Privacy

Last updated 18 September 2026

thrw switches your headset between your devices. To do that it needs to know when a call or meeting starts, and it needs to talk to a relay so your other devices find out. This page describes exactly what that involves — what leaves your device, what never does, and what you can turn off.

What thrw sends to the relay

Each device running a thrw adapter connects to a relay server and publishes only the following:

• A node identifier — a random identifier generated on your device the first time the app runs, and stored only on that device. It is not derived from your hardware, your advertising ID, or any account you hold elsewhere.
• Your device model name (for example "Pixel 10 Pro"), so the app can show you which device currently holds the headset.
• The adapter version and platform, so the relay knows what the device supports.
• Trigger events — that a call, VoIP session, or media playback started or ended on that device, and nothing about its content.
• An account identifier you supply when setting up the app, used to group your own devices together and to keep them separate from everyone else's.

The relay holds nothing about a device beyond what that device declared above. It uses this to decide which device should hold the headset, and sends back a single instruction: claim it, or release it.

What thrw never collects

• No audio, ever. thrw routes which device your headset is connected to. It does not record, access, or transmit audio.
• No phone numbers, contacts, or call history. The app reads only whether a call is ringing, active, or ended — never who is calling.
• No notification content. See below.
• No advertising identifiers, no analytics SDKs, no third-party trackers.
• No location data.
• Nothing is sold or shared with third parties.

Notification access, specifically

On Android, thrw asks for notification access. This is a powerful permission and it deserves a precise explanation rather than a vague one.

thrw uses it for one purpose: detecting that a VoIP call (Zoom, Meet, Teams, WhatsApp and similar) has started or ended, because Android provides no other reliable signal for that. From each notification, the app reads only these structural fields:

• which app posted it;
• its category and style — specifically whether the system has tagged it as a call notification;
• whether it is an ongoing notification;
• whether it represents an incoming, ongoing, or screening call;
• an identifier used to tell when that same notification is dismissed.

It does not read notification titles, message text, sender names, or any other content — those fields are never accessed. Nothing derived from your notifications is stored, logged, or sent to the relay; the only thing that leaves your device is the fact that "a VoIP call started on this device."

You can revoke notification access at any time in Android Settings. thrw keeps working; it just stops detecting VoIP calls.

Other permissions

• Bluetooth — to connect and disconnect a headset you have already paired. thrw only manages headsets you have explicitly registered with it, and never acts on your other Bluetooth devices.
• Phone state — to detect that a call started or ended, as described above.
• Notifications — to show its own persistent status notification, which Android requires for an app that runs in the background.
• Start on boot — so switching works after a restart without you opening the app.

Running your own relay

thrw is designed so you do not have to use ours. Every adapter reads its relay address from build-time configuration, so you can point it at a relay you host yourself and no data reaches our infrastructure at all. The source is public.

Retention

Trigger events are used to make an immediate switching decision and are not stored as a history. Your registered devices remain known to the relay while they are actively connected; a device that stops sending heartbeats is dropped.

Contact

thrw is operated by Barhatch Limited, registered in the United Kingdom. For any privacy question, or to ask us to delete data associated with your account identifier, contact privacy@thrw.app.