Frequently asked questions

No. ByeFeed is Android only right now, and there is no App Store version for iPhone or iPad. We don’t have a date to share for one, so we won’t promise it.

Android devices running Android 7.0 or later, with the app installed from Google Play.

There is no iPhone, web or desktop version. This website is for information, account help and legal pages; you can’t sign in or use ByeFeed here.

Yes. Every blocking decision is made on your phone and never needs a connection.

A connection is only needed to sign in, to back up or sync, and to check a subscription with Google Play. If you are offline, a Pro subscription keeps working for up to 7 days before it needs to be checked again.

It depends on whether you have an account:

• Without an account: nothing is uploaded. Your block groups, settings and statistics stay on your phone.
• With an account: your email address (if you signed up with email or Google) and one backup of your ByeFeed setup: block groups, schedules and limits, settings, statistics counters, and a history of when you paused blocking. Your PIN is only ever stored as a one-way hash, never as the digits.
• If you buy Pro: the Google Play purchase details needed to confirm it, such as the purchase token, plan and renewal status. Never your card details.

The checks that decide whether to block something happen on your phone and are thrown away straight after. Nothing from them is stored or sent to us. The Privacy Policy lists everything, field by field.

No. We don’t sell or rent personal data, and we don’t share it for advertising. ByeFeed contains no advertising, analytics or tracking SDKs.

Data is shared only with the services needed to run ByeFeed: Supabase (accounts and cloud backup), Google (Google sign-in and Google Play purchases) and our email provider (the sign-in codes we email you). The Privacy Policy explains what each one handles.

It watches only for the triggers you set up, and ignores everything else. ByeFeed uses Android’s accessibility service, which lets it know when the app or screen in front of you changes. Each time, it runs only the checks your block list needs:

• Blocked apps: is the app that just opened on your list?
• Blocked websites and keywords: in supported browsers, does the address in the address bar match a site or keyword you blocked? While you are typing there, it waits, so a half-typed address never counts.
• Short-form feeds: in apps where you switched a feed off, is the feed itself on screen? It looks for the screen elements that mark the feed, such as the Reels player, and stops as soon as it finds one.
• Other apps’ built-in browsers (only if you turn this on): does the page you opened contain a site or keyword you blocked?

If something matches, the block screen appears. If not, ByeFeed does nothing. The check happens on your phone and is discarded straight away: nothing is saved, logged or sent anywhere, and ByeFeed never records what you type.

A blocker has to notice when a blocked app or site opens and put something in front of it. That needs the accessibility service, permission to display over other apps, and a background service that keeps running. Usage access powers your statistics. Each permission is asked for when a feature needs it, and the app tells you whether that feature needs it or just works better with it.

ByeFeed never asks for your location, camera, microphone, contacts, SMS, call logs, photos or files. See App permissions for the full list.

Here: byefeed.app/privacy. It is also linked inside the app under Settings → About → Privacy Policy, and from the notice you see before turning on the accessibility service.

Yes. Choose Continue without an account during setup and every blocking feature works. Nothing is created on our servers, and your setup stays on your phone.

An account adds cloud backup and sync across devices. You can add one at any time under Settings → Account → Sign in, with Google or with an email address and password. You can also subscribe to Pro without an account: Google Play confirms the purchase on your phone.

One exception: if you redeem an unlock code while signed out, the app creates an account with no email address on it, because the code has to belong to an account. It asks you first.

Open ByeFeed and look under Account in Settings. You will see one of three things:

• Sign in: you have no account, and there is nothing about you on our servers.
• No account attached: you have an account with no email address, created when you redeemed a code. Tap it to see its Account ID.
• Your email address (partly hidden) with Manage your account: you have an email or Google account.

The Delete Account page explains each one.

In the app, open Settings, tap your email address under Account, then choose Delete account. If you see No account attached instead, tap it and choose Clear data.

Deletion takes effect immediately and removes your cloud backup. It does not cancel a Google Play subscription; cancel that in the Play Store. If you can’t open the app, the Delete Account page explains how to ask us instead.

• Forgot your password? On the sign-in screen, tap Forgot password?. We email you a 6-digit code, valid for 15 minutes. Type it into the app, then choose a new password.
• Signed in with Google? Your ByeFeed account follows your Google account. If you can’t sign in to Google, recover that account with Google first.
• Lost access to your email address? If you are still signed in on a phone, go to Settings, tap your email address, then Change email to move the account to an address you can use. If you are signed out everywhere and can’t receive email there, we have no way to confirm the account is yours, so we can’t hand it over. Email [email protected] anyway: if you subscribed, your Google Play order number can help us find the account, and we will tell you what we can do.
• Account with no email? It can only be reached from the phone it was created on. If the app was uninstalled or its data cleared, the account can’t be recovered.

Your Pro subscription belongs to your Google Play account, not your ByeFeed account. Install ByeFeed on a phone signed in to the same Google Play account and it is recognised again.

Free: every blocking feature (apps, websites, keywords, all nine short-form apps, schedules, session limits, Strict mode, PIN, countdowns and Prevent Uninstall) inside one block group, plus today’s statistics, three home-screen widgets, and cloud backup if you sign in.

Pro adds unlimited block groups, weekly and custom-range statistics, and the weekly screen-time widget. It comes as a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. See prices in your currency.

Subscriptions are managed by Google Play. Open the Play Store, tap your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions, choose ByeFeed and cancel. You can also go straight to play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions, or use Manage subscription inside ByeFeed.

Pro stays on until the end of the period you have paid for. Uninstalling ByeFeed or deleting your ByeFeed account does not cancel a subscription.

ByeFeed is sold through Google Play, so refunds are handled under Google Play’s refund policy. To ask for one, open your Google Play order history, find the ByeFeed purchase and choose Request a refund, or follow Google’s guide, Get refunds on Google Play purchases.

If you think you were charged by mistake, or Google can’t help, email [email protected] with your Google Play order number (it starts with GPA.). Never send us card details. More in the Privacy Policy under Payments and refunds.

Nothing you set up is deleted. Your oldest block group keeps running, and any others pause until you subscribe again. Weekly and custom-range statistics and the weekly widget become Pro-only again.

Email [email protected]. Tell us what you need help with, and for a technical problem, your phone model and Android version.

Please never send your password, PIN, a verification code or card details. We will never ask for them.

In ByeFeed, go to Settings → About → Report a problem. It opens a report containing the app version, your phone’s make and model, your Android version, a short list of recent events inside the app and, if the app crashed, the crash details.

• Email report opens a pre-filled email to us. You can read and edit it before sending, and nothing is sent unless you send it. If the report is long, the email holds the start of it and the full report is copied so you can paste it in.
• Copy report copies it so you can paste it anywhere you like.

If the app won’t open, email [email protected] with your phone model, Android version and what happened.

By default, yes. Nothing stops you removing the app.

To close that loophole, turn on Prevent Uninstall in Settings. ByeFeed then uses Android’s device admin feature to stop itself being uninstalled while the setting is on. If you have set a PIN, turning the setting off asks for it.

That is all device admin is used for. ByeFeed cannot lock, wipe or otherwise control your phone.

Yes. Blocking starts again by itself after your phone restarts or ByeFeed updates. To keep Android from stopping it in the background, allow ByeFeed to ignore battery optimisation when the app asks.