Privacy Policy — Show Me
Last updated: 15 October 2026
Data controller: Mark Forler · lukas@lukaswebdesign.com
App version this describes: 0.5.4 (closed test)
What Show Me is
Show Me is an accessibility app. It puts a button on the screen. When you press it, it reads what is currently on your screen and explains it out loud in plain words. You can also press it and ask a question out loud instead.
It is built for people who find phones confusing, so this policy is written to be read rather than skimmed past.
When it reads your screen
Only when you press the button. It is not watching in the background, it is not reading your screen while you use your phone, and it does not record anything continuously. Each press reads the screen once, answers, and stops.
On a locked phone it reads nothing at all, so your lock screen notifications are never read out or sent anywhere. If the phone locks while Show Me is waiting for your yes to a call or a text, it does not go ahead.
What it does NOT read
These are not promises about intent, they are how the app is built:
- Password fields are skipped entirely. Anything Android marks as a password is never read, never described, and never sent anywhere.
- What you type into a box is not sent. For a box you can type in, the app sends only the hint Android gives for it, like "Search" or "Email address", never the words inside it. If the same words also show up somewhere else on the screen as ordinary text, for example a message you already sent, they are read like any other text.
- Pictures and video are never looked at. Show Me reads the words and labels a screen is built from, not the picture on it. A photo or a video on the screen is invisible to it. It never takes a screenshot.
- Codes. It is told never to read verification codes out loud, and if you ask it for a code, a PIN or a password it will not say the number. This may not catch every code, so never share a code with anyone who asks for it, whoever they say they are.
What is sent, and where
Show Me does not talk to Google directly. When you press the button, the app sends the request to a small relay run by us, which passes it on to Google's Gemini service. The request contains:
- the text that is visible on your screen at that moment, minus the exclusions above, with the position and size of each item
- the question you asked out loud, if you asked one, in the words you said
- the name of the app you are looking at, and its technical name (for example "com.whatsapp") when that is different
- the date and time on your phone, so "what do I have tomorrow" makes sense
- your screen size
- which plan you have, or none, whether paying is switched on in this version, and how many questions you have asked today. No name, no account, just a plan word, a yes or no and a number, so that Show Me can answer questions about itself, like "why did it stop answering"
- the last three things you asked, what you were told, and anything it offered to do, shortened, so that a follow-up like "what about that one" makes sense
- only when you asked a question out loud: the names of the apps installed on your phone (for example "WhatsApp", "Camera"), so that "open WhatsApp" can be matched to the right app. Not what is inside them.
Both steps, from your phone to the relay and from the relay to Google, use an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Google processes it and returns the explanation, which comes back the same way and which the app reads to you. Google's own terms cover what they do with it: Google's API terms.
If you say someone's name in a question, that question is sent in the words you said, so the name is in it. Your contacts themselves are never sent: see "Writing texts for you" below.
Whether Google learns from it
Show Me uses Google's paid Gemini service. Google's terms for the paid service say prompts and responses are not used to improve Google's products. Google keeps them for a limited time only, to check for abuse and to meet legal requirements. So the words from your screen do reach Google, and Google holds them briefly; we do not.
The relay, and what it keeps
The relay holds the key that lets Show Me use Google's service, so that key is not inside the app on your phone. It also lets us switch the service off in a hurry if something goes wrong, and it builds every request to Google itself with fixed settings and size limits.
The app does carry a shared pass for the relay. Every copy of Show Me has the same one, and like anything inside an app, a determined person could dig it out. It does not identify you and gives nothing about you or anyone else: no one can use it to see your requests. Someone who had it could send short questions of their own through the relay, within its limits, and so use up part of the shared daily limit. On a day the limit is reached, Show Me stops answering until the next day.
The relay does not save what is in your request or in the answer. Not the words from your screen, not your question, not the reply. It passes them along and forgets them.
What it does keep:
- One number: roughly how many requests everyone together has made today (the count is close, not exact). It says nothing about any one person, and it is deleted after two days.
- One time: the moment that number reached the daily limit, on the days it does, also deleted after two days.
- Nothing that says who you are. There is no account, so there is nothing to connect a request to a person.
To stop any one place flooding the service, the relay looks roughly at how many requests are arriving from the same internet address in the last minute. That check lives in the relay's memory only and is never saved.
The relay runs on Cloudflare's service, so Cloudflare's systems handle your internet address on the way, as any company that carries internet traffic does. Cloudflare's own privacy terms cover that: Cloudflare's privacy policy.
What is stored
On your phone, and only on your phone. None of it is sent anywhere, except the plan and today's count described above.
Your settings:
- where you dragged the button, whether it is hidden, and how see-through it is
- whether subtitles are on, and their size
- the voice you picked, if you picked one
- your three setup answers, if you gave them: who will be using Show Me, how fast it should talk, and what you want help with first (or that you skipped them). "Change my answers" in Settings replaces them
What it has learned about your family words:
- if you say "call my son" and then tell Show Me his name, it remembers on the phone that "son" means that contact, so next time it does not have to ask. If you say no when it asks whether to call, it forgets it again
Counts and dates, never what was said:
- how many times Show Me has answered you, as a single number
- how many questions were asked today, as a number with today's date, which is the app's own safety limit against a fault
- a count of the kinds of things Show Me could not help with (for example "calendar: 3, email: 1"). One word and a number per kind
- the date and time Show Me was first switched on, for the free trial
- which plan you have, if any, and when that was last checked with Google Play
- small yes or no notes so it does not repeat itself: whether you have seen the welcome, the plans page and each tip, whether you have tried it once, where you are in switching it on, and whether to ask the setup questions again
No screen contents, no questions, no answers and no history are written to your phone's storage. None of this is backed up. Android's automatic backup is turned off for this app.
