Recalla Help
This guide explains how Recalla works in practice, including spaces, items, photos, search, sharing, and a detailed explanation of how privacy works inside the app itself.
What is Recalla?
Recalla helps you remember where you stored physical things. You create a structure of places, called spaces, then you save items inside those spaces. Later, when you need something, you search for it and Recalla shows where it was stored.
The simple idea is this: instead of trusting your future self to remember that the spare charger is in the hallway cabinet, second drawer, blue box behind the batteries, you save that once and let the app remember it.
Getting started
1. Create your first structure
Think of Recalla as a tree. At the top, you usually start with a main place such as Home, Office, Workshop, Storage Room, B&B, or Apartment. Then you add more detailed levels under it.
- Create a main space.
- Add subspaces inside it.
- Keep drilling down until the place is precise enough to be useful.
2. Add items where they actually live
Once your structure exists, add items directly in the most accurate space possible. The more precise the space, the more helpful the result will be later.
3. Use clear names
"Black USB-C charger", "Winter dog leash", or "Guest bathroom hair dryer" is much better than "charger", "leash", or the legendary and useless "stuff".
How spaces work
A space is any place that can contain items or other spaces. Spaces can be nested, which means you can build a real-world storage hierarchy.
Examples of space hierarchies
When to create a subspace
- Create a subspace when a place contains several categories of storage.
- Create a subspace when people naturally describe the location in steps.
- Do not create five levels of detail if one clear space is already enough.
How items work
An item is the thing you want to remember and find later. It can include a title, description, and photo. Items belong inside a space.
What makes an item easy to find later?
- A clear title
- An optional description with useful details
- A correct location
- A photo when visual recognition helps
Photos and scan
Photos are optional, but they often make an item easier to recognize, especially when names are similar or when several people use the same space.
When to add a photo
- When the object is easier to recognize visually than by name
- When several similar items exist
- When you share the item with someone else
- When you want faster confirmation at retrieval time
Camera and photo library permissions
Recalla may request access to the camera when you want to take a new photo, and access to your photo library when you want to select an existing image. These permissions are used only for the action you request inside the app.
Search and retrieval
Search is where Recalla earns its keep. Instead of mentally replaying the last six cleaning sessions like a detective in a very low-budget thriller, you search the item and go straight to the saved location.
Sharing spaces and items
Recalla is not only for solo use. You can also collaborate by sharing spaces and items with other people. This is useful for households, couples, families, offices, B&Bs, workshops, rentals, and any place where more than one person needs to know where things are.
Share a full space when
- Someone needs access to a whole area and its contents
- You want another person to consult or help manage that space
- The structure itself matters, not just one item
Share a single item when
- You only want to show one thing
- The rest of the space should stay private
- You want focused, minimal sharing
Best practices
- Start with the places you use most often.
- Add frequently lost items first for fast value.
- Prefer practical names over clever names.
- Update locations when things move.
- Use photos for visually similar objects.
- Do not overbuild the structure on day one.
- For shared use, agree on naming conventions with the people involved.
Privacy and data
Recalla is built to help you organize real-world information about where things are stored. That means the app may process several categories of data so it can save, sync, retrieve, and share locations when you ask it to. This section explains that in detail.
1. What kind of data Recalla can store
Your account may include information such as your email address and the minimum authentication data needed to sign in and keep your account secure.
Space names, hierarchy, parent-child relationships, and ownership information are stored so the app can represent your real storage structure.
Item titles, descriptions, assigned space, and related metadata are stored so you can search for an object and retrieve its saved location later.
If you attach photos to items, those images become part of the item record and are used to help identify the item visually.
When you share a space or an item, the app stores the permissions and relationships required to grant the intended people the intended access.
If premium access is enabled for your account, the app may store limited subscription status information needed to decide which features are available to you.
2. Why this data is used
- To let you create spaces and items.
- To save where things are located.
- To retrieve item locations through search and browsing.
- To synchronize your data across your sessions and devices where supported.
- To allow sharing when you explicitly choose to share a space or an item.
- To determine feature access, including free and premium capabilities where applicable.
3. Photos, camera access, and photo library access
Recalla does not need blanket access to your camera or images unless you choose a feature that uses them. If you tap a scan or camera action, iOS may ask for camera permission. If you choose an existing image, iOS may ask for photo library permission or present a limited picker. These permissions are tied to your actions.
- The camera is used to capture a new image for an item.
- The photo library is used to let you choose an existing image for an item.
- If you do not attach a photo, the item can still exist with text only.
- You remain responsible for the content of the photos you choose to store or share.
4. Sharing and who can see what
Sharing in Recalla is intentional, not magical. Other people do not automatically gain access to your spaces or items. Access is granted only when you explicitly share something with them.
- If you share a full space, the recipient may see that shared space and the information needed for that shared structure to make sense.
- If you share a single item, the recipient should only see that item and the minimum location context needed to understand where it belongs.
- If collaboration permissions are enabled, editors may be able to update shared content within the boundaries of the permissions you granted.
- Shared access is not meant to expose unrelated private data outside the scope of what was shared.
5. Usage statistics and analytics inside the app
Recalla may use app analytics or usage statistics to understand how the product is used, diagnose problems, improve stability, and guide product decisions. These analytics are about product behavior, not advertising.
- The purpose is to improve the app experience, reliability, and product design.
- There are no advertising SDKs in the app experience described here.
- Recalla includes a user-facing setting for usage statistics, so analytics can be allowed or disabled from Settings where that option is available.
- If usage statistics are disabled, future analytics collection should be limited according to that setting.
6. Notifications and reminders
If Recalla offers notifications or reminder features, the app uses notification permissions only to deliver those reminders. You can control notification permissions through iOS settings.
7. TestFlight and beta usage
If you use a beta version of Recalla distributed through TestFlight, Apple may also process certain information related to beta delivery, crash reporting, and feedback through its own systems. That Apple-side processing is separate from the content you choose to store in Recalla.
8. What Recalla is not trying to do
- It is not an advertising platform.
- It is not built to profile your shopping habits or sell targeted ads inside the app.
- It is not designed to read unrelated content from your device without your action.
9. What you should avoid storing
Recalla is meant for practical organization. You should avoid storing highly sensitive personal information in item titles, descriptions, or photos unless it is genuinely necessary for your use case and you are comfortable with that choice.
- Avoid storing financial secrets, passwords, or security codes.
- Avoid storing medical details unless there is a strong reason and you understand the sensitivity.
- Be thoughtful with photos that contain documents, private addresses, or other sensitive details.
10. Your control over your data
- You decide what spaces and items to create.
- You decide whether to attach photos.
- You decide whether to share a space or item.
- You can edit content when something changes.
- You can review settings related to analytics and notifications where those controls are available.
- Account and deletion options may be available in the app depending on the feature rollout.
11. A practical privacy summary
Recalla needs enough information to remember what you saved, where you saved it, and who you chose to share it with. That is the core bargain of the app. It should not need unrelated access, unrelated data, or advertising tracking to do its job.
FAQ
Does Recalla read my whole photo library?
No. The app uses the camera or photo picker when you request those actions. You choose which images to attach to an item.
Can other people see my data automatically?
No. Other people should only see the spaces or items you explicitly share with them, plus the minimum context required for the shared content to make sense.
Does Recalla use ads?
The app experience described here does not include advertising SDKs.
Why does the app need my data at all?
Because the entire point of Recalla is to remember what you stored and where. Without your saved structure and item information, the app would be philosophically elegant but practically unemployed.