Homiletics

Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 14, 2026

Who we are

Homiletics is a small, independent app from 13one.org that helps people study the Bible. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Bible Study Fellowship. Questions about this policy: stlyabsf@gmail.com.

What stays on your device

Everything you write or record in the app is stored only on your device:

  • homiletics, lecture notes, word studies and application questions;
  • lecture recordings, and the transcripts made from them;
  • your settings, such as app language and Bible translation.

Lecture transcription and transcript formatting run entirely on your device, using models downloaded onto it once. Your audio and transcripts are never uploaded. The app asks for microphone access only so you can record a lecture, and nothing is recorded unless you press record.

There are no accounts, so there's no profile, password or sign-in, and none of your studies are on any server. Uninstalling the app removes its data. Your device's own backups (such as iCloud or Android backup) may include it, according to your device settings.

What reaches us

Only two things, and neither includes your studies:

  1. Feedback you choose to send. If you use Help & feedback, the name, email address and message you type are sent to our server so we can read and reply. Name and email are optional. Feedback is also posted as an issue on our public GitHub project so it can be tracked. There, the message is public and your email is shown only in shortened form (for example n***@example.com). The full email is kept privately on our server only so we can reply. Please don't put anything in feedback you wouldn't want to be public. To have feedback removed, email us.

  2. Anonymous error reports. When something goes wrong, the app sends a short technical description of the error and your device's operating system (for example "android") so we can fix it. Reports are built to leave out what you've written, and contain no names, contact details, or device or advertising identifiers. They aren't linked to you.

We don't sell, rent or share this information, and we never use it for advertising.

Services the app talks to

To show Bible text and download optional resources, the app connects to the services below. Like any website, they can see your device's internet (IP) address when it connects, and their own privacy policies apply. Each request carries only what it needs, never your studies.

  • Bible Gateway (biblegateway.com) and the Homiletics passage service (api.homiletics.app) show passage text. They receive the passage reference and translation you're reading. Bible Gateway also receives the word when you search for its other usages.
  • GitHub (raw.githubusercontent.com) serves the weekly study schedule and the offline Bible downloads. On Windows, the app also asks GitHub (api.github.com) once a day, and when you tap Check for updates, whether a newer version exists, and downloads the installer only if you choose Update now.
  • Hugging Face (huggingface.co) serves the transcription and formatting models, downloaded only if you choose to.
  • Google Fonts serves Chinese fonts, downloaded only when you print a study that needs them.
  • Free Dictionary API (freedictionaryapi.com) receives the word you look up, only when you ask for definition suggestions in a word study.

Sharing a study

When you share a study as a link, the whole study is packed into the link itself, after the #. Browsers never send that part of a link to a server, so when someone opens it on homiletics.app the study isn't uploaded to us; it's decoded in their browser. Anyone who has the link can read the study, just like a forwarded PDF, so share it only with people you mean to.

Backups

Settings → Backup & restore makes a single file containing your studies (and, if you choose, your lecture recordings). It goes only where you send or save it, such as Google Drive, Files, AirDrop or email. It is never sent to us, and anyone with the file can read what's in it. Restoring a backup only adds studies to your device; it never changes or deletes the ones already there.

This website

homiletics.app uses no cookies, analytics or trackers. Like all web servers, ours keeps standard short-lived access logs (IP address, page requested, time) for security and troubleshooting.

Children

Homiletics is meant for general audiences and doesn't knowingly collect information from anyone, including children under 13. If a child has sent us feedback containing personal information, email us and we'll delete it.

Your choices

  • You can use every feature of the app without sending us anything.
  • To have feedback you sent (and its GitHub issue) deleted, email stlyabsf@gmail.com.
  • Your studies are yours. Delete them in the app at any time, print them to PDF, or back them all up to a file you keep.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top. We won't start collecting your studies or recordings without asking you first.