While the app is running: it remembers the last three questions and answers so that follow-up questions make sense. That lives in memory only, is sent with your next question, and is gone when the app or the phone restarts.
On our relay: only the day's total and the moment it hit its limit, as described above. There is no account, no login, and no database of people or of what they asked.
No advertising, no tracking, no selling
Show Me has no advertising and no analytics. Nothing about you is sold, and nothing is shared except what has to be sent to answer you: your request goes through our relay (on Cloudflare) to Google's service, as described above, and nowhere else. There is no account, so there is no profile of you to sell.
The app includes Google's own Play Billing code, which is what lets Google Play take payment. It is not used to follow you, and nothing else in the app records what you do.
Your voice
Turning what you say into words is done by your phone's own speech recognition service, the same one the phone's keyboard microphone uses. On most Android phones that is Google's, and it may process your voice on Google's servers under Google's privacy policy. Show Me never records or keeps audio itself.
When the microphone is on: after you press the button and speak, and for a short moment right after Show Me asks you something, like "Should I send it?" or "What is your son's name?", so you can answer without pressing again. If you say nothing, it may ask once more. How long that moment lasts depends on your phone's speech service. Show Me does not listen at any other time.
It cannot tell whose voice it hears. If someone nearby says "yes" while Show Me is waiting for your answer, it may take that as your yes. Answer its questions yourself, somewhere quiet if you can.
What it can do besides explain
Show Me only ever acts when you ask it to, in that moment:
- Press one thing on the screen. After explaining a screen it may offer to press something, and only does it if you say yes. It refuses buttons it can tell are for paying, buying, installing, deleting, sending money or giving permissions, and tells you to press those yourself. It may not recognise every one, so listen to what it offers before you say yes.
- Open an app you name. "Open WhatsApp" opens WhatsApp straight away, because you asked for it by name.
- Write a text. See the next section.
- Call someone you name. "Call Dad" finds Dad in your contacts on the phone, asks "Do you want me to call Dad?", and only dials if you say yes.
- Turn Easy mode on, and back off again (Samsung phones only), if you or whoever set the phone up asks it to. Easy mode is a setting of your phone, not part of Show Me: it replaces the home screen layout with Samsung's simpler one. Show Me says so before switching it on, and can switch it back whenever you ask.
Writing texts for you
If you allow it, you can say "text Dad" and Show Me will find Dad in your contacts, ask what you want to say, write it into the conversation, read it back to you, and ask whether to send it. It only presses send if you say yes to the message it just read back. That is true however the sending comes up, including when you say "send it" yourself. Just before pressing send, it checks on the phone that the right app is open, that the message box holds the words it read back, and that the person's name or number is shown at the top. If anything does not match, it does not send. That check is a safety net, not a guarantee, so look at who the message is going to before you say yes. Nothing from that check is sent anywhere.
- Your contacts never leave your phone. They are searched on the phone and are never sent to Google's Gemini service or anywhere else. When you say "text Dad" in so many words, even the name "Dad" is understood on the phone and is not sent. If you ask in some other way, your question is sent as described above, so the name is in the words that are sent, but your address book still is not.
- The message you dictate is not sent to Gemini. It goes from the speech recognition service straight into your messaging app (Messages or WhatsApp), which then sends it the way it sends any message you type.
- Contacts permission is optional. Without it Show Me works the same except it cannot find people to text or call.
Paying for Show Me
Show Me is free while it is being tested. No payment is taken, and no payment details are asked for or collected. The plans screen inside the app shows what it will cost later; during the test it charges nothing. If paid plans start later, payment would be handled by Google Play, which would hold the payment details, not us.
Children
This app is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect anything from them.
Permissions and why
- Accessibility service — the only way an app is allowed to read what is on another app's screen and press its buttons. It is what makes the whole thing work.
- Internet — to send the screen text to Show Me's relay, which passes it to Google's Gemini service, and get the explanation back.
- Microphone — so you can ask a question out loud and answer Show Me's questions. Used only at the times described under "Your voice".
- Vibration — to let you know it heard you.
- Contacts (optional) — only to find the person when you say "text Dad" or "call Dad". Read on the phone, never sent anywhere.
- Phone calls (optional) — so "call Dad" can dial after you say yes. Without it, the phone's dialler opens with the number in and you press call yourself.
Your choices, and getting rid of your data
- Turning the accessibility service off in Settings stops it completely and immediately (Settings > Accessibility > Installed apps > Show Me).
- Uninstalling it deletes everything Show Me stored on your phone. We hold nothing about you anywhere else, so there is nothing to ask us to delete and no account to close. Two things are outside the phone and not about you as a person: what Google keeps briefly for abuse checks, under Google's terms, and the relay's daily total for everyone, which is deleted after two days.
- One thing uninstalling does not undo: if you asked Show Me to turn on Easy mode, your phone stays in Easy mode after the app is gone, because that is a setting of the phone itself. Ask Show Me to put your home screen back before you uninstall it, or turn it off yourself in Settings > Display > Easy mode.
Changes to this policy
If the app changes what it sends or stores, this policy is updated at the same time, and the date at the top changes. The current version always sits at lukaswebdesign.com/showme/privacy.
Contact
The setup screen has a link, "Something not working? Tell us." It opens an email to us and sends nothing by itself. If you write, we get what you wrote and your email address, and we use them only to reply to you.
The privacy policy and the terms can also be opened from inside the app.