Ira for Android¶

Ira for Android puts your own Ira on your phone. Tap the microphone, or long-press the power button once Ira is your digital assistant, and talk: Ira hears you, answers aloud a moment after you stop, and stops the moment you speak over her. You can type too. And Ira can use what your phone can do, for you, when you ask:

kiska call aaya tha?

00100 00000 kiska number hai?

usko call karo

WhatsApp pe kya aaya hai? Avery ko bolo main 10 minute mein pahunch raha hoon

kal subah 7 baje ka alarm laga do

Ira finds the missed call in your call log, looks the number up in your contacts ("Avery Stone"), and for "usko call karo" reads the call back ("Call Avery Stone, +91 00100 00000?") and dials on your "haan". Ira chains the phone's tools the way it plans any task: there is no fixed list of commands.

Ira reads nothing until you ask, and only with the skills you switch on. See what Ira can and cannot see.

Three builds¶

	Google Play build	Google Play Lite	Personal build
Where it comes from	Google Play, or `ira-play-debug.apk`	Google Play, or `ira-play-lite-debug.apk`	the APK you install yourself: `ira-personal-debug.apk`
Calls, contacts, notifications, calendar, alarms, apps, media, settings	yes	yes	yes
Call history and SMS	only while Ira is your digital assistant and you are talking to Ira on the phone (why)	no: it does not ask Android for them, and says so when asked	yes
Location	approximate (about a neighbourhood)	approximate	precise
Use the phone like a person (read the screen, tap, type)	no: Google Play does not allow it for an assistant	no	yes, off until you switch it on, after a warning, and each use needs your PIN
App name on the phone	Ira	Ira	Ira (personal)

Play Lite exists so Ira can reach Google Play's production track without waiting weeks for the SMS and call-log Permissions Declaration review: it is the Play build without READ_CALL_LOG, READ_SMS and SEND_SMS, and without the three tools that need them. Both Play builds have the same application id (io.github.helloupendra.ira); upload one of them. The personal build installs beside either; each is paired on its own.

Install¶

You need an Android phone with Android 10 or newer (a Pixel 7 is fine), and your own Ira running somewhere: on your computer, on a server, or one your family or team shares (see the quick start). The phone talks to it over HTTPS, so a server on another machine needs an https:// address (Deployment).

From Google Play (internal testing)¶

Once the app's owner has added you as a tester, open the opt-in link they send, tap Become a tester, then Download it on Google Play. Updates come through Play like any app's.

The debug APK, today¶

Get the APK: from the project's GitHub page, Actions, the latest CI run on main, artifact ira-android-debug (a zip with both APKs); or build it yourself (below), which leaves it in clients/android/build/. Then either:

With a USB cable (adb), the most reliable way:

On the phone: Settings → About phone, tap Build number seven times. Then Settings → System → Developer options, switch on USB debugging.
On your computer, install Android's adb (on a Mac: brew install --cask android-platform-tools), and plug the phone in. On the phone, allow USB debugging for this computer.
adb devices lists the phone. Then:
```
adb install -r ira-personal-debug.apk    # or ira-play-debug.apk
```
adb installs also let Android grant the SMS and call-log permissions, which it can hold back from an app installed from a file.

Or by sending the file to the phone:

Send ira-personal-debug.apk to the phone (USB file transfer, Google Drive, or a chat with yourself), and tap it in the Files app.
Android asks to allow installs from that app (Files, Drive or Chrome): Settings → Allow from this source, then back, and Install.
If Play Protect warns about an unknown app, choose More details → Install anyway. The debug build is signed with a development key.

Apps installed through adb never need developer verification. Google's developer verification began on 30 September 2026 in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand for apps from participating stores, does not cover sideloaded apps yet, and widens to other countries in 2027 (Android developer verification).

Pair it with your Ira¶

Pairing tells the phone which Ira is yours, once.

