WidgetVibes - Pixel Widgets Privacy Policy

1. Overview

Pixel Widgets is an Android app with a gallery of more than a hundred pixel-art home-screen widgets — digital, analog and world clocks, calendars and countdowns, weather, a compass, steps, battery and device readings, earbud and watch batteries, screen time, music controls, photo frames, contacts, quotes, notes and checklists, app folders, dashboards, games and mascots. Each one can be customised in the app and placed on your launcher. The app speaks nineteen languages.

Pixel Widgets keeps your content on your device. WidgetVibes does not create user accounts for Pixel Widgets, does not ask for your name or email address, and runs no server that receives anything you set up in the app. There is no login, no synchronisation, and no analytics or crash-reporting library in the app.

Many widgets draw on information from your phone. That information is read on your device, used there to draw your widgets, and stays there. What does leave the device goes only to these services, each described below:

OpenWeather receives the place a weather widget shows. That is either a city you searched for or, if you choose Current location, the phone’s approximate location.
Google AdMob and Google’s User Messaging Platform handle the optional rewarded ads and the ad consent form. Ads use your device’s advertising ID. None of this runs once you own Premium.
Google Play Billing handles the optional one-time Premium purchase.
Google Play handles in-app updates and in-app reviews.

Steps are counted by the phone’s pedometer and by Google Play services, both on the device. Pixel Widgets treats steps as health data and uses them only for the steps widgets (Section 3). Your contacts, calendar, photos, notes, usage statistics, media sessions and Bluetooth data never leave your phone through the app (Section 2P).

2. Information Handled by the App

A. Settings, Looks and Widget Setups

The app saves its settings on your device: the language, the time and date format, the first day of the week, units, live seconds, favourites, and each widget’s look (colours, background, highlight and the other options on the Customize page). Each widget you place also keeps what it was set up with. That can be the cities of a world clock, a countdown’s event, a weather widget’s place, a note or checklist’s text, the contacts or apps you picked, a dashboard’s views, a game’s board or a quote streak. All of this lives in the app’s private storage and is not uploaded by the app.

B. Approximate Location and Places for Weather

A weather widget shows the weather for a place you choose. You can search for a city by name, or pick Current location to use where the phone is. The app asks for Android’s approximate location permission only when you pick Current location. It then reads the location once and keeps it with that widget. The app never asks for precise location, never reads your location in the background, and never reads it again unless you pick Current location again.

To name and forecast the place, the app sends it to OpenWeather over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). A search sends the name you typed. Current location sends the approximate coordinates, which OpenWeather turns into a place name. After that, while a weather widget is on your home screen, the place’s coordinates are sent to fetch the weather: the conditions about once an hour, the forecast and air quality every few hours, and UV twice a day. Nothing else about you or your phone is included. There is no advertising ID, no account and no other identifier. Like any server, OpenWeather also sees your device’s IP address. The weather it returns is kept on your device.

C. Steps and Physical Activity

When you add a steps widget, the app asks for Android’s physical activity permission. It counts steps two ways, both on the device. One is the phone’s own step counter. The other is the Google Play services Recording API, which counts steps without a Google account and keeps them on the phone. While a steps widget is on your home screen, a foreground service keeps the counter counting and shows a notification while it does. The app keeps your daily step totals and your step goal on your device. How that data may and may not be used is set out in Section 3.

D. Calendar

When you add a calendar widget, the app asks for permission to read your calendar. It reads the events and reminders that your calendar app shows, on your device, to draw your calendar widgets and dashboards. The app only reads your calendar and never changes it. Events are not saved by the app. The only thing kept is a fingerprint that tells the app your calendar changed and the widgets need redrawing.

E. Contacts

When you add a contact widget, the app asks for permission to read your contacts so that you can pick the people to show. The name and phone number of each contact you pick are kept with that widget on your device. Tapping a contact on the widget opens your phone, messages, video-calling or contacts app with that contact ready. The app never places a call or sends a message by itself.

F. Photos

Photo widgets show pictures you pick with Android’s own picker. The picker hands the app only the photos you select. The app cannot see the rest of your gallery, and it asks for no photo or storage permission. Copies of the photos you pick, cropped as you set them, are kept in the app’s private storage for that widget.

G. Notes, Checklists and the Clipboard Widget

The text you write for note, checklist and clipboard widgets is kept with each widget on your device. The app reads your phone’s clipboard only when you tap Paste from clipboard in the clipboard widget’s editor. It writes to the clipboard only when you tap a clip on that widget to copy it.

H. Screen Time and Storage (Usage Access)

Screen time widgets need Android’s usage access, which you can give on its own settings page. With it, the app reads, on your device, how long the phone has been used and which apps were used most, with their names and icons. The Storage widget can also use it to split storage into apps, media and system. To compare today with a usual day, the app keeps a small hour-by-hour summary on the phone.

