The short version
Scope
This policy covers Homelab Dictate, the iPhone app and its keyboard, made by The Fire Dev LLC, which does business as Mesh. The app is a client for a speech-to-text server that you or someone you trust runs. Mesh does not host that server, and the app does not include one.
Your voice
- When it listens. The app opens the microphone when you start a session, and iOS shows its orange microphone indicator while it is open. The input stays open so the keyboard can start quickly, but nothing is saved or sent until you tap the mic key or the mic button. The session ends after the idle time you choose (1 to 60 minutes) or when you tap End session.
- What is recorded. One tap to start and one tap to stop make a short 16 kHz mono recording in the app's temporary folder. The app deletes the file as soon as the upload finishes.
- Where it goes. The recording is sent in one HTTPS request to the address you entered, with your access token in the Authorization header. The server answers with text. The app has no other destination for audio.
- Your server's logs. Whoever runs that server decides what it keeps. If someone else runs it, ask them about their practices. They are not ours.
What stays on your device
- Server address. Kept in the app's preferences.
- Access token. Kept in the iOS keychain, in a group only the app can read, and readable after the first unlock so a background session can still upload. The keyboard never receives it. iOS can keep keychain items after an app is deleted, so tap Disconnect first if you want the token gone.
- Latest transcript and status. The app hands the newest transcript, an error message and a small status record (session state, microphone level, a result counter) to the keyboard through a keychain group shared by the app and the keyboard. The transcript is replaced by the next one and removed when you end the session.
- Draft text. Text in the app's Dictate here box lives in memory only.
Disconnect removes the saved address and token. The app sends no data to Mesh, so there is nothing for us to delete.
The keyboard and Full Access
The keyboard asks for Allow Full Access because iOS requires it for a keyboard to read the shared keychain group that carries transcripts from the app. The keyboard has no network code. It does not record what you type. It reads the few characters before the cursor only to decide whether to add a leading space, and that never leaves the keyboard.
The demo
Try the demo types invented sample sentences. It does not open the microphone, contact a server or save a server address.
Permissions
- Microphone. To record when you dictate. The prompt reads: "Homelab Dictate records your voice and sends it to your own homelab server to turn it into text."
- Local network. iOS may ask this the first time the app reaches a server on your home network.
- Allow Full Access. For the keyboard, as described above.
Children
The app is for people who run, or have been given access to, a speech server. It is not directed to children.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will post the new version on this page and update the date at the top.
Contact
Email us with your iOS version, the app version and what you see. We reply by email.
tanner@meshvault.ai, Orange County, California