In the Ira app in your browser, open the menu and choose Your devices.
Under Add a device, choose Android phone, give it a name, type your PIN and press Make a pairing code.
Press Copy the pairing link, and get it to the phone (or keep the page open and read the 8-character code).
Open Ira on the phone. It shows Pair this phone with your Ira. Paste the link (Paste fills it from the clipboard), or type the code and your Ira's address (https://ira.example.com), and press Pair.

The code works once, within 10 minutes. The phone trades it for its own device key (irad_...), which it keeps encrypted with a key in the Android Keystore, never in a file or a log. It is not backed up and does not move to a new phone: pair the new phone instead.

The setup checklist¶

After pairing, the talk screen shows Get Ira ready: the steps left, each with one button. Let Ira hear you (the microphone), let it show notifications, make it your digital assistant, choose what it may do on your Ira, and allow those skills on the phone. If you once said No to a permission, Android stops asking; the button then reads Open settings and takes you to Ira's page in Android's settings. Hide puts the list away; Settings → Show the setup checklist brings it back.

Switch on skills¶

Ira uses a phone tool only when two things are true:

On your Ira: on Your devices, the phone's card lists the skills it offers (Calls, Contacts, Messages, Notifications, Reminders, Calendar, Apps, Media, Location, Settings, and Screen in the personal build). Switch on the ones you want; each needs your PIN. You can switch any off without a PIN.
On the phone: in Ira, Skills shows each skill with what Android has allowed. Allow first explains, in plain words, what Ira reads and where it goes, then shows Android's own prompt. Some need a switch in Android's settings, which Ira opens for you:
- Notification access (read and answer notifications);
- Alarms and reminders (reminders exactly on time; without it Android may show one a few minutes late);
- Do Not Disturb access (switching Do Not Disturb, or the ringer to silent);
- Accessibility, personal build only (the screen).

If Android says Restricted setting when you switch on notification access or Accessibility (it can, for an app installed from a file), open Settings → Apps → Ira, tap ⋮, choose Allow restricted settings, and try again.

Make Ira your digital assistant¶

Settings → Apps → Default apps → Digital assistant app (Ira's Skills screen has a button that opens it), and choose Ira. Then:

a long press of the power button (or the assistant gesture) opens Ira, already listening;
Ira may start a call, an alarm or an app for you while it is in the background; otherwise the phone shows a notification to tap;
in the Google Play build, the call log and SMS skills work (Google Play allows them only to the default assistant).

Ira does not offer speech recognition to other apps, and asks Android never to make it the phone's default recognizer, so voice typing in other apps keeps working as before.

Talk to Ira¶

Tap the microphone to start a call. The first time, Ira explains what the microphone is used for and asks you to agree; then Android asks for the microphone permission.
Speak when you like. The phone notices speech itself, and sends only what you say (from about 0.3 s before you started) to your Ira. About 0.6 s after you stop, Ira answers, sentence by sentence.
Speak over Ira to interrupt her: she stops at once. Or tap Stop.
Type in the box at the bottom; typing alone does not turn the microphone on. A typed message stays in the box until your Ira has it; if it cannot get there, the app says why and offers Retry.

Live call, or the phone's own speech. When your Ira has live voice (streaming speech-to-text and a voice, GET /v1/info says live), the microphone starts a Live call. When it has not, Ira says so and uses Talk (phone recognition) instead: Android's own speech recognition turns what you say into text (on the phone when the language pack is installed, otherwise online through Google's service), the text goes to your Ira like typing (/v1/ask/stream), and the answer is spoken by your Ira's voice if it has one, else by the phone's (Android's text-to-speech, in Hindi or Indian English). In this mode Ira listens again after she finishes speaking; speaking over her does not stop her, so tap the button to stop. Typed messages always go over HTTP unless a live call is on. - A yes: when Ira proposes something that acts for you (a call, an SMS, a reply, a calendar event), she reads it back with its exact target and waits. Say "haan" or "yes", or tap Yes. Anything that needs your PIN (money, deleting, the screen tools) shows a card: type your action PIN there and press Confirm. A PIN is never spoken; three wrong PINs lock actions for 15 minutes, as everywhere in Ira. - Report an answer that is wrong, harmful, offensive or shows something private: long-press it, or tap ⋮ beside it, pick a reason, add a note if you like, and Send. The report goes to your Ira's owner with that answer; nothing else is sent. - End the call with the button, or the notification's End. Two quiet minutes end it too. A phone call or an alarm ends it as well: Ira stops talking and the microphone goes off (from Android 12 even while she is only listening).

