Privacy Policy

Last updated: 3 November 2026

Recent is an app for keeping chapters with your friends: you seal photos and videos, and they open together at a moment you choose. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

Recent is made by Kuchai Studio Ltd ("we", "us"), a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16690181), registered office Vauxhall Railway Station, South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SS, United Kingdom. We are the controller of your personal data. Contact us at privacy@joinrecent.com.

  • What you seal stays sealed until the chapter opens, then only the people in that chapter can see it.
  • An opening stays inside its chapter. You can share only the moments you took with your friends, and anyone in a moment can keep themselves out of a post at any time.
  • We don't sell your data, show ads, or track you across other apps or websites.
  • We don't collect your location.
  • You can delete your account, and what you've added, from inside the app at any time.

Account information. Your name, email address, a password (stored only in hashed form by our authentication provider), your date of birth, and, if you add them, a username, bio and profile photo. Your date of birth is used only to check that you're 13 or over. It's stored separately from your profile and never shown to anyone.

What you create. Photos and videos (moments), photos, videos and stickers you send in a chapter's chat, captions, chat messages, replies, reactions and likes. We also store the chapters you're in and their settings, including when they open, your posting preferences, and your choices to keep moments out of posts.

Your connections. Friend requests and friendships, people you've blocked, and reports you've made. When you report a message, we keep a copy of it with the report, even if its sender later unsends it, so that we can review it.

Activity in the app. Which openings you've viewed (shown to the other members of that chapter as "Seen by"), and the notifications we've sent you.

Device information. A push notification token and your device platform (iOS or Android), so we can send you notifications. If the app crashes, we receive a crash report: device model, operating system version, app version, and technical details of the error. Crash reports do not include your photos, messages or your device's name, and we use them only to find and fix problems.

What we don't collect: location, contacts, advertising identifiers, or browsing activity outside Recent.

PurposeLegal basis (UK GDPR)
Running your account and the app: storing and delivering what you share, to the people you share it with, and sending account emails such as sign-up and password reset codesPerformance of our contract with you
Checking you're 13 or overOur legitimate interest in keeping young children off Recent, and legal obligations
Sending notifications you've allowed (a chapter is ready to open, a reply, someone sharing moments from a chapter you're in)Your consent, which you can withdraw in your phone's settings
Keeping Recent safe: acting on reports (including keeping a copy of reported messages), enforcing our Terms, preventing abuseOur legitimate interest in a safe service, and legal obligations
Fixing crashes and bugsOur legitimate interest in a working app
Meeting legal requirements and handling legal claimsLegal obligations, and our legitimate interest in protecting our rights

We don't make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

  • Sealed moments aren't shown to anyone in the app, including you, until the chapter opens.
  • Once opened, a chapter's moments, messages and replies are visible to the members of that chapter.
  • Posts. A member can share the moments they took from an opening to their friends. Other people's moments are never shared by them. The other members are told when someone shares, and anyone can keep a moment they appear in out of posts. A chapter's owner can turn sharing off for the whole chapter. Shared moments are visible to the sharer's friends and on the sharer's profile until they're removed.
  • Your profile (name, username, photo, bio and counts) is visible to other Recent users.
  • Our team doesn't look through your content. We access it only when we need to: to review a report, investigate abuse or a security problem, help you when you ask us to, or meet a legal obligation.

We use a small number of service providers to run Recent. They process data only on our instructions:

  • Supabase: database, accounts and photo storage
  • Mux: video storage and streaming
  • Expo and Apple (and Google, on Android): delivering push notifications
  • Sentry: crash reporting
  • Resend: sending account emails, such as sign-up and password reset codes

Some of these providers process data outside the UK, including in the United States. Where they do, we rely on safeguards recognised under UK law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or Standard Contractual Clauses.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or to establish or defend legal claims. If Kuchai Studio Ltd or Recent is ever sold or merged, your data may pass to the new owner, who must keep protecting it as this policy describes.

Data is encrypted in transit, and stored with providers that encrypt it at rest. Access to our systems is limited to the people who need it. No service can promise perfect security, but if a breach is likely to put you at risk, we'll tell you and the Information Commissioner's Office as the law requires.

We keep your data while your account exists. A message you unsend is deleted, along with its photo or video. When you delete your account (Settings → Delete account):

  • your profile, moments, messages, replies, reactions and likes are deleted;
  • chapters you started pass to the next member, and a chapter with no one else in it is deleted.

Copies in our providers' backups are removed within 30 days. We may keep the minimum needed to handle an open report, meet a legal obligation, or deal with a legal claim.

You have the right to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your data, to object to or restrict some processing, and to withdraw any consent you've given. To use any of these rights, email privacy@joinrecent.com. We'll reply within one month, and we may need to confirm it's you first. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us, and you can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Recent is not for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child under 13 is using Recent, contact us and we'll delete the account. If you're under 18 and anything in this policy is unclear, ask a parent or guardian, or email us and we'll explain.

joinrecent.com doesn't use cookies, analytics or trackers. Our web host may keep standard server logs, such as IP addresses, for a short time to keep the site secure.

If we change this policy in a meaningful way, we'll tell you in the app before the change takes effect. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.