I. Music (Notification Access and Media Sessions)

Music widgets need Android’s notification access, which you can give on its own settings page. The app uses it only to follow the phone’s media sessions, so the widgets can show and control your music. A media session tells the app what is playing, the artist, the album art and the position. The app does not read, keep or send the content of your notifications. Album art is kept on your device only while it is shown.

J. Wearables (Bluetooth / Nearby Devices)

Wearable widgets show the battery of the earbuds and watch connected to your phone. For this the app asks for Android’s nearby devices permission. It reads what the phone knows of connected devices, what earbuds announce about their batteries, and a watch’s battery service. The permission is declared so that it can never be used to work out your location. Device names and battery levels are shown on your widgets. The app also keeps a list of which devices are connected.

K. Device Readings and the Compass

Device widgets show the battery level and history, storage, Wi-Fi and mobile data state, and your next alarm. The compass widgets read the phone’s compass for a short while after you tap them. These readings are taken on your device and need no special permission.

L. Premium Purchase (Google Play Billing)

Premium is an optional one-time purchase made through Google Play Billing. It unlocks every pro widget and customisation for good, with no ads. Google handles the payment, and WidgetVibes never receives your card or payment details. The app keeps only whether Premium is owned. It checks with Google Play when it starts, so a purchase follows your Google account to a new phone and a refund is noticed. Google Play gives developers order information, such as an order number, country and amount, under Google’s own terms, for things like refunds and taxes.

M. Advertising and the Advertising ID (Google AdMob)

Without Premium, you can watch a rewarded ad to unlock a pro widget for 48 hours. Ads come from Google AdMob, and rewarded ads are the only kind in the app. There are no banner, interstitial or home-screen ads. When the app opens without Premium, it checks your ad consent with Google and starts the Google Mobile Ads SDK. An ad is loaded only when you open a locked pro widget or tap Watch Ad to Unlock.

When the SDK runs and an ad is requested or shown, Google may collect your device’s advertising ID, IP address, device and app information, ad interactions, diagnostics, and an approximate location inferred from your IP address. Google uses this to deliver, measure and personalise ads (where you allow it) and to prevent fraud. On Android versions that have them, the SDK may also use Android’s own ad privacy features (topics and attribution), which you control in Android’s settings. This data goes to Google, not to WidgetVibes. The app itself learns only whether an ad was watched to the end, and keeps only when the resulting 48-hour unlock ends. Once you own Premium, the ads SDK is not started and no ads are loaded.

N. Android Backup and Device Transfer

If Android backup is on, Android copies the app’s saved data to your Google account, encrypted by Google, so it comes back on a new phone. That data includes settings, looks and widget setups, which cover note and clip texts, the names and numbers of contacts you picked, and weather places. It also includes your daily step totals and goal. Some things are left out of cloud backups: the widgets’ drawings, weather, album art and photos. Photos are copied only in a direct phone-to-phone transfer. Backup is carried out by Android and Google under the Google Privacy Policy. WidgetVibes cannot see your backups. You can turn backup off in Android’s settings.

O. Support Emails and Bug Reports

Report a bug or issue in Settings opens your own email app with a short form. The form already has your Android version and device name filled in. Nothing is sent unless you send the email yourself. We use what you send, including any screenshots, only to answer you and to fix the problem.

P. What Never Leaves Your Phone

The following are read and used only on your phone. Pixel Widgets never sends any of them to WidgetVibes, OpenWeather, Google AdMob or anyone else:

Contacts, including the names and numbers of the people you pick.
Calendar events and reminders.
Photos you pick for photo widgets.
Notes, checklists and clips you write, and anything you paste from the clipboard.
Usage statistics: screen time, the apps you use most, and the storage split.
Media sessions: what is playing, the artist, the album art and the position.
Bluetooth data: connected devices, their names and their battery levels.

The same goes for your step counts (Section 3), device readings, and the list of apps you can pick for folders. The only copy of any of it that can leave the phone is your own Android backup (Section 2N). That backup is made by Android, goes to your Google account, is under your control, and cannot be read by WidgetVibes. Pixel Widgets has no accounts, no analytics, no crash reporting and no server of its own. It does not track your location, read your notifications, or sell any data.

