In short: NowCap records your screen on your phone and saves the videos to your phone's Movies/NowCap folder. Recordings and audio never leave your device unless you share them yourself. The app has no ads, no analytics and no accounts. It connects to nowstacks.com only to check for updates, and to send feedback or crash reports when you choose to.
NowCap (package com.nowstacks.nowcap, "the app"), a screen recorder for Android, is published by NowStacks (nowstacks.com; "we", "us") and developed for us by our development partner, Gemini Digital Solutions. This policy explains how the app handles information.
1. Information we collect
We do not collect your recordings, your name, your location or anything about how you use the app. We receive information only in the situations described in section 6 — an automatic update check, and feedback or crash reports that you choose to send. The app never sends anything to analytics or advertising services.
2. What the app records and where it is saved
When you start a recording, the app captures video of your screen and, if you choose, audio (section 4), and writes them to one MP4 file in the Movies/NowCap folder of your phone's shared storage. Trimmed copies you save from the built-in player go to the same folder. These files are yours: your gallery and other apps you have allowed to read your videos can see them, and they stay on your phone until you delete them (in NowCap, your gallery or a file manager). The app never uploads, copies or transmits a recording. When you tap Share, the file goes to the app you choose, which handles it under its own privacy policy.
A recording that is interrupted (for example by a crash or the phone running out of battery) can be unplayable; the app deletes such files on its next start and tells you.
3. Screen capture
Android asks for your permission every time a recording starts, with a system dialog that NowCap cannot skip. While you record, everything shown on the screen is part of the video: the apps you open, notifications that appear, the keyboard, and NowCap's own floating button, countdown and pen strokes. On Android 14 and newer you can choose to record a single app instead (the What to record chip on the home screen, or Settings → What to record): the system dialog then asks which app, only that app's window is recorded, and NowCap's floating button, countdown and pen strokes are not part of the video. Android itself blacks out protected content (for example banking apps, DRM video and password fields) and, on Android 15 and newer, hides the content of sensitive notifications while the screen is being recorded. You are responsible for what you capture: do not record other people's private information or conversations without their permission.
Android shows a persistent notification and, on Android 15 and newer, a status-bar chip for the whole recording, and you can stop it from either. The recording stops automatically when Android ends the screen capture (for example when you lock the phone on Android 15 and newer).
4. Audio
You choose, before each recording, what the audio track contains:
- Microphone — your voice and the sounds around you, through the phone's microphone.
- Device audio — the sound played by apps (games, videos, music), captured with Android's audio playback capture. Only apps that allow capture are recorded; some apps (for example DRM video players and some games) block it, and the app tells you when a recording contains no device audio for that reason. Phone and video calls are never captured; Android does not allow it.
- Device + mic — both, mixed into one track.
- No audio.
Audio is captured only while a recording is in progress (never while paused or when no recording is running) and is written straight into the video file on your phone. The microphone permission is requested the first time you choose an option that needs it; you can withdraw it in Android settings, and the app then records without audio.
5. Information stored on your device
The app saves a small amount of data in its private storage so it can remember your choices:
- recording settings (audio source, resolution, frame rate, quality, codec, countdown, floating button, theme and similar preferences),
- the position of the floating button,
- your update, rating-prompt and crash-report choices, and — only until they are sent or you decline — up to five crash reports waiting to be sent (section 6),
- temporary files while a trimmed copy is being saved (deleted immediately afterwards).
This data never leaves your device except as described in section 6, and is not accessible to us. Apart from pending crash reports and temporary files, it may be included in your phone's own Android backup if you have backups turned on. It is deleted when you clear the app's data or uninstall the app.
6. Update checks, feedback and crash reports
The app connects to nowstacks.com, our own server, only for these features:
- Update check — when you open the app, it asks nowstacks.com whether a newer version is available, so it can tell you when an update is recommended or required. The request contains only the app's package name and version and, like any internet request, your IP address.
- Feedback and ratings — only if you choose to send feedback (Rate & feedback or Report a problem). We receive your star rating, your message and, only if you type it, your email address, together with the app version, Android version, device model and language.
- Crash reports — if the app closes unexpectedly, it asks you before sending a crash report, unless you chose to send them automatically (you can change this choice in the app's settings). A report contains the technical error details, the app version, Android version, device model, language and any comment you add. It does not include your documents, files, photos, game data or other personal content — although, rarely, a technical error message can quote a small piece of the data the app was handling when the error happened.
We use this information only to reply to you, fix problems and improve the app. It is stored securely on nowstacks.com's infrastructure (our database and hosting providers process it on our behalf), is never sold, and is never shared with advertisers or other third parties. A one-way hashed (non-reversible) form of your IP address is stored with feedback and crash reports only to prevent spam. We delete feedback and crash reports when they are no longer needed, and you can ask us to delete anything you sent at any time (see "Contact").
