Your thoughts are yours.

Bottlethought is designed as a private, local-first place to send a message to your future self.

What the iPhone app stores

Your messages, optional photographs, reflections, bottle appearance, and return schedule are stored locally on your iPhone.

What the iPhone app sends

Bottlethought does not transmit your messages, photographs, or reflections. The app has no account system, analytics, advertising, tracking, or network service. If you use iCloud Backup or an encrypted device backup, iOS may include Bottlethought’s local data as part of a backup you control.

Widgets and notifications

The Home Screen widget receives only bottle identifiers, appearance, return dates, and whether a return has been opened. It never receives message text or photographs. Return notifications are scheduled and delivered locally by iOS.

Privacy-forward website analytics

Website analytics are separate from the private Bottlethought app. The production website uses Vercel Web Analytics to understand aggregate visits to public pages. It does not use analytics cookies, persistent visitor identifiers, advertising profiles, cross-site tracking, or App Store click events. No messages, photographs, or other content from the Bottlethought app are involved.

What website analytics processes

Vercel may process the time of a visit, the public page path without URL query strings or fragments, the referring website or page, approximate location, and general browser, operating-system, and device categories. Vercel derives a temporary visitor hash from the incoming request, discards it after 24 hours, and cannot use it to recognize a visitor across different days or websites. Bottlethought receives aggregated reports rather than personal profiles or raw IP addresses.

Cookies, retention, and your controls

Vercel Web Analytics does not set analytics cookies. Bottlethought removes accessible legacy Google Analytics cookies and the old analytics preference previously stored by this site. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, the website suppresses Vercel Web Analytics page-view events. Vercel’s reporting window depends on the website’s Vercel plan; Bottlethought does not maintain a separate visitor-level analytics database.

App retention and deletion

A bottle remains on your iPhone until you delete it or delete the app. Deleting a bottle permanently removes its message, photograph, reflections, return schedule, and widget summary. Deleting Bottlethought removes all of its remaining local data.

Last updated August 20, 2026