Privacy policy

Effective 23 October 2026. This is the current policy. If it changes, this date changes with it.

MERA is an Android app by Michael Whobrey (mikewhob). It records audio on the phone where it is installed. Questions about this policy go to me@mikewhob.com.

Microphone

MERA uses the microphone after you accept the in-app notice and grant the microphone permission. Recording starts when you tap Start, and it continues after you leave the app. You stop it from the app or from MERA’s notification, when that notification is available.

MERA posts a status notification while it is recording. You can quiet that notification in Settings. Whether it appears depends on the Android version and on notification permission. If notifications are turned off, MERA cannot show its alerts.

MERA does not start the microphone after a restart or an app update. If it had been set to record, it posts an alert that it is not recording, and Resume is there for you to tap. If you force-stop MERA in system settings, it stays stopped until you open the app.

MERA does not promise uninterrupted recording. The phone can stop an app to save power.

Recordings and transcripts

Audio is saved on the phone as AAC at 16 kHz and 32 kbps, or as WAV if that phone cannot encode the AAC. Closed files from an hour are packed into a zip with their transcripts. You choose a chunk length of 5, 10, 30, or 60 minutes. The default is 10.

Transcripts are text produced on the phone. MERA does not upload recordings or transcripts. There is no account, and MERA does not ask for your name, email address, or phone number.

Android backup of MERA’s private data is off. Automatic device-to-device transfer of that private data is off as well.

Transcription

Speech to text is optional, English only, and runs on the phone. You pick Small, Clear, or Room in Settings. Nothing downloads until you pick one. The models miss words and sometimes invent them. Recording works if you never download a model.

Speech-model downloads

The app’s network use is that download. MERA requests the model file you chose from Hugging Face. The request does not include your recordings or transcripts. Like any download, it reveals the phone’s IP address and which file was requested to Hugging Face and to any server that answers a redirect.

MERA does not include an analytics or crash-reporting service. It can write a few error lines to the phone’s own log, such as a failed capture. Those lines are not sent anywhere.

Export, delete, and retention

Export is your choice. The share sheet gives that recording to an app you pick. MERA does not send it on its own, and sharing does not delete the copy that remains on the phone. What the other app does with the file is outside MERA.

Delete, in the library, removes that recording’s audio and transcript from the phone. If the delete does not finish, the recording stays and MERA says so. A finished delete cannot be undone in the app.

MERA keeps files until you delete them, or until uninstall removes the app’s private storage. It does not delete recordings on a timer.

Folders

Recordings start in the app’s private storage. You can choose a folder. Closed recordings move into that folder. The file still being recorded stays private until its hour is packed. If a move fails, MERA says so and leaves that recording where it was.

Uninstalling MERA removes the private copies. Files already in a folder you chose are yours, and uninstall does not remove them.

What MERA does not do

MERA does not collect an account, contacts, location, photos, or an advertising identifier. It does not sell information. Audio kept on the phone is not sent off the device. The model download above is the network use, and it does not carry the audio.

Other software

On-device speech recognition uses sherpa-onnx 1.13.8, which includes ONNX Runtime. Those libraries run on the phone. They are not a transcription service on the internet. Notices are on the licenses page.

Other people, and children

Recording other people can be illegal where you are. MERA does not decide that.

MERA does not ask for an age and does not create an account. It is not made for children.

Contact

Michael Whobrey (mikewhob). Email me@mikewhob.com about this policy. Practical help is on the support page.