Privacy

ThreadKeep is built local-first. The short version: your messages stay on your Mac, and ThreadKeep has no way to see them.

What ThreadKeep does with your messages

ThreadKeep reads the Messages database that already lives on your Mac and builds a library you own, stored on your Mac. It works on a copy of that database and opens it read-only — it never modifies, sends, or deletes anything in Messages itself.

There is no account, no sign-in, no analytics, and no telemetry. Your messages, contacts, and attachments are never uploaded anywhere.

The permissions it asks for

• Full Disk Access — macOS requires this for any app to read the Messages database. ThreadKeep uses it only to copy that database when you choose to import. You grant and revoke it in System Settings at any time.
• Contacts (optional) — if you turn on contact names, ThreadKeep uses the Contacts already on your Mac to label conversations with names and photos instead of raw numbers. All of that matching happens on your Mac. Leave it off and ThreadKeep simply shows numbers and addresses.

The one network feature, and it's opt-in

ThreadKeep can check for app updates, and only if you say yes. An update check fetches a small static version file (appcast.xml) from threadkeep.xyz and, if you accept an update, the new app itself. It sends nothing about you or your library — no identifiers, no usage data. Never enable it and ThreadKeep makes no network connections at all.

Your data, your delete key

Everything ThreadKeep builds lives in its library folder on your Mac (you can open it from Settings). Delete that library — from inside the app or by removing the folder — and everything ThreadKeep ever stored is gone. There's no server copy, because there's no server.

Questions

Use the contact form, or the in-app Help → Contact Support… form — both send only what you type (the in-app form adds basic version info, spelled out in the form itself).