transcript of what you said, never the recording file. | DeepSeek |
| Generate mix | A music prompt built from your scene text (up to 2,000 characters). | MiniMax (api.minimax.cn) for instrumental audio |
| Wind-down voice | The short wind-down script, which quotes up to 90 characters of your scene and the names of its sound layers. | MiniMax text-to-speech |
The app sends these requests directly from your phone. We do not run our own server for the app and we do not receive a copy of what you send. The providers process the text to return a reply or audio, under their own terms and privacy policies. Their servers are located in mainland China, so using a cloud feature means your text is transferred there.
Microphone and speech recognition
When you tap Speak it, the app asks for the microphone and speech recognition. It records up to 30 seconds into a temporary file on your phone and turns it into text with Apple's speech recognition. Depending on your iPhone and settings, Apple may process that audio on its own servers to recognise it, under Apple's privacy policy. On newer iOS versions the app can also transcribe entirely on device as a fallback. The recording is not sent to DeepSeek or MiniMax, and it is replaced the next time you record.
Camera, photos and the photo library
Snap a place uses the camera; Pick a photo uses the system photo picker, which only hands the app the single picture you choose. The chosen picture is saved inside the app so its mix cover still shows after a relaunch. When you tap Save to Photos, the app asks for add-only access and writes the cover image into your library; it cannot read your other photos. Sharing a cover uses the iOS share sheet and goes only where you send it.
Kept on your iPhone
- Scene briefs and their history of coach suggestions and readings
- Your mix library, layer volumes and generated audio files
- Wind-down scripts and their narration audio
- Scene photos you chose for covers
- Settings: bedtime reminder time, notice preferences, and your cloud consent choice
None of this is uploaded or backed up by us. Removing a mix in Library deletes its audio and its linked wind-down scripts. Deleting the app removes everything it stored. Normal iPhone or iCloud device backups may include app data under your Apple settings.
Notifications
The bedtime wind-down reminder and the "mix is ready" notice are local notifications scheduled on your phone at the time you pick. No push service is used and nothing is sent to a server. Turn them off in the app's Settings or in iOS Settings.
Your choices
- Cloud consent: nothing is sent until you tap Allow. Revoke at any time in Settings → Cloud AI → "Revoke cloud access"; requests already in progress are cancelled.
- Permissions: camera, microphone, speech recognition and photo access can each be changed in iOS Settings → Soundscape Studio.
- Deletion: remove mixes in Library, or delete the app to erase all of its data.
Because we don't hold your data on our side, there is no account to close. If you want to ask DeepSeek or MiniMax about data they processed, contact them directly; we can help you with that by email.
Children, changes and contact
Soundscape Studio is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If this policy changes, we will update this page and the revision date above, and the in-app consent sheet will ask again when the cloud disclosure changes.
Questions: nightdesk@rainwindow.studio