Effective 9 October 2026 · Applies to PingDrop for Android and PingDrop for Mac · Contact pingdrop.support@gmail.com
PingDrop is developed by Neeraj Reddy. It connects your Android phone to your Mac so your notifications, clipboard and files can move between them.
PingDrop has no servers. There is no account to create, nothing to log in to, and no backend that your data passes through. Everything PingDrop reads is encrypted on the device that reads it and sent directly to your other device, over your own Wi-Fi network or a direct Bluetooth link. The developer cannot see any of it, because none of it is ever sent anywhere the developer controls.
The exceptions are the services of Google that the Android app uses — advertising in the free version, Google Play Billing for purchases, and Google Play for update checks — each described below. The Mac app makes no internet connections at all.
With your permission (granted on Android's Notification Access screen), PingDrop reads notifications posted on your phone: the app name, title, text, and Android's internal notification key.
Where it goes: encrypted and sent directly to your paired Mac, where it is shown as a normal macOS notification. When a notification is removed on one device it is removed on the other, if you have 2-way sync turned on — only the notification's key is sent for that.
Where it does not go: anywhere else. It is not sent to any server, not written to any log in release builds, and not kept by the app once delivered. You choose which apps are mirrored, and notification sync can be switched off entirely.
Mac → phone is automatic when enabled: text you copy on your Mac is encrypted and placed on your phone's clipboard. Phone → Mac only ever happens when you ask for it — the Quick Settings tile, the share sheet, or the button in the app. Android does not let apps read the clipboard in the background, and PingDrop does not try to.
PingDrop never sends clipboard content marked as sensitive. On the phone that is content flagged
EXTRA_IS_SENSITIVE; on the Mac it is content that password managers mark as concealed or
transient. In practice, passwords copied from a password manager are not synced, by design.
Where it goes: encrypted, directly to your paired device. Nowhere else.
Only files you pick — in the app's file picker, from the Android share sheet, or by dropping them onto PingDrop on your Mac. PingDrop never scans your storage and never sends anything you did not choose.
Where it goes: encrypted, over a direct connection to your paired device on your local network. Received files are saved to your Downloads folder, or to a folder you choose (PingDrop Pro).
To show the right icon next to a mirrored notification, PingDrop sends your paired Mac the name and icon of apps that post notifications, and each app's last-update time so icons refresh when an app updates. The icons are cached on your Mac. This list never leaves your local network.
Your phone's charge level, charging state and device name (manufacturer and model) are sent to your paired Mac so it can show them; the Mac sends its own back. Local only.
The first time PingDrop runs, the phone app creates a random identifier for itself. It is sent, encrypted, only to your paired Mac, so the Mac can tell your phone apart if a second phone scans the same pairing code — a pairing belongs to the one phone that claimed it. It is not linked to you, your Google account or any hardware identifier, and it is never sent anywhere else.
The phone and Mac apps tell each other which version they are, so either can tell you when the other needs an update.
The Mac app makes no internet connections. Everything below stays on your Mac, or goes encrypted only to your paired phone.
These are only active for PingDrop Pro users, and most can be switched off individually. None of them involves a server: like everything else, the data moves only between your two devices.
For notifications from apps that support replying from the notification (such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Messages), the Mac shows a Reply box. The text you type is encrypted, sent to your phone, and handed to that app through Android's standard reply mechanism — the same one smartwatches use. PingDrop does not keep a copy of it.
Images and screenshots you copy on your Mac are placed on your phone's clipboard, like text. An image goes from your phone to your Mac only when you send it — Push clipboard to Mac, the Quick Settings tile, or the share sheet. Images travel over Wi-Fi only. They are compressed for the transfer and the most recent one is kept in PingDrop's private storage on the phone so it can be pasted. Images are not added to the clipboard history.
If you turn this on in PingDrop's Preferences on your Mac and allow calendar access when macOS asks, the Mac reads your upcoming events and sends each one to your phone shortly before it starts: its title, start and end time, location and calendar name. All-day events are skipped. Your calendar is read only on your Mac and sent, encrypted, only to your paired phone. You can turn it off on either device, and withdraw calendar access at any time in macOS System Settings → Privacy & Security → Calendars.
While this is on, your phone sends the title, artist, app name and a small cover image of what is playing (for example in Spotify or YouTube) to your paired Mac, so the Mac can show it with play, pause and skip buttons. The buttons are sent back to the phone. This uses the notification access PingDrop already has; no new permission. Turn it off in Pro features on the phone.
Your Mac keeps the notifications it shows from your phone so you can search them later: the app name, title, text and time, for up to 30 days (at most 500), in PingDrop's folder in Application Support on your Mac. It is never sent anywhere. Switch it off, or clear it, in PingDrop's Preferences.
You pick one folder on your phone with Android's own folder picker. PingDrop can read only that folder — it does not use any photo or storage permission — and sends files added to it after you chose it, once each and only over Wi-Fi, to your paired Mac. The Mac saves them in a folder you choose (by default PingDrop › Auto-received from phone). Turn it off, or change the folder, at any time.
The widget shows your Mac's name, connection and battery, which are already on your phone. It sends nothing by itself; its buttons do the same as the matching buttons in the app.