3. Step Data Is Health Data: Limited Use

Step counts are health and fitness information, and Pixel Widgets treats them that way. The app follows these rules for step data, including the steps it reads from the Google Play services Recording API:

Only with your permission. Steps are counted only after you grant Android’s physical activity permission, which the app asks for when you add a steps widget. If you take the permission back, counting stops.
Only to show you your steps. Step data is used only to show your steps, goal and history on the steps widgets and the steps screen. It is used for nothing else.
Never transferred. The app does not send step data to WidgetVibes, to Google AdMob, to OpenWeather or to anyone else. The only exception is your own Android backup, which you control (Section 2N).
Never used for advertising. Step data is never used to choose, target or measure ads, and is never given to any ad network or data broker.
Never sold. Step data is never sold or rented. It is never used to judge credit-worthiness, for lending, or for insurance or employment decisions.
Never read by people. No one at WidgetVibes can see your step data, because it never reaches us. It is not combined with any other information about you.
Kept on your phone, and deletable. The app keeps up to about 400 days of daily step totals, plus your goal, in its private storage. Google Play services keeps its own count on the device for about ten days. Clearing the app’s data or uninstalling it deletes the app’s step history.

Google Play services counts steps on the device under Google’s own terms; see the Recording API documentation and the Google Privacy Policy. The app reads only the daily totals from it, and only while a steps widget is in use.

4. Purchases, Ads and Connected Services

Everything in the app works without a purchase except the pro widgets and pro customisations. You can unlock a pro widget for 48 hours by watching a rewarded ad. Premium, bought once, unlocks every pro widget and customisation for good.

OpenWeather. Weather widgets get their weather, air quality, UV and place names from OpenWeather, as described in Section 2B. Only the place is sent: a searched name, or approximate coordinates. The OpenWeather Privacy Policy applies to what it receives.

Google Play Billing. Premium is a single one-time (non-consumable) purchase, not a subscription. Google Play handles payment, purchase confirmation, purchase history, refunds, and restoring the purchase on a new device. When the app checks or completes the purchase, Google Play may process your Google account’s eligibility, the product identifier, purchase tokens and purchase status, under the Google Privacy Policy.

Google AdMob. The app uses the Google Mobile Ads SDK for rewarded ads only (Section 2M). The SDK uses your device’s advertising ID. You can learn more in the Google Privacy Policy, How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services, Google’s Advertising technologies overview, and the Google Mobile Ads SDK data disclosure. Development builds show Google’s test ads, never real ones.

Google User Messaging Platform (ad consent). Before the ads SDK starts, the app checks your ad consent with Google’s User Messaging Platform. Where the law gives you a choice about ads, for example in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, and in US states with their own privacy laws, Google’s consent or opt-out message is shown first. If you decline personalised ads, any ads still allowed are shown without personalisation. Where a choice is required, Ad privacy choices appears in the app’s Settings, and you can change your answer there at any time.

Google Play In-App Updates and In-App Review. The app can ask the Play Store whether a newer version exists and, if you agree, update in the background. It can also show Google Play’s own rating card. Both are handled by Google Play. The app never sees your rating or review.

Links that leave the app. This privacy policy page, the support email, and the phone, messages and video-calling apps opened from contact widgets are other apps or websites. Each handles your information under its own privacy policy. Pixel Widgets attaches none of your app data to them.

Beyond these services, Pixel Widgets makes no network requests of its own. Its fonts are bundled with the app, and there is no WidgetVibes server, analytics or crash reporting.

5. Third-Party Services

Service	Purpose	Information Involved	Policy
OpenWeather	Weather, forecasts, air quality, UV and place search for weather widgets	A searched place name, or approximate coordinates of the chosen place; IP address and standard request data	OpenWeather Privacy Policy
Google AdMob (Google Mobile Ads)	Rewarded ads that unlock a pro widget for 48 hours, ad measurement and fraud prevention (without Premium only)	Advertising ID, IP address, device and app information, ad interactions, diagnostics, and approximate location inferred from IP	Google Privacy Policy How Google Uses Information Google Mobile Ads SDK Data Disclosure
Google User Messaging Platform	The ad consent form, and Ad privacy choices in Settings	Consent status and consent strings, device and app information needed to show the form, and standard request data	Google Privacy Policy
Google Play Billing	The optional one-time Premium purchase, and restoring it	Product identifier, purchase status and tokens; payment handled entirely by Google Play	Google Privacy Policy Google Play Terms of Service
Google Play services (Recording API)	Counting steps on the device for the steps widgets	Step counts, recorded and kept on the device by Google Play services, without a Google account	Recording API Google Privacy Policy
Google Play In-App Updates and In-App Review	Offering a newer version, and Google Play’s rating card	App package name, installed version and install source; your rating stays with Google Play	Google Privacy Policy Google Play Terms of Service
Android Backup and Device Transfer (Google)	Bringing your settings and widgets to a new phone, if you have backup on	The app’s saved data (Section 2N), stored in your own Google account; drawings, weather, album art and photos are left out of cloud backups	Google Privacy Policy Back Up or Restore Data on Android

Apart from the Google libraries named here and the requests to OpenWeather, Pixel Widgets includes no third-party SDKs that collect data. It has no analytics, no crash reporting, no attribution or install tracking, no social login, and no other advertising network.

6. Permissions and Device Access

Each permission is asked for only when you add a widget that needs it, and the widget explains why first. You can refuse or take back any permission in Android’s settings. Only the widgets that need it stop showing that information.

Access	Why It Is Used	Leaves the Phone?
Approximate location	A weather widget’s Current location, read once when you pick it	Yes: the approximate coordinates go to OpenWeather
Physical activity	Steps widgets; a foreground service with a notification keeps counting while one is placed	No (Section 3)
Calendar (read only)	Calendar widgets and dashboards	No
Contacts (read only)	Picking people for contact widgets	No
Photos (no permission)	Android’s picker gives the app only the photos you select for a photo widget	No
Nearby devices (Bluetooth)	Earbud and watch battery widgets; declared as never used for location	No
Usage access	Screen time widgets and the Storage widget’s split; given on its own settings page	No
Notification access	Music widgets follow media sessions; notifications themselves are not read. Given on its own settings page	No
Notifications	The notification Android requires while live seconds, the compass or step counting run	No
Alarms & reminders	So clocks and calendars change exactly on the minute	No
Run at startup	Putting your widgets back after the phone restarts	No
Wi-Fi and network state	The device widgets’ Wi-Fi and mobile data tiles, and knowing when the weather can be fetched	No
Internet	Weather, ads and ad consent, the Premium purchase, updates and reviews	Only to the services in Section 5
Advertising ID and Android ad services	Used by Google AdMob for rewarded ads, without Premium	Yes: to Google, for ads (Section 2M)
Billing	The optional Premium purchase through Google Play	Handled by Google Play

Pixel Widgets does not request precise or background location, camera, microphone, SMS, call logs, access to all files, or the list of every installed app.

7. How Information Is Used

To draw and update your widgets from your settings, looks and widget setups.
To show your calendar, contacts, photos, notes, steps, screen time, music and wearables on the widgets that need them, on your device only.
To fetch the weather for the places you choose, from OpenWeather.
To unlock what you bought, or what you watched an ad for.
To show rewarded ads through Google AdMob, and to ask for ad consent where the law requires it.
To offer app updates and Google Play’s rating card.
To answer support emails and bug reports that you choose to send.

WidgetVibes does not build a profile of you. It does not sell or rent any information, and does not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

9. Data Retention and Deletion

Settings, looks and widget setups stay on your device until you change them, remove the widget they belong to, clear the app’s data or uninstall the app. Widget setups include note and clip texts, picked contacts, weather places and photos.
Step history is kept as daily totals for up to about 400 days, and older days are dropped. Google Play services keeps its own count on the device for about ten days.
Weather is replaced each time it is fetched. About a week of past readings is kept for the day’s high and low.
Calendar events are not stored. Album art is kept only while it is shown. Widget drawings are replaced every time a widget is redrawn.
A Premium purchase stays with your Google account, as Google Play keeps it. The app keeps only whether Premium is owned.
A 48-hour ad unlock is stored on the device as the time it ends, and simply expires.
Information received by Google AdMob, Google’s User Messaging Platform and OpenWeather is kept under their own policies. WidgetVibes does not hold it.
Android backups are kept by Android and Google. You can turn them off or delete them in your Android and Google account settings.
Emails you send us are kept only as long as needed to help you and to keep a reasonable support history. We delete them if you ask.

10. Your Choices

You can use any widget that doesn’t need a permission without granting any. You can refuse or take back each permission in Android’s settings.
You can search for a city instead of sharing your location with a weather widget.
You can change your ad consent in Settings › Ad privacy choices, where the law requires that choice.
You can reset or delete your advertising ID, and manage Android’s ad privacy features, in Android’s settings. You can manage ad personalisation in Google’s My Ad Center.
You can buy Premium, after which no ads are loaded and the ads SDK is not started.
You can remove steps widgets or take back the physical activity permission to stop step counting. Clearing the app’s data deletes your step history.
You can turn Android backup off if you would rather none of the app’s data went to your Google account.
You can remove widgets, clear the app’s data or uninstall the app to delete everything it keeps on your device.
You can manage, restore or ask for a refund of Premium through Google Play.
You can contact WidgetVibes Support with any privacy question. WidgetVibes holds no account or profile for you. Data held by Google or OpenWeather can be requested through their own privacy tools.

11. Children’s Privacy

Pixel Widgets is a general-audience app and is not directed at children under 13. WidgetVibes does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children: there is no account, no profile and no sign-in. If you believe a child has sent us personal information in a support email, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as Pixel Widgets changes, or as legal and platform requirements change. The latest version will always be on this page, with its date at the top. Significant changes will also be noted in the app’s patch notes. If a future version of the app collects anything beyond what is described here, this policy and the app’s Google Play Data safety section will be updated before that version is released.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, or want to ask about your data, contact us at:

WidgetVibes Support

support@widgetvibes.com

Send Email

Privacy Policy for Pixel Widgets