PRIVACY · Local-first
Your bills stay here.
On your phone - unless you start an optional Drive backup or enable AI tools. No account. No bank login.
“Local-first” does not mean your phone never connects to the internet. It means something more practical: your bill list works without a vendor cloud account, and its data stays on the device until you choose an optional online feature.
Phone first. Not cloud first.
Bills, subscriptions, warranties, and payment details you enter in Smart Bill Reminder go into a local database on your device. Receipt photos and PDF attachments stay on the phone during normal use, too.
- Add payments without creating an account.
- No bank login and no open-banking connection.
- Local export or import when you want a file without Google.
One clear boundary
Core data stays on your side. Two features can cross that line - but only after an action from you:
- On your phone (default) - bills, photos, PDFs, and normal OCR
- Google Drive (optional) - manual JSON backup
- AI tools (optional) - only selected features you turn on
Drive backup is not silent sync
Drive stays off until you connect Google and run a backup yourself. The backup saves a JSON export of bills and settings in the app-data folder. Photos and PDFs stay on the phone; the export keeps file paths rather than the files themselves. After restoring on another device, attachments must therefore be moved separately.
If you only want a file on the device, use local export or import in Settings. Full wording is in the privacy policy.
Normal OCR is local. AI is separate.
Scanning a receipt into a daily payment runs on the device. Walkthrough: how to scan a receipt into a daily payment.
Optional AI tools - such as receipt correction or Money Coach - stay off until you enable them. Content needed by the selected feature, including the receipt image when using AI correction, may then go to a cloud model. When enabled, Money Coach can prepare periodic summaries from bill data. See Settings and the privacy policy for details.
Local does not mean “zero network”
The free version can still use the network for ads, analytics based on consent status, crash reports, and app setting updates. Those channels are not the same as syncing your bill list to a server. Ads can be removed with a paid unlock that turns ads off; that is separate from full Premium features. Crash reporting operates independently of Premium.
Three short answers
What happens if I uninstall the app?
Local data on that phone is usually gone. Export a local file or use optional Drive backup before switching devices.
Does OCR upload receipt photos?
Not for a normal scan. Cloud is used only after you turn on optional AI tools.
Does no account mean zero network traffic?
No. It means you do not create a login to add bills. Ads, analytics based on consent status, and crash reports are separate channels.
Also see: what to check before you install a bill app without an account · privacy policy.