Frequently asked questions

Kino is a passive reassurance app for iPhone. It quietly monitors your natural daily activity — specifically your step count from Apple Health — and uses that signal to reassure the people you care about that you're okay.

No check-ins, no buttons to press, no location sharing. Kino works entirely in the background, automatically, the moment you set it up.

Kino reads your step count from Apple Health and compares it to your recent activity pattern. If your movement looks like a typical day for you, Kino records a positive "doing well" status.

If your activity is significantly lower than your personal baseline, it may record a "less active" or "no activity" signal — which your loved ones receive so they can check in if they want to.

Kino is designed for anyone who wants to give their family peace of mind without the awkwardness of daily check-ins. Common users include:

— People who live alone and want their family to know they're active and well.
— Older adults who want independence without worrying their loved ones.
— Anyone who travels frequently and wants to stay quietly connected to family.
— Families caring for an elderly parent who values privacy.

No. Kino never requests, reads, or stores your GPS location. We believe where you go is entirely your private business.

You can verify this: Kino does not appear in your iPhone's Privacy & Security → Location Services list. It simply doesn't use location at all.

Kino requests read-only access to your step count in Apple Health — and nothing else. It does not read heart rate, sleep data, blood pressure, calories, blood glucose, or any other health metric.

Apple Health shows you exactly what Kino has permission to read. You can revoke access at any time from the Health app → your profile → Apps & Devices.

No. Your actual step count never leaves your device. Kino processes your steps locally on your iPhone to produce a simple status signal ("doing well", "less active", or "no activity"). Only that derived status — not the underlying number — is sent to our servers.

Only the people in your trusted circle. You choose these contacts yourself during onboarding and can add or remove anyone at any time from the Settings screen. Nobody else — including Kino staff — uses your status data beyond the technical operation of the service.

You can delete everything at any time from inside the app: Settings → Data → Delete All Data. This permanently removes your anonymous account and all associated activity signals from our servers. The action is irreversible.

You can also email petar.perkovski@gmail.com to request deletion if you've already uninstalled the app.

No. Your trusted contacts do not need to download or install anything. Reassurance updates will be delivered to them by SMS — a feature launching soon. Until SMS delivery is live, notifications are delivered within the Kino ecosystem.

Kino compares your activity to your personal pattern, not a fixed step target. If you normally take 3,000 steps a day, that's your baseline — Kino won't flag it as a concern.

On days with very low or no activity, your trusted circle may see a "less active" or "no activity" status. This is designed to prompt a friendly check-in, not an emergency response. You can also pause sharing from the app if you know you're having an unusually quiet day.

Yes. From the main screen you can pause sharing at any time. While paused, your trusted circle stops receiving updates. Unpause whenever you're ready to resume.

Kino Pro is an optional subscription that unlocks expanded features, including a larger trusted circle, more frequent activity evaluations, and priority notification delivery.

It is available as a weekly, yearly, or lifetime purchase — all processed securely through Apple's App Store.

Kino Pro subscriptions are managed entirely through Apple. To cancel:

On your iPhone: Settings app → [your name] → Subscriptions → Kino → Cancel Subscription.

You can also access subscription management directly inside Kino: Settings → Manage Subscription. Your access continues until the end of the current billing period.

Kino requires an iPhone running iOS 17 or later. An Apple Watch is not required — your iPhone's built-in motion sensors or manually logged steps in Apple Health are sufficient.