Let It Simmer app
Privacy Policy
Let It Simmer keeps your recipes on your device. There is no account, and we — Angela Green, who publishes the app and is responsible for the data described here — never receive a copy of your library.
What the app stores
Your recipes, cookbooks, categories, grocery lists, meal plans, pantry staples, and recipe photos are saved on your device only. They are not uploaded to us or to anyone else.
What leaves your device
When you import a recipe from a link, the app fetches that web page or post so it can read the recipe — the same request your browser would make. Nothing about your library is sent along with it.
Understanding a recipe happens on your device using Apple's built-in on-device intelligence. Your recipes are never sent to any AI service.
Two features write into Apple's own apps at your request: sending a grocery list to Reminders, and syncing your meal plan to a "Simmer Meals" calendar. Anything written there belongs to those apps afterward — if the list or calendar you chose is in an account that syncs, such as iCloud, those items sync with your other devices and are visible to anyone you share them with. Once meal-plan calendar sync is switched on it keeps the calendar up to date on its own, rather than asking each time.
Analytics and tracking
None. The app contains no analytics or advertising SDK, does not track you across apps or websites, and does not build a profile of you.
Settings, then Import Diagnostics shows counts of how often imports succeeded or failed on your device. Those counts stay on your device and are never sent anywhere.
Permissions
The app asks for a permission only at the moment you use the feature that needs it, and uses each one for that feature alone:
- Camera — photographing a recipe, and hand-wave gestures in Cook Mode. The camera feed is never recorded or stored.
- Calendar — adding planned meals to a "Simmer Meals" calendar. The app reads only the events it created itself.
- Reminders — sending a grocery list to the Reminders app. The app writes reminders and never reads their contents; it reads your list names and the account each one belongs to, so you can choose where to send them.
- Notifications — meal-prep reminders and cook timers.
You can withdraw any of these at any time in the iOS Settings app.
Photos
The app never asks for access to your photo library and never receives it. When you add a picture — importing a recipe from an image, or choosing cover art for a recipe, cookbook, or category — iOS shows you its own picker and hands the app only the specific images you select.
Sharing a recipe
Exporting a recipe file is always something you start, and the content goes wherever you choose to send it. The app does not send it anywhere on your behalf.
Besides the recipe itself, a recipe file also carries whether you favorited it, your rating, how often you cooked it, and Paprika's own number for a recipe imported from Paprika.
Reporting a problem
Settings, then Report a Problem sends us an email. Nothing is sent unless you tap Send, and you can read it first — tap "See exactly what will be sent" to see the message and which files are attached.
If your device has no email account set up, the app hands the report to the usual iOS share sheet instead, and it goes wherever you choose to send it. On that route it may not reach us at all.
The message contains what you type in the "What happened?" box, the app version, your iOS version, your device model (for example iPhone14,2), your language and region setting, how many crash reports are stored on your device, and when iOS last gave one to the app. Because it arrives as an email, it also shows us the name and address you send it from.
If iOS recorded a crash or a freeze in the app, it is attached. Those files describe where in the app's code the problem happened, plus the same device and version details listed above. They do not contain your recipes, your photos, your grocery lists, or anything you typed into the app. The app strips out everything except a fixed list of technical fields before sending, so anything new that Apple adds to these files in the future is left out until we have looked at it.
iOS gathers these crash files itself and hands them to the app on its own schedule, so there is often nothing to attach. The app keeps at most 14 of them, deletes any older than 30 days, keeps them out of your device backups, and deletes all of them when you use Clear All Data. We use reports only to fix problems, and delete our copies no later than 12 months from when we receive it, or until the problem is fixed, whichever comes first.
During the TestFlight beta
If you are testing a pre-release build and send feedback through TestFlight, that feedback goes to Apple and to us. We specifically ask testers for screenshots — which may show recipes from your own library — and for the original link of a recipe that imported badly. It also includes anything you type, your device model, iOS version, and the email address associated with your Apple Account. If you choose to share crash diagnostics with developers, Apple also sends us crash reports for this app.
We use all of this only to find and fix problems in the app. We delete the copies we hold once the issue is resolved, and in any case no later than 30 days after the beta program ends. Apple keeps its own copy of TestFlight feedback and crash reports under Apple's privacy policy, which we cannot delete on your behalf — to reach Apple's copy, contact Apple.
We do not share this with anyone else. Apple receives it as part of operating TestFlight and affords it protections equivalent to those described here; Apple's own retention differs from ours and is governed by Apple's privacy policy.
Device backups
If your iPhone or iPad is backed up to iCloud or to a computer, that backup includes your Let It Simmer library and photos, as it does for most apps. The backup is stored by Apple or on your computer; we never receive it and cannot see it. Crash reports are kept out of backups.
Clear All Data erases the library on this device but cannot reach backups already made. Those are replaced as iOS makes new backups, or you can delete them in the iOS Settings app.
Deleting your data
Settings, then Clear All Data erases your recipes, cookbooks, categories, grocery lists, meal plans, pantry staples, and recipe photos from this device. It also cancels scheduled meal-prep notifications and cook timers, clears the import counts described above, clears the record of which links you have already imported, and deletes any stored crash reports. If the app still has calendar access at that moment, it also removes the "Simmer Meals" calendar and its events; if you have since revoked that access, you will need to delete the calendar yourself.
Most of your app preferences — measurement system, Cook Mode options — are left alone, so a wipe does not reset how the app is set up. Meal-prep reminder lead times are the exception: they return to their defaults, because a reminder schedule for deleted recipes has nothing to point at. Settings, then Reset Settings resets preferences generally. Deleting the app removes everything, preferences included.
Deleting the app does not remove grocery items already sent to Reminders or events already written to your calendar — those live in Apple's apps, and you delete them there.
To ask us to delete beta feedback you have sent, email the address below.
Children
The app is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the effective date shown at the top changes with it.
Contact
Angela Green is responsible for the data described here. For privacy questions, or to ask us to delete feedback you have sent:
This policy covers the Let It Simmer app. For this website, including the launch email list, see the website privacy notice.