Privacy Policy.
Last updated: July 27, 2026
Minimal is an email client for Gmail, made by smol capital. This explains what data the app touches, why, and what we do — and don't — do with it. If anything here doesn't match how the app behaves, that's a bug; email us.
1. What we access
When you sign in with Google, you grant the app these permissions:
- Gmail (read & modify). Read your messages and threads, and change their state — archive, label, mark read/unread, snooze. We do not permanently delete your mail.
- Google Calendar (events & calendar list). Create an event when you add one from an email, and list your calendars so you can choose where it goes.
We request the minimum permissions these features need, and nothing more.
2. Where your data lives
- On your device. Message content and the inbox index are cached locally on the devices where you're signed in, so the app is fast and works offline. That cache stays on your hardware. Email bodies are rendered in a sandboxed web view; scripts from emails are not allowed to run.
- On our sync backend. To keep your devices in sync and to send new-mail notifications, our server holds your Google sign-in token (so it can fetch mail for you), a lightweight thread index (sender, subject, read state, timestamps — metadata, not full bodies), your snooze schedules, and device notification tokens. Message bodies are fetched on demand and are not archived on the server.
3. How we use it
We use your data only to provide the app's features to you: syncing your inbox across your devices, showing and organizing your mail, creating calendar events you ask for, and notifying you about new mail.
We do not:
- sell, rent, or share your data with third parties;
- use your Gmail data for advertising;
- use it to train any AI or machine-learning model;
- let anyone read it, except transiently where you explicitly ask us for support, or where required for security or by law.
Google Limited Use. Minimal's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We only use Google user data to provide and improve the app's user-facing features, and we do not transfer or use it for serving ads, for training generalized AI models, or for any purpose unrelated to the features you see.
4. Email links, images, and third-party content
Email is content sent by other people and companies. When you open links in an
email, they open outside Minimal in the system browser or the relevant system app
(for example Safari, Mail, or Phone), and the destination site or service may learn
that you visited. Minimal only allows ordinary web, email, and phone links
(http, https, mailto, and tel) from message bodies.
Some emails include remote images, including tracking pixels. If remote images are enabled, loading them may tell the sender or their email provider that the message was opened, along with normal network information such as your IP address. You can turn remote images off in Minimal's settings and load them for a message only when you choose.
5. Sharing and processors
We don't share your data with third parties for their own use. We rely on infrastructure providers that process data on our behalf under their own terms:
- Google — the source of your mail and calendar data.
- Cloudflare — hosts our sync backend and storage.
- Apple — provides the operating-system services Minimal uses on Apple devices, such as Keychain, local notifications, and opening links in Safari or the relevant system app.
6. Security
Sign-in tokens are stored on the backend and every request to it is authenticated. Local caches rely on your device's own security — passcode, biometrics, disk encryption. No system is perfectly secure, but we hold the minimum data for the minimum time.
7. Retention and deletion
- Removing an account in the app deletes its stored token and index from our backend.
- You can revoke the app's access anytime at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
- Uninstalling the app clears the on-device cache.
- To have all server-side data associated with you deleted, email m@charles.so and we'll delete it.
- Diagnostic performance data — timings and counters only, never message content — is kept on a rolling ~60-day window.
8. Children
Minimal is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age where you live), and we don't knowingly collect their data.
9. Changes
We'll update this page and its date when the policy changes, and surface material changes in the app.
10. Contact
Questions or deletion requests: m@charles.so.