Awaira on iPhone and Android
Platform details for the two phone apps
Both phone apps do the same thing in the same way. The front camera looks for a hand moving toward your face, every frame is analysed on the phone and then discarded, and your counts, zones, journal and badges stay in storage on the device. No video, and nothing habit-shaped, is ever uploaded.
One difference changes how you actually use them: Android can keep noticing while you are in another app. iPhone notices only while Awaira is open on screen. That is not a feature we left out of the iPhone version — it is what each operating system allows an app to do with the camera.
Awareness while you are using other apps
Android: keeps going in the background
Turn Awareness on while Awaira is open, then switch to messages, a browser or a game. Detection carries on behind whatever is on screen.
Android requires a camera foreground service for this, which means an ongoing notification stays in your shade for as long as the camera is open. It cannot be swiped away, and that is the point: the camera is never running without a visible sign of it.
It stops when you turn Awareness off, when you lock the phone, or when you swipe Awaira out of Recents. Awaira does not hold a wake lock and does not ask to be exempted from battery optimisation.
iPhone: only while Awaira is open
Awaira tracks while it is open and visible. Go to the Home Screen, lock the phone or switch apps, and iOS stops the camera. Tracking picks up again when you come back.
There is nothing to dismiss and nothing left running: no ongoing notification, no background camera use, and no battery cost while you are elsewhere on the phone.
We do not use a VoIP session, Picture in Picture or any other workaround to keep the camera alive outside the app. You can also pause tracking yourself from the camera control in the Today header.
Which is better depends on how you want to use it.
Android is the more flexible one. It covers the moments the habit most often happens in — scrolling, reading, gaming, working — because it does not need Awaira to be the app in front of you. The trade-off is a permanent notification while it runs, and more battery use.
iPhone is the simpler, lighter one. You use it as a deliberate session: prop the phone facing you while you study, read, work or watch something, and Awaira notices during that time. Nothing runs when you put it away, so there is nothing to remember to turn off.
Neither version tracks while the screen is locked, and neither can watch you overnight.
Side by side
| iPhone | Android | |
|---|---|---|
| Where detection runs | On the phone. Frames are analysed and discarded. | On the phone. Frames are analysed and discarded. |
| Noticing while Awaira is open | Yes | Yes |
| Noticing while you use other apps | No — iOS stops the camera when you leave the app | Yes — a camera foreground service with an ongoing notification |
| Noticing while the screen is locked | No | No |
| Ongoing notification while active | None | Yes, and it cannot be dismissed while the camera is open |
| Cues when a hand lingers | Vibrate, Voice, Blur screen | Vibrate, Voice, Blur screen |
| Badge and streak notices | In the app | In the app and in the system shade |
| Today, Patterns, Journal, Badges, Learn | Yes | Yes |
| How you install it | One tap from the App Store | Direct APK download — you allow installs from your browser once |
| Requirements | iOS 18 or later | Android 8.0 or later |
| Account | None | None |
| Access | No trial timer and no licence key in the app | 7-day trial, then a licence key |
| What leaves the phone | Only the Learn articles you open, which are fetched from awaira.app | Learn articles, plus an anonymous device id for the trial and licence check, plus the optional first-run answer to “How did you hear about us?” |
| Camera frames or habit history uploaded | Never | Never |
Installing each one
iPhone. Awaira: Face Touch Awareness is on the App Store. Open it and the onboarding asks for camera access at the point it is first needed, not at launch.
Android. The Android build is distributed as a direct APK download rather than through the Play Store, so your browser will ask once for permission to install apps from it. After that it updates the same way: download the newer APK and install it over the old one, which keeps your local history. Android 13 and later also asks for notification permission, and Awaira only asks the first time you open its notification list.
What each app sends
Neither app uploads camera frames, detections, zones, hourly counts, journal entries or badges. Those live in storage on your phone and there is no server table for them.
The iPhone app's only network use is loading Learn articles from awaira.app when you open one. The Android app does that too, and additionally sends an anonymous device identifier when it checks the 7-day trial or a licence key, plus one optional answer to “How did you hear about us?” on first run. The full detail is in the Privacy Policy.
Using Awaira on a phone at all
Whichever phone you have, the camera needs to be able to see you: the phone upright on a stand or propped against something, front camera facing your face, at roughly the distance you would hold it to read. Awaira is looking for a hand approaching your face, so a view from the side or from far below will miss most of it.
If you want awareness while you work at a desk for hours, the desktop app is the better fit — it watches from the screen you are already looking at. Awaira is available for Mac, Windows and Linux as well.
Questions about either version? Help & Support is the quickest route, or write to hello@awaira.app. Awaira is a wellness and awareness tool, not a medical treatment.