While a call is on, a notification Talking with Ira shows that the microphone may listen. The call uses real-time voice, protocol 1, the same as the web app and the Mac app.

Drop: send anything to your other devices¶

Drop is your own inbox, shared by your devices (see Privacy).

Drop at the top of the talk screen lists what you sent from any device, newest first. Text and links have Copy first (and Open for a link); a file has Save, into Downloads/Ira, then Open. Type or Paste at the top and Send, or Choose files.
Share → Ira Drop from any app (a photo, a page, a PDF) shows what came in, and sends it only when you tap Send to Drop, with a progress bar for each file. Files are limited to 95 MB.
The Send clipboard tile: add it to the quick settings (pull down twice, the pencil). One tap sends what you copied.
While Ira is open, something new from another device shows as a notification with Copy.

What Ira can do on your phone¶

Tool	Skill	Tier	What it does
`calls_recent`	calls	0	recent calls: name (from contacts), number, missed or answered, when, how long
`contacts_lookup`	contacts	0	people by name or number, with their numbers
`call_place`	calls	2	starts a call to an exact number, read back first
`sms_read`	messages	0	SMS in the inbox, from someone or with some words
`sms_send`	messages	2	sends an SMS, number and words read back first
`notifications_read`	notifications	0	the notifications showing now: app, sender, text
`notification_reply`	notifications	2	answers a message through the notification's own reply button (how WhatsApp and Telegram replies work)
`alarm_set`	reminders	1	an alarm in the clock app
`timer_set`	reminders	1	a timer in the clock app
`reminder_set`	reminders	1	a reminder notification at a time
`calendar_read`	calendar	0	events in the calendars synced to the phone
`calendar_add`	calendar	2	adds an event, read back first
`app_open`	apps	1	opens an app by name or package
`url_open`	apps	1	opens a web address, in the app that handles it (a YouTube link in YouTube)
`maps_navigate`	apps	1	directions in the maps app
`media_control`	media	1	play, pause, next, previous, volume
`media_play`	media	1	plays music by name in the music app, or videos as a YouTube search
`location_now`	location	0	where the phone is, once, while Ira is on screen
`settings_toggle`	settings	1	flashlight, ringer, media volume, Do Not Disturb; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile data and NFC open their switch for you to tap
`screen_read`	screen	3	reads the screen of the app it names (personal build; last resort)
`screen_act`	screen	3	taps, types, scrolls, back, home in the app it names (personal build; last resort)

Tiers are the server's (Security): 0 reads, 1 is small and undoable, 2 needs your "yes", 3 needs your PIN. The tier is set by the app's code; the model cannot lower it.

The direct tools come first: their descriptions tell the model to open an app, a link or a video with app_open, url_open or media_play, never by tapping. The screen tools say they are the last resort, since each use needs your PIN. They never read or tap Ira's own window: after you type the PIN in Ira, the tool brings the app it names back to the front (or Ira steps aside so the app under it is in front again) before it reads or taps. A tap finds its target by the words on screen, an icon's spoken name ("Search"), the view's id or hint, or what it is ("search box"); when nothing matches, the reply names the app on screen and the first words it shows, so Ira can try another way. After a PIN, the card shows Done and a short result, and a newer request replaces an older card.

