Where your messages are kept
SpareLine keeps the text of a message on its servers only until every device you are signed in on has received it, and at most 30 days. After that, the copy in the app on your device can be the only one.
The app keeps your messages and call history encrypted on the device, with a key that belongs to your account.
In a browser
Using SpareLine in a web browser, your messages and calls are kept encrypted in that browser, and they stay when you sign out, as they do in the app. The key that opens them is fetched when the page loads and is not kept in the browser.
Two things remove them for good: clearing the site's data in your browser, and Clear data on this device in the app. There is no backup in a browser, and SpareLine does not keep a copy of a message once it has been delivered. SpareLine asks the browser to keep the history rather than clear it to free space; some browsers ask you about this, and some decide on their own. In another browser or on another computer, messages delivered before you signed in there appear without their text.
Keep SpareLine open in one tab. If you open it in a second tab at the same time, that tab shows only what the service still has, until the first one is closed.
Signing out and other people on the same device
- Signing out in the app keeps your history on the device, and in a browser. When you sign back in with the same account, it is there again.
- Somebody else signing in on the same device cannot read your history. They see only their own.
- Removing it: under Account → Privacy & security → Clear data on this device. The text of messages that were already delivered cannot be loaded again afterwards. Your most recent calls load again from the service.
Backing up to Google Drive
On Android you can keep an encrypted copy of your messages and calls in your own Google Drive. Open Account → Message backup:
- Off: nothing is copied anywhere. This is how it starts.
- Manual: a backup is made when you choose Back up now.
- Automatic: the app backs up once a day while it is open, when something has changed.
The first time you turn backups on, the app asks you to choose a Google account. The backup goes to a hidden folder that belongs to the app. The app cannot see your other files, and you do not see the backup as a file in Drive, but you can see the space it takes and remove it in Google Drive's settings.
SpareLine never receives your backup. It is encrypted on your device and only your SpareLine account can open it.
Moving to a new phone, or after reinstalling
- Sign in with the same SpareLine account.
- Open Account → Message backup, connect the same Google account and choose Restore from backup.
Your messages come back with their text, including messages whose text SpareLine no longer keeps. Messages you deleted from every device after the backup was made stay deleted.
Good to know
- A message you delete from every device stays in your backup until the next backup is made.
- Messages you removed from one device only are not in the backup.
- Signing out does not stop your backups. When you sign back in, they carry on as before. If Google no longer lets the app reach your Drive, for example because you removed its access in your Google account, Message backup says so and backups wait until you choose Connect.
- Backups are available on Android. On Windows, macOS and in a browser there is no backup.
- Deleting your SpareLine account makes the history on every device and every backup unreadable. See Deleting your account.