Your phone, in the same picture.
A lot of the day that goes missing goes missing on a phone. On Android, Savanna Time adds the time you spend in apps to your Pulse, under the same privacy rules as your laptop. On iPhone, your dashboard comes with you.
Free · Android download available now · iPhone coming to the App Store
Availability
What each phone gets
The two platforms differ for a reason that is Apple's, not ours — the FAQ below explains it.
Android
- Your dashboard: Pulse, the week, top apps
- Phone usage tracking, synced to the same account
- Background sync about every 15 minutes
SavannaTime-0.1.0.apk · Android 7.0+ ↓
iPhone
- Your dashboard: Pulse, the week, top apps
- Your laptop keeps doing the tracking
iOS 13 and newer
Any phone's browser
The dashboard already works on a phone. Sign in at app.savannatime.com and add it to your home screen.
app.savannatime.com →
Installing on Android takes one extra permission. The app comes straight from us rather than from Google Play, so Android asks before it installs anything from your browser.
- On your Android phone, tap Download now above.
- Open the downloaded file. If Android says your browser is not allowed to install apps, tap Settings, turn on Allow from this source, and go back.
- Tap Install. If Play Protect says it does not recognise the developer, tap More details, then Install anyway — it means the app is not from the Play Store yet, not that something is wrong with it.
- Open Savanna Time and sign in.
Want to check the file first? Its SHA-256 checksum is published next to it: SavannaTime-0.1.0.apk.sha256. Updates install over this version and keep your data.
How it works
Three steps, then nothing to do
01
Sign in
Use your Savanna Time account. The phone appears under Devices on the web, where you can rename it or switch it off.
02
Allow Usage access
On Android, a system setting lets the app read which app is in front. Recording starts the moment you allow it — nothing from before.
03
Forget about it
Usage is stored on the phone first and syncs in the background. Offline for a day? It catches up when you are back.
Trust
What the phone app does and does not do
The same standard as everywhere else: each answer is what the code does, not what the copy hopes.
- YES Do my privacy rules apply on the phone too? An app you marked never-recorded is never written to the phone at all, and never-synced apps never leave it.
- YES Does it keep recording with no connection?
- YES Can I switch a lost phone off from my laptop? Disconnect it under Devices on the web and it stops working on its next request. Reconnect it to bring it back.
- NO Does it see what is on my screen, my messages or my notifications? It records which app was in front and for how long. That is all Android's usage history contains.
- NO Does it record anything from before I turned it on?
- NO Does it track where I am?
- NO Is there analytics inside the app?
- ONLY ERRORS Does it send crash reports? When something breaks: the error, where in the code, the phone model and OS version. Never app names, never your activity, never who you are.
Questions
Before you install it
Why doesn't the iPhone app track app usage?
Apple keeps Screen Time data inside a sealed part of the phone that apps can display but cannot send anywhere — not even to your own account. We would rather ship an honest companion than a tracker that asks you to type up your own day. On iPhone you get the full dashboard, and your laptop keeps counting.
If I'm on my laptop and my phone, is that minute counted twice?
Barely. The laptop marks you idle after a minute without keyboard or mouse, so when you pick up your phone the count moves across within that minute. During that overlap both are counted, for now.
Does it drain the battery?
No service sits watching your screen. Android already keeps the usage history; the app reads it in a short background job about every 15 minutes, and only when there is a network to sync to.
How do I stop it?
Any of three ways: turn off Usage access for Savanna Time in Android's settings, sign out of the app, or disconnect the phone under Devices on the web — which works from any device, at once.
What happens to unsynced usage if I sign out?
It is deleted from the phone, so one account's usage can never upload under another. The app tells you how much has not synced before you confirm.
Do I need the desktop app as well?
No. Each records on its own and both feed the same account, so together they make one picture of your day. The desktop app is on the downloads page.
Does the app need an account?
Yes. Unlike the desktop tracker, which works signed out, the phone app exists to put your phone into your dashboard, so it needs somewhere to sync to. What it uploads is described in the privacy policy.