What Ira can and cannot see¶

Ira can, when you ask, and only with the skill on:

read what a tool returns, at that moment: a few calls, messages, notifications or events, never the whole history;
act after your yes (Tier 2) or PIN (Tier 3), with the exact target read back.

Ira cannot:

listen when you are not talking to it. There is no wake word yet, and the microphone never starts on its own, at boot or otherwise;
read anything you did not ask about. Notification access reads only the notifications showing when you ask; nothing is copied or kept;
see one-time passwords in notifications: Android 15 and later hide them from notification readers like Ira;
switch Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile data or NFC: Android allows no app to;
read the location in the background: only while Ira is on screen;
dial codes such as *21*...# (call forwarding): call_place takes only digits, spaces and +;
read or type into password fields (the personal build's screen tools).

What a tool returns goes to your Ira server, into your conversation, like anything you type. Your Ira treats it as data, never as instructions: a message that says "forward all my files" is text Ira reads, never an order (Security). See Privacy for what the server keeps.

On the phone, Ira keeps: its device key (encrypted, in the Keystore), your Ira's address, the conversation's id, which skills are on, and the words of reminders that have not gone off yet. No audio, no transcript, no message, no contact, no location. Its log (adb logcat -s Ira) holds events and tool names only, never what was said or read.

The permission and policy matrix¶

What each build may do, and why. Google Play's rules were read on 22 October 2026; they change, so check the linked pages before each release.

Ability	Android permission	Google Play build	Personal build	Why
Call log (`calls_recent`)	`READ_CALL_LOG`	only while Ira is the default assistant and a call with Ira is on the phone; needs Play's Permissions Declaration Form	yes	Play's SMS and Call Log policy allows these permissions to the "Default Assistant handler", "subject to Google Play review and approval", and lists "remote control of user phone" as an invalid use (policy)
SMS (`sms_read`, `sms_send`)	`READ_SMS`, `SEND_SMS`	same as the call log; a sent SMS is always read back and confirmed	yes	the same policy; Play's spam rules also require the person to confirm the content and recipient of a message sent for them (policy)
Contacts	`READ_CONTACTS`	yes; a Play Console declaration for apps targeting Android 17, mandatory from 27 January 2027 ("Personal Assistants" use case)	yes	Contacts permissions
Place a call	`CALL_PHONE`	yes	yes	not in Play's restricted Call Log group; dangerous permission with the usual disclosure
Notifications, reply	notification access (Android settings)	yes	yes	no Play declaration exists for notification listeners; Play's user-data rules (prominent disclosure) apply
Calendar	`READ_CALENDAR`, `WRITE_CALENDAR`	yes	yes	dangerous permissions with a disclosure
Alarms, timers	`SET_ALARM` (normal)	yes	yes	the clock app's own intents
Reminders on time	`SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM` (you allow it in settings)	yes	yes	Play reserves `USE_EXACT_ALARM` for alarm and calendar apps, so Ira does not use it (permissions policy)
Open apps	none (`<queries>` for home-screen apps)	yes	yes	Play allows `QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES` only for search, antivirus, file managers and browsers (policy); Ira does not ask for it
Location	`ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION` / `ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION`	approximate only, while on screen	precise, while on screen	least scope; precise location gets a Play declaration from November 2026 (location declaration)
Media, volume, flashlight	none	yes	yes
Do Not Disturb	notification policy access (settings)	yes	yes	Android 15 apps switch it through a rule of their own
Microphone during a call	`RECORD_AUDIO`, foreground service `microphone`	yes, with the foreground-service declaration and a video	yes	foreground service types
Use the phone like a person	Accessibility service	no	yes, off by default, a warning first, Tier 3	Play: "Any use of the Accessibility API that enables an app to autonomously initiate, plan, and execute actions or decisions is strictly prohibited", and assistants "are not accessibility tools" (Accessibility policy)

The Google Play build never contains the Accessibility service: it is in the personal build's own source folder and manifest (clients/android/app/src/personal/), and a unit test checks that no Play tool needs it.