7. Floating controls, countdown and pen
If you allow the app to display over other apps, it shows a small floating button, the countdown and, when you tap the pen, a drawing layer on top of whatever you are recording. These are drawn on your screen only (and therefore appear in the recording, unless you chose to record a single app); they do not read the content of other apps and nothing about them is collected. The app works without this permission: you can pause and stop from the notification or the Quick Settings tile.
8. Floating widgets and home screen widgets
If you switch on the floating Record button or the floating Pen button (Home screen or Settings), NowCap keeps a small button on top of other apps until you switch it off, and shows a quiet notification while it does ("Floating widgets are on"); this also needs the "display over other apps" permission. The Record button opens Android's screen-capture dialog; the Pen button opens the drawing layer on whatever is on screen, without recording anything — your strokes are only shown on your screen and vanish when you tap Done. The optional home screen widgets ("NowCap Record" and "NowCap Pen") do the same from your launcher. Nothing about how you use these buttons is collected.
9. Shake to stop, mute and discard
If you turn on Shake to stop in Settings, the app reads the phone's accelerometer while a recording is in progress, only to notice three firm shakes and stop the recording; the readings are not stored or sent anywhere, and the sensor is not read at any other time. The mute button in the floating controls silences the microphone part of the audio track for as long as it is on, and Discard stops the recording and deletes the file instead of saving it. These all happen on your phone.
10. Notifications and background recording
The recording runs as a foreground service with a notification that shows the elapsed time and lets you pause, resume, stop and open the pen. On Android 13 and newer, the app asks for permission to show notifications when you first record; you can say no and the recording still works (use the floating button or the Quick Settings tile to stop). The app also offers a shortcut to Android's battery settings, because some phones stop background apps aggressively; nothing is collected there.
11. Device backup
If backup to your Google account is turned on, Android may include NowCap's settings in your device backup, which Google stores in your account under the Google Privacy Policy. Recordings in Movies/NowCap are not part of the app's backup, but a photo backup app you use (for example Google Photos) may back them up like any other video in your gallery, under that app's policy. You control this in your phone's backup settings.
12. Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Screen capture (asked by Android every time) | Recording the screen (section 3) |
| Microphone | Your voice and device audio in recordings (section 4); requested only when you choose an audio option |
| Display over other apps | The floating controls, countdown and pen (section 7) and the floating widgets (section 8); optional |
| Notifications (Android 13+) | The recording controls notification and the "recording saved" notification (section 9) |
| Foreground service (media projection, microphone, special use) | Keeping a recording running while you use other apps; "special use" is the floating widgets service of section 8 |
| Internet | Only the update check, feedback and crash reports in section 6 |
| Vibration | A short tick when a recording starts or stops |
| Accelerometer (no permission needed) | Shake to stop, only while recording and only if you turned it on (section 9) |
| Wake lock, view network connections (added by Google's Media3 player library) | Keeping the phone awake while a recording plays in the app's player, and checking whether a network is available. The player only plays files on your phone; nothing is streamed. |
You can withdraw any runtime permission in Android settings; the related feature then switches off and everything else keeps working.
13. Children
The app is meant for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children; the only information the app sends us is described in section 6, and a child should not type an email address into the feedback form without a parent's help.
14. Security
Recordings are ordinary video files on your phone, protected by Android's media permissions like any other video in your gallery. Settings live in the app's private storage, protected by Android's app sandbox. The only data sent anywhere (section 6) travels over HTTPS.
15. Your rights and deleting your data
Your recordings and settings stay on your device under your control: you can play, trim, share, rename or delete any recording at any time. To access feedback or crash reports you sent us, or for any question under GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, DPDP or any other privacy law, contact us.
Delete NowCap data on your phone: delete recordings in the app's Recordings tab, in your gallery or in a file manager (folder Movies/NowCap). To remove settings and any crash reports waiting to be sent, clear the app's data (your phone's Settings → Apps → NowCap → Storage → Clear storage) or uninstall the app; recordings in Movies/NowCap stay in your gallery until you delete them there. If your phone's Android backup includes the app, you can delete that copy in your Google account's backup settings.
Ask NowStacks to delete data you sent us. We don't keep user accounts, so:
- Email gauravkr2506@gmail.com or use the contact form with the subject "NowCap data deletion".
- Include the email address you typed in the feedback form, if you gave one. If you didn't, tell us roughly when you sent the feedback or crash report and what it said, so we can find it — it is not linked to your name or your device.
- We delete it within 70 days and reply to confirm.
What is deleted: your feedback (message, star rating and email address), your crash reports (error details and any comment you added), and the app version, Android version, device model, language and hashed IP address stored with them. What is kept: none of it — copies in our database provider's automatic short-term backups are removed when those backups expire. The update check stores no personal data.
16. Changes
If this policy changes, the updated version will be published on this page with a new "Last updated" date.
17. Contact
NowStacks — Email: gauravkr2506@gmail.com · Contact form: nowstacks.com/contact