Pulsar privacy policy

Pulsar runs on your device. Here is what that means for your data.

Pulsar is a screen reader for Android. It reads what is on screen out loud, or sends it to a braille display if you use one. Nearly everything it does happens on your phone, and it does not collect or sell your personal data.

What Pulsar does on your device

  • Reads screen content such as text, labels, button names, and layout so it can be spoken or shown on a braille display
  • Stores your settings, like speech rate, verbosity, gestures, and keyboard shortcuts, locally so they persist between sessions
  • Passes the text to be spoken to whichever text-to-speech engine you have selected in Android

What Pulsar does not do

  • No ads, ad networks, or trackers
  • No accounts or sign-in
  • No analytics or usage logging built into the app
  • No selling or sharing of personal data
  • No crash-reporting or telemetry SDKs

Screen content

To do its job, Pulsar reads what is on the screen through Android's accessibility services: text, labels, button names, layout, and similar interface information from the apps you use. This is processed on your device, in the moment, so Pulsar can speak it or show it on a braille display. Pulsar does not record this content, keep a history of it, or send it to me or to Next Level Access.

Image descriptions you ask for

Pulsar includes the image description feature carried over from Android's TalkBack. When you specifically request a description of an image or an unlabeled icon, the relevant image is sent to Google to generate that description, and the description is returned to your device. This only happens when you request it. Those requests are handled by Google under Google's privacy policy. I do not receive, see, or store the images or the descriptions.

Text-to-speech

When Pulsar speaks, it hands the text to the speech engine you have selected in your Android settings. On most Pixel and recent Android devices the default Google text-to-speech engine runs on the device. If you choose a different engine, including one that synthesizes speech in the cloud, that engine handles the text under its own privacy policy, not this one.

Accessibility permissions

Pulsar is an accessibility tool. It uses Android's accessibility APIs only to provide screen reading and the features described here. It does not use that access for advertising, profiling, or anything unrelated to making your device usable.

Your choices

Because Pulsar keeps its data on your device, removing the app removes everything it stored. If you have a question about any of this, email is the best way to reach me.

Contact

Pulsar is made by Wes Smith at Next Level Access. For a privacy question about Pulsar, email hello@nextlevel-access.com or use the contact form.

Last updated: May 11, 2026.