Fewer PINs: the approval window¶

Opening YouTube, tapping Search and typing is several steps, and a PIN for each would make the phone unusable. When you confirm a screen or app action on this phone with your PIN, your Ira opens an approval window for this phone: for the next 15 minutes (your setting on your Ira: off, or 5 to 60), opening apps and links, playing, and tapping and typing here run without asking (Approvals). Sending, replying, calling, paying, deleting and new permissions always ask.

While a window is open, the talk screen shows Ira can use this phone for 12 more minutes with Stop. Settings → Approvals shows how long windows last (change it on your Ira, under Your assistant) and every open window, each with Stop. The phone can stop a window, never open or lengthen one: only a PIN does.

Approve with your fingerprint. In Settings → Approvals, enroll this phone once with your PIN: the app makes a key in the phone's secure hardware that only your fingerprint (or screen lock) unlocks, and gives your Ira its public half. A card that needs your PIN then offers Approve with fingerprint first; typing the PIN stays the fallback. The phone signs the action, the summary you were shown and its expiry, so a signature can never approve anything else; a refused one counts as a wrong PIN.

Trusted apps. Settings → Approvals lists the apps on this phone where Ira may tap and type without asking (YouTube, for example), once a screen result shows that app in front. Add or remove them on your Ira, under Your assistant → Trusted apps (adding one needs your PIN).

Move to another Ira¶

In Ira, Settings → Pair with another Ira…: paste the other Ira's pairing link (or type its code and address) and press Pair. The phone stays paired with your current Ira until the new pairing works; only then does it switch its key and address, and start a fresh conversation. Your current Ira keeps listing the phone unless you also tick Also remove this phone from it, which tells it to forget the phone once the new pairing has worked.

Remove Ira from this phone¶

In Ira, Settings → Remove this phone from Ira: the phone tells your Ira, which stops its key at once, and forgets it. Or remove it on Your devices, from anywhere. Then uninstall the app as usual.

If something does not work¶

"Phone tools: off": the tools connect while Ira is open or a call is on. Check the phone is online and your Ira is up.
"This phone is no longer paired": the phone was removed on Your devices. Pair it again.
Ira does not hear you: check the microphone permission (Settings → Apps → Ira → Permissions), and that no other app holds the microphone.
Ira interrupts herself on a loud speaker: lower the volume or use headphones; the phone's echo canceller and a raised threshold while Ira speaks usually stop this.
A tool says the phone has not allowed something: open Skills and press Allow for that skill.
A call or app does not open and a notification says "Tap to...": make Ira the digital assistant, or keep Ira on screen; Android limits what a background app may open.
"Live calls need your Ira to have speech set up": your Ira has no streaming speech-to-text, so the app uses the phone's own speech recognition. For live calls, the server needs voice.stt.type: transcribe and a voice (Real-time voice).
"The phone cannot recognise Hindi or English speech yet": add the language in Android's settings (Settings → System → Languages → Speech, or the Google app's voice settings), or type.

The wake word ("Hey Ira"): a later step¶

Today Ira listens only during a call you start. A wake word would let the phone listen for "Hey Ira" (or the name you chose) on the phone itself, and start a call when it hears it. The hook is in place: IraVoiceInteractionService (assist/Assistant.kt) is where Android lets the default assistant run an always-on hotword detector, and a call starts the same way the power button starts one. Still to do: an on-device model (an open-source engine such as openWakeWord, trained on synthetic speech of the phrase plus negatives), a false-wake test, a charging-only mode, and the Play foreground-service declaration for always-on listening.

