Hi! I'm Matthew, the solo developer behind LifeTrail.

I built it because my own movement history kept disappearing into other people's apps — routes I needed a subscription to see back, and a login I did not want for a map of my own walk. So I made the opposite: an Android app that records your walk, run, ride or drive routes in the background, draws them on a speed-coloured map, and replays them as an animated trail.

The short version of the privacy story: your trail history never leaves your phone. No account, no backend of our own, no ads. The free plan keeps your last 30 days; a new install opens with a 30-day Pro trial, and Pro is available as a monthly or yearly subscription or as a one-time lifetime purchase.

I want to be straight about the rest, because the honest version is still a good story. Two things do leave your device, and only while you are using the app. The Google Maps SDK receives the map you are looking at (its centre and zoom level) and your current position while the map is open, so map tiles can load. If the app ever crashes, Firebase Crashlytics receives a crash report — stack trace, device model, app version and a random installation id — so I can fix the bug. That is the complete list. The Play Store's Data safety panel declares the same things — location, crash logs and device IDs — and says no data is shared with third parties. The routes you record are never uploaded.

Who it is for: Android 10+ owners who want a private movement journal that keeps working when the signal drops, and who would rather not hand a route history to a company with a server and a data policy. iOS is not here yet — a maybe, not a promise.

Where your feedback would help most:

• Does background recording actually survive your phone's battery manager? MIUI, One UI and EMUI each kill foreground GPS differently and I have tried to handle each, but I want to know where it still breaks for you.

• Is the 5-600 second tracking interval and the 40 m stationary filter the right trade-off, or should there be a "only while moving" switch?

• What should the monthly recap show that it does not yet?

Android only for now, and I would rather earn the next platform than promise it. Thanks for trying it.