Quiet hours, which apps are quiet or priority, battery alert levels, auto-accepting files and the folder files are saved to are settings stored on your own devices. A folder you choose is accessed only through the permission you grant in the system folder picker.
Available to everyone. When you ask, the other device plays a sound for up to 30 seconds. To make sure you hear it, the phone briefly turns its alarm volume up and vibrates, then puts the volume back. You can choose the sound on each device. Nothing is collected or sent other than the request to ring.
| What | Where | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Pairing key | Phone: encrypted by the Android Keystore. Mac: PingDrop's private app storage. | Until you unpair or re-pair |
| Clipboard history (the last 25 clips) | Phone and Mac, each in PingDrop's private storage | Until replaced by newer clips, or you clear it |
| Transfer history (the last 100 transfers: file name, size, direction, outcome, time) | Phone and Mac, each in PingDrop's private storage | Until replaced, or you clear it |
| App icons | Mac, in PingDrop's cache | Refreshed when apps update |
| Crash reports | Mac, in PingDrop's private storage (newest 20) | Until you delete them |
| Notification history (Pro, can be switched off) | Mac, in PingDrop's Application Support folder | Up to 30 days or 500 notifications, until cleared |
| Settings and Pro preferences | Each device | Until you change them or uninstall |
Backups. On Android, the pairing key, clipboard history and transfer history are excluded from Google cloud backup and from device-to-device transfer, so they cannot follow you to another phone without your knowledge. On the Mac, PingDrop's data lives in its app container, which Time Machine backs up like the rest of your Mac.
The free version of the Android app shows a small banner advertisement and, at most about once a minute, a full-screen advertisement after a file transfer finishes — both served by Google AdMob. To serve ads, the Google Mobile Ads SDK collects information including your device's advertising ID, device and network information, and IP address. This data is collected by Google, not by PingDrop's developer, and is governed by Google's policies:
You can reset or delete your advertising ID at any time in Settings → Google → Ads (or Settings → Privacy → Ads) on your phone.
Consent. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the app asks for your consent through Google's consent form before any ad is requested. You can change your choice at any time in Settings → Ad privacy choices in the app. If you do not consent, Google may still show non-personalised ads, as its policies allow.
PingDrop Pro removes advertising entirely. When Pro is active, no ad is loaded and no ad request is made. The ads never receive your notifications, clipboard or files.
Purchases. PingDrop Pro is a one-time purchase handled entirely by Google Play Billing. The developer never sees or stores your payment details. Your purchase is Google Play's record, which is why it restores automatically on a new device or after a reinstall, with no account and no login.
Update checks. The Android app asks Google Play whether a newer version is available, using Google Play's in-app update service. This exchange is between your phone and Google Play; no information about you is sent to the developer.
Links. Links in the apps — Buy me a coffee, the GitHub page, the Play Store listing, this policy — open in your browser or the Play Store. Those sites have their own privacy policies.
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Notification access | To mirror your notifications to your Mac, and to reply to them (Pro). The core feature. |
| Bluetooth (scan, connect, advertise) | To find and connect to your Mac when Wi-Fi is unavailable. |
| Location (approximate & precise) | Required by Android 11 and below for any Bluetooth scan. PingDrop never requests, reads, stores or sends your location. On Android 12 and later it is not requested at all — the Bluetooth scan is flagged neverForLocation. |
| Internet, network and Wi-Fi state, Wi-Fi multicast | To talk to your Mac on your local network and find it there. PingDrop's own traffic never leaves your network; the only internet requests are made by Google's ads, billing and update services. |
| Foreground service (connected device) | To keep the link to your Mac while the app is in the background. |
| Post notifications | For the status notification, transfer progress, and Pro alerts and reminders. |
| Camera | To scan the pairing QR code. Nothing is recorded or sent. |
| Storage (Android 9 and below only) | To save received files. Newer Android versions need no storage permission: files are chosen in the system picker and saved through Android's Downloads, or a folder you pick. |
| Advertising ID | Used by Google AdMob in the free version. |
| Vibrate | So your phone vibrates while your Mac is ringing it (Find my phone). |
| A folder you choose (Pro, optional) | Only for Auto-send a folder, granted through Android's folder picker. Only that folder can be read. |
| Ignore battery optimisations | Optional. Some manufacturers stop background connections aggressively; this keeps the link alive. |
| Billing | For the PingDrop Pro purchase. |
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Bluetooth | To connect to your phone when Wi-Fi is unavailable. |
| Local network | To talk to your phone on your Wi-Fi network. |
| Notifications | To show your phone's notifications on your Mac. |
| Downloads folder | To save the files you receive. |
| Files and folders you choose | Only ones you pick yourself — files you send (including with Send to Phone in Finder), a save location or auto-received folder (Pro), or your own ring sound. |
| Calendars (optional, Pro) | Only if you turn on calendar reminders. See section 4. |
| Open at login (optional) | So your phone can connect after you restart your Mac. Asked once; change it in Preferences. |
All PingDrop data lives on your own devices, so you are in control of all of it:
There is no server-side data to request the deletion of, because there is no server.
If this policy changes in a way that matters, the effective date at the top will be updated, and the change will be described here. Continuing to use PingDrop after a change means you accept the revised policy.
Questions about this policy or about how PingDrop handles your data: pingdrop.support@gmail.com