Privacy policy

Your TV and your network

Hey Telly finds and controls LG and Samsung TVs and projectors on your local Wi-Fi network. To do that, iOS asks you for Local Network permission the first time the app looks for a TV. The app uses that permission for nothing else.

Your iPhone or iPad connects straight to your TV. Those connections stay inside your home network. They do not go through the internet, and they do not reach us or anyone else.

The app also asks your TV for the logos of its apps, over the same local connection, so your buttons can show them.

What is stored on your device

Hey Telly keeps the following on your iPhone or iPad, and only there:

• Your list of TVs: each TV's name, its address on your network, its model, and the hardware addresses the TV reports, which the app needs to switch it on.
• Your buttons, shortcuts and settings.
• The app logos downloaded from your TV, kept so they still show while the TV is off.
• Each TV's pairing key, kept in the iOS keychain and set to stay on this device. It does not sync to iCloud or any other device.

None of this leaves your device through Hey Telly. Removing a TV in the app deletes its pairing key. Deleting the app deletes your TV list, buttons and saved logos.

Like the data from any app, it may be included in your device backups. Those backups belong to your Apple Account and are managed by Apple. We cannot see them.

Siri, Shortcuts and the lock screen

If you use Siri or Shortcuts with Hey Telly, Apple handles your voice and your request under Apple's own privacy terms. For everyday commands, such as volume up, the app only receives the command and passes it to your TV on your Wi-Fi. If you ask the Telly Assistant through Siri, the app receives your words as text and sends them as described in The Telly Assistant. We never receive your voice.

The lock screen remote, the Dynamic Island and the Control Centre controls run on your device and use the information described above. They send commands to your TV the same way the app does.

The Watch panel

The Watch panel shows what is popular to watch. To do that, Hey Telly asks two online services over the internet:

• YouTube Data API (Google). It returns the most popular videos for your phone's region. Hey Telly uses YouTube API Services, so the YouTube Terms of Service apply, and Google handles the request under the Google Privacy Policy.
• The Movie Database (TMDB). It returns this week's trending films and shows and where they stream. TMDB's streaming availability data comes from JustWatch. TMDB handles the request under the TMDB privacy policy.

Each request carries only your phone's region code, for example AU, and the app's own API key. It carries no account, name, email address or identifier. Like any web request, it shows your device's IP address to the service that receives it, and that service handles it under its own privacy policy. These requests go straight from your device to those services, not through our server, so we never see them.

Controlling your TV never goes through the internet.

The Telly Assistant

The Telly Assistant comes with the Telly Plus with Assistant plan. Before your first request, the app explains what is sent and asks whether you agree. You can withdraw that in Settings at any time, and the rest of the app keeps working without it.

Exact commands, such as volume up, are handled on your iPhone or iPad. For anything else, the app sends your request over the internet to Hey Telly's server at api.heytelly.app, which passes it to Anthropic, the AI provider, to work out what to do. The app then carries out the answer on your TV over your Wi-Fi, as usual.

What is sent with each request:

• What you asked, as text, with the earlier messages in the same conversation. If you speak to the Assistant, your iPhone or iPad turns your voice into text first, so no audio is sent. If you ask through Siri, Apple handles your voice and Hey Telly sends only the words.
• The names of your TV's apps and inputs, your buttons and your Home scenes.
• Your TV's brand and model, and what it is doing: the app or input on screen, the volume and whether it is muted.
• Your region, for example AU.
• Apple's signed proof that you subscribe to the Assistant, so our server can check it. It includes the subscription's transaction number, but not your name, email address or Apple Account.

What is never sent: your TV's address on your network, your Wi-Fi details, your TVs' pairing keys, your Apple Account, or anything else that identifies you. Please avoid putting personal details in your requests or in the names of your buttons.

What our server keeps. Nothing from your request: not your words, your TV's details or the answer. For each request it records only counts and timings, such as how long the answer took, with no identifiers. For fair use, it keeps a count of each subscription's requests today, under its transaction number, and clears it after 8 days without use. If Apple tells our server that a subscription was refunded or revoked, it records when, so the Assistant stops for that subscription.

Anthropic receives the request from our server, not from your device, so it does not see your IP address. It handles the request under its own terms and the Anthropic Privacy Policy. Like any web request, the request to our server shows your device's IP address to Cloudflare, which runs the server, and Cloudflare may keep standard server logs. We do not use them to identify anyone.

Your conversation stays in the app's memory while you chat. It is not saved on your device or on our server.

Finding something to watch. When you ask the Assistant for something to watch, your iPhone or iPad searches TMDB and YouTube itself, as the Watch panel does, with the search words the Assistant chose and your region. Those searches do not go through our server.

Plans and payments

Hey Telly is free to download. Telly Plus is an optional subscription sold through the App Store. Apple processes your payment and tells the app which plan your Apple Account has, so it can switch those features on. We do not receive your name, your payment details or your Apple Account details. Apple gives developers sales totals, not information about individual buyers.

With the Assistant plan, the app sends Apple's signed proof of your subscription with each Assistant request, and Apple tells our server when a subscription is refunded or revoked, as described in The Telly Assistant.

If you turn on Share With App Developers in your iOS analytics settings, Apple may pass us anonymous crash reports. Hey Telly has no analytics of its own.

This website

This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no third-party scripts, fonts or trackers. It is served by Cloudflare, which, like any web host, processes visitors' IP addresses to deliver pages and may keep standard server logs. We do not use those logs to identify or track anyone.

Contact, children and changes

Contact. If you email us, we see your email address and what you write. We use them only to reply, and we do not add you to any list.

Children. Hey Telly does not ask anyone, including children, for personal information.

Changes. If what the app sends or keeps changes, we will update this page and its date before the change takes effect, and update Hey Telly's App Privacy details on the App Store.

Hey Telly is made in Australia by Steven Aylward. Questions about this policy: hello@heytelly.app.