For developers: building from source¶

The app is Kotlin and Jetpack Compose in clients/android/, built with the Gradle wrapper. You need JDK 17 and the Android SDK (platform 37):

cd clients/android
. scripts/env.sh                 # JAVA_HOME (JDK 17) and ANDROID_HOME, for this shell only
./gradlew test assembleDebug     # JVM unit tests, then both debug APKs
scripts/build-debug.sh           # the same, copying the APKs to build/

On a Mac, the toolchain is: JDK 17 (Temurin, or brew install openjdk@17), brew install --cask android-commandlinetools, then sdkmanager --sdk_root="$ANDROID_HOME" --licenses and sdkmanager --sdk_root="$ANDROID_HOME" "platform-tools" "platforms;android-37.0".

What lives where:

Folder	What
`app/src/main/java/.../core/`	plain Kotlin, unit-tested on the JVM: pairing, the live protocol and its parser, the voice detector, the barge-in state machine, reconnect backoff, the device protocol, the tool catalogue and its gate
`.../voice/`	the microphone, the sentence player (Media3) and the live session
`.../device/`	the device WebSocket that offers the phone's tools
`.../tools/`	each tool, and the notification listener
`.../assist/`	the digital-assistant role
`app/src/play/`, `app/src/personal/`	what differs between the builds

The tests need no network and no phone. CI runs them and builds both debug APKs on every push (job android-app), keeping the APKs as artifacts.

Testing against a local Ira. Run ira serve on your computer with voice.stt.type: fake (it answers a call with a fixed transcript), then adb reverse tcp:8000 tcp:8000, so http://127.0.0.1:8000 on the phone reaches it. The app allows plain http:// only for 127.0.0.1 and localhost.

Release builds and the upload key¶

Google Play signs the app for users with its own key (Play App Signing); you sign each upload with an upload key that never enters the repository:

scripts/make-upload-key.sh    # once: ~/.ira-android/upload-keystore.jks, password in the Keychain
scripts/build-release.sh      # build/ira-play-release.aab, build/ira-play-lite.aab and build/ira-personal-release.apk

build-release.sh reads the password from the macOS Keychain and passes it to Gradle in the environment (IRA_UPLOAD_*); without those variables a release build is unsigned. It checks that Play Lite's bundle asks for none of the SMS and call-log permissions and the full one asks for all three (scripts/check-permissions.sh, which CI also runs on the debug APKs). The release build asks for the symbol tables of any native code (debugSymbolLevel = "SYMBOL_TABLE", which needs the Android NDK: sdkmanager "ndk;28.2.13676358"). Today the only native code is Compose's graphics library, which ships already stripped, so there are no symbols to add and Play's "no debug symbols" notice is advice, not a blocker. Back up ~/.ira-android/ and the Keychain item ira-android-upload. A lost upload key can be replaced: make a new one, export its certificate (keytool -export -rfc -keystore upload-keystore.jks -alias upload -file upload_certificate.pem) and use Request upload key reset in Play Console (Play App Signing).

Publishing on Google Play: a guide for the app's owner¶

Step by step, as Play Console works on 22 October 2026. Each step links the help page it comes from.

1. Create the app. Play Console → Home → Create app (help):

App name Ira (30 characters at most), default language English (United Kingdom) or English (India), App, Free, and the contact email users will see.
Accept the declarations: the Developer Program Policies, US export laws, and the Play App Signing terms.
The package name, io.github.helloupendra.ira, is fixed by the first upload and can never be reused.

2. Internal testing first (no review needed, up to 100 testers): Test and release → Testing → Internal testing (help).

Testers tab: create an email list (you, and anyone helping), save.
Create new release. Play App Signing is set up here: let Google create the app signing key. The key that signs your first upload becomes your upload key (help).
Upload clients/android/build/ira-play-release.aab (from scripts/build-release.sh), add release notes, Next → Save and publish.
Back on Testers, Copy link (the opt-in link shows once the release is published) and send it to your testers. A first upload reaches internal testers within minutes, with a temporary name for up to 48 hours.
Note: someone who opted in to the internal test cannot count towards the closed test (step 6) until they opt out of the internal one.

3. The store listing. Grow users → Store presence → Main store listing (