Last updated: October 2026
Archie (“the app”) identifies architectural styles from photos you take. It is built to know as little about you as it can: no account is needed to identify a building, there are no ads inside the app, and there is no tracking of you across other apps and websites.
Archie 3.10 adds an optional account. You need one only to save photos to your library, build your life list, and collect places on the map, because those are backed up to our servers so they survive a lost phone and can be read on more than one device. Everything the account stores, where it lives, and how to delete it is described under “Your account” below. If you never sign in, nothing in that section applies to you.
Photos. When you identify a building, your photo is sent over an encrypted connection to our analysis service, which sends it to Google’s Gemini to recognize the architectural style and the building. When no building in our database matches, the service also searches the web for the building through OpenRouter: the photo goes, through OpenRouter, to a model provider that neither stores nor trains on it, and a web search runs on the place and what was read in the photo. For the identification itself the photo is processed in memory and not stored on our servers: once the analysis response is returned, that copy is gone. Without an account, your photos and identification history are stored only on your device; deleting the app (or using “Delete all my data” in Settings) removes them. With an account, the photos you choose to save are also stored in your library on our servers (see “Your account”).
A device identifier. The app generates a random identifier (a UUID, stored in your device’s Keychain) so our server can count your free identifications. It is not your Apple ID, is not derived from your hardware, and is not used to identify you personally or to track you across apps. If you sign in, the same identifier tells us which of your devices is signed in, so you can see and sign out your devices from Settings.
Location (optional). If you grant location access, the app sends your position, its accuracy, and the direction the camera was facing with each photo you identify, along with a coarse place hint (like a neighborhood or city). Our server uses the position and direction only while it handles that request, to check which known building you photographed and to make the “about this area” note more accurate; it does not store or log them. When Archie can’t name the building at first, the server also asks OpenStreetMap’s public map services (Overpass and Nominatim) for the street addresses around that position, sending the position, or points just ahead of it, and nothing that identifies you or your device. If it then searches the web for the building, the search gets the place, the direction the camera faced, and those addresses. The app also uses your position on the map to show buildings near you, fetch your city’s map content, and point the map the way you’re facing. All of this is optional; the app works without it. When you save an identification, the app keeps the capture location with the photo so it can link the photo to a nearby place on the map. Without an account that stays on your device. With an account it is stored with the saved photo, rounded to about 11 meters (four decimal places), so the same link works on your other devices. Photos you pick from your library are treated the same way, using the location and direction saved in the photo, if any.
Narration audio. When you tap play to hear a description read aloud, the text of that description (which is written by us, and contains nothing about you) is sent to our server, which uses a text-to-speech model (Kokoro, reached through OpenRouter) to generate the audio. No photos, location, identifiers, or any other data accompany the text, and the generated audio may be cached on our servers so the same description doesn’t have to be synthesized twice.
Map content. The map’s city guides (curated buildings, photos, and descriptions) are downloaded from our content delivery network. These downloads are anonymous, they carry no device identifier, and the content then works offline from your device.
Feedback you send us. If you use “Send feedback” in Settings, the text you write is delivered to us by email so we can read it. It travels with the app version and the same random device identifier described above (so we can connect a bug report to, say, “a device that had already used its free identifications”, never to you). If you report an identification as wrong, your report and the analyzed photo are emailed to us the same way and also kept on our servers, with the rounded capture location you allowed, so we can check what went wrong and test that a fix works. These reports are kept only to improve Archie, never shared, not tied to your account, and deleted on request. Don’t include personal information in feedback unless you want us to have it; if you’d like a reply, use the optional email field or the Contact us link.
Questions you ask. If you ask a follow-up question on a result (typed or tapped from the suggestions), the question travels with a short text summary of that identification to our server, which asks Google’s Gemini to compose the answer. Questions and answers are handled like the identification photo: processed in memory and not stored on our servers. They are not saved on your device either. Don’t include personal information in a question.
Purchases. Subscriptions and the lifetime unlock are processed entirely by Apple. When you are a subscriber, the app sends Apple’s signed purchase receipt with your requests so our server can verify your access. We never see your payment details. If you sign in, the receipt’s transaction number is recorded against your account so your purchase also works on your other devices and on the Archie website; no payment details are involved.
Ad measurement. To help people discover Archie, we advertise it on Instagram and Facebook. So that we can tell whether those ads work, the app includes Meta’s software kit, which reports a few anonymous app events to Meta: that the app was installed and opened, that an identification happened, that the subscription screen was shown, and that a trial or purchase started (with the amount). None of this is tied to your name, your email, your photos, or your location, and the app never asks for permission to track you, because it does not: we do not use Apple’s advertising identifier at all, and Meta’s kit never receives your account. Apple’s own privacy-preserving attribution system (SKAdNetwork) is what connects an install back to an ad, and it reports only in aggregate. Meta processes this data under its own terms. If you would rather send nothing at all, you can turn off “Allow Apps to Request to Track” and personalized ads in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking and → Apple Advertising.
To learn which parts of Archie people actually use, the app records anonymous usage events (a screen was opened, an identification finished, a style was unlocked, the subscription screen was shown) using a product analytics service called PostHog. These are counts of what happened in the app, not a record of you.
Concretely, what is not in them: your name, your email, your account, your photos, your identifications, your device’s own location, and your device’s advertising identifier. No profile is built. Events are labelled with a random identifier created on your device at install, which tells us that some anonymous device opened the app twice rather than who did. PostHog notes roughly where each event came from: the country, region, city and postal area it finds for your IP address, with that area’s approximate coordinates. The IP address itself is not stored. The app never records your screen, and it does not automatically capture what you tap; only the specific events we listed above are sent. Data is processed in the European Union.
You can turn this off. Settings → “Share usage analytics”. Turning it off stops the app sending anything further, and nothing about the app changes otherwise.
Signing in is optional and is never asked for before you have seen a result. An account exists so that what you save is backed up and available on every device you sign in to, including the Archie website.
How you sign in. With your Apple ID (Sign in with Apple), your Google account, or an email address that receives a one-time code. There are no passwords. Apple and Google each confirm your identity to us and share your email address (Apple may share a private relay address instead, which works the same way) and, if you allow it, your name. We use the name only to greet you. Sign-in codes are sent from thearchieapp.com.