Aura Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-10-02  ·  Effective: same as above

Aura (“the app”) is a music playback client for Subsonic-API-compatible servers (Navidrome, Airsonic, Gonic, and others) that you host or have legitimate access to. This policy explains what information Aura handles and what it does not.

TL;DR

Data Aura stores on your device

Stored in iOS Keychain (encrypted by iOS)

Keychain entries are scoped to Aura and can be cleared by deleting the app.

Stored in UserDefaults (plaintext, sandboxed)

Stored in app container (sandboxed)

All of the above is removed when you delete the app.

Your photo library

Aura never reads your photo library. Change Cover Art on a playlist opens the system photo picker, which hands Aura only the picture you choose. Save Cover Art asks iOS for permission to add to your library, and only adds that cover.

Data Aura sends over the network

To your configured Subsonic/Navidrome server

These go only to the server URL(s) you explicitly configure in Settings. Aura does not bypass this or contact any other endpoint on your behalf.

To LRCLIB (optional, on-demand)

Song metadata (artist, title, album, duration) used solely to look up community-contributed time-synced lyrics. LRCLIB is a public free service. Aura queries it when your own server does not provide lyrics, and once per song when a song names a version — a featured artist, a remix, a translation — to check that the lyrics found are that version’s.

To streaming-link services (for the song share sheet)

So that the Share sheet can offer links that open the song on other music services, Aura looks up the currently playing track on other platforms. The track's artist and title, plus your device's country/region code, are sent to these public, free, keyless APIs:

The share sheet can also offer a song.link address, which Aura builds from the Apple track ID it found; Aura does not contact song.link itself.

This lookup runs when a track appears in Now Playing (so the links are ready instantly) and the result is cached. No account, device identifier, or audio is sent — only the track name to find matching links — and none of it goes to a developer-owned server.

To Deezer (artist photos, missing covers and Release Radar)

To put an artist's photo on a “Made For You” mix or radio cover, Aura looks the artist up in Deezer's public, free, keyless catalogue (api.deezer.com) and downloads the photo from Deezer's image servers. Only the artist's name is sent — no account, device identifier, or listening history. Each photo is fetched once and kept in the app's cache.

When your server has no cover for an album — its files carry no artwork, and the server answers with a generic picture — Aura looks that album up in the same catalogue by its artist and title, and shows the catalogue's cover instead. Only albums without artwork are looked up, each once (a miss is asked again after a week); nothing else about your library is sent, and nothing is written back to your server.

For the Release Radar mix, Aura asks the same catalogue, about once a day, for the recent releases of the artists you play most on your server — up to 80 of them — and downloads the covers of the releases it lists. Deezer receives each artist's name the first time, and their Deezer ID after that; it receives no account, device identifier, play counts, or song you played. Taken together, those requests do say whose music you listen to: if you'd rather Deezer didn't see that, switch the Radar off in Settings → Release Radar and Aura makes none of them.

When you open the radar, Aura asks Deezer for the track lists of the releases your server doesn't have yet — to count their songs, and to queue them when you press Play — and streams the tracks' thirty-second previews from Deezer's audio servers when they play. Deezer sees which releases were looked up and which previews were played — nothing else about you or your library.

With the Radar on, what you type in Search is also sent to the same catalogue, so Search can show the songs and releases your server doesn't have, with their previews. Deezer receives the search text — no account, device identifier, or library. Switch the Radar off and Search asks only your server.

To Google Gemini (lyrics translation, only with your own key)

Aura translates lyrics only with your own Google Gemini API key, which you add in Settings → Lyrics → Translation. Without a key, lyrics are not translated and nothing is sent to Google.

With a key, when you tap the translate button on lyrics in another language than your iPhone’s, Aura sends those lyrics to Google’s Gemini API (generativelanguage.googleapis.com), with the song’s title and artist and the language to translate into. Nothing else is sent: not your server, your library or your listening history. When you add the key, Aura also sends one sample line to check that the key works.

The requests are made with your key, under your own agreement with Google (Gemini API terms). On Google’s free tier, Google may use what you send to improve its products. The key is stored in your iPhone’s Keychain and is sent only to Google. Translations are kept on your device, so a song you have already translated is shown without asking Google again. Remove the key and Aura stops translating.

To MusicBrainz (for song credits)

When you open a song's credits/info, Aura queries the public MusicBrainz database (musicbrainz.org) with the artist and title to fetch writer/producer/label credits. No account or identifier is sent.

To Last.fm (optional, opt-in)

If you enable the Last.fm integration in Settings, you supply your own Last.fm username and API key. Aura then sends requests to the Last.fm API (ws.audioscrobbler.com) to fetch your listening statistics and artist/album images, used for features such as the year Wrapped summary. Your API key is stored in the iOS Keychain (never in UserDefaults); the username is stored locally with your other preferences. These requests go directly from your device to Last.fm — nothing is sent to the developer. The feature is off by default and can be disabled at any time in Settings.

To Apple (standard iOS mechanisms)

Aura does not use any third-party analytics, telemetry, attribution, or advertising SDK.

Data the developer receives

None, with one exception: if you voluntarily open an issue on our GitHub repository or email us for support, we obviously see whatever you send. We do not aggregate, sell, or share that information.

Third-party content

Aura is a client for user-hosted music servers. The content displayed and played through Aura is hosted by you or a server you have access to. Aura does not provide, distribute, or host any music content. You are responsible for ensuring that the content on your configured servers is licensed or owned by you.

Children's privacy

Aura has no account system, no user-generated content surfaces, no ads, and no data collection. Usage by children under 13 is permitted under the app's 4+ age rating. We do not knowingly collect any information from any user.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Aura evolves. Material changes will be noted in the Last updated date at the top and, where relevant, in the app's release notes.

Contact

Jurisdiction

Aura is a free, open-source project by an independent developer. Whatever your country, the rights the GDPR (Articles 15–22) and similar laws give you are honoured: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection — however, because Aura holds no personal data about you on any server we control, there is generally nothing to exercise those rights against. If you believe otherwise, contact us via the links above.