Privacy policy

Effective 31 October 2026. Applies to the Android app Doomscrol (package com.doomscrol.app).

Doomscrol is a personal digital wellbeing app. It counts the Instagram reels and posts you scroll, shows the count on your screen and, at a limit you set, shows a short reset flow. It has no account, no analytics, no ads and no third-party SDKs. Everything it knows stays on your phone.

What it reads

• Instagram's screen, through Android's accessibility service. It looks at Instagram's view ids and a few on-screen labels to tell which reel or post is showing, and whether you are in chats, the camera or a creation screen. It uses this to count, to pause the count while you chat or make something, and to decide when to show its own screens over Instagram. It can also press Back, tap once to pause a reel and mute media while one of its screens is up. It does not record what you watch, read or write.
• Other apps: only the name of the app in front, so it knows when you leave Instagram and which app a shared link came from. It reads nothing else from any other app.
• Sleep from Health Connect, only if you connect it: your sleep sessions, to show last night on the dashboard and to lower the limit after a short night. It reads them in the background in the morning.
• Steps and movement, only if you turn on the morning gate: the phone's step counter (the Physical activity permission) and the accelerometer, to tell whether you are lying down.

What it stores

On your phone only: your reel, post and session counts by day, time spent creating, your limits and settings, a sleep summary, and a log of the app's own events for troubleshooting. You can see, share or clear that log from the dashboard. Nothing is backed up to any server by the app.

What leaves your phone

Nothing. The Google Play version has no internet permission at all. The version installed from the developer's Google Drive link connects only to Google Drive, to check for and download a newer build of the app itself; it sends no data. The only way any data leaves the phone is if you tap Share log yourself and choose where to send it.

Permissions

• Accessibility service: counting on Instagram, as described above.
• Draw over other apps: the count pill and the reset flow.
• Health Connect, read sleep, including in the background: the sleep card and the short night rule. Optional.
• Physical activity: the step count for the morning gate. Optional.
• Ignore battery optimisations: so the phone does not stop the counting service. Optional.

Deleting your data

Uninstall the app and everything it stored is deleted. You can turn off its accessibility service in Android settings, or revoke its Health Connect access in Health Connect, at any time.

Children

Doomscrol is not directed at children under 13.

Changes

Changes to this policy appear on this page with a new effective date.

Contact

Use the developer email on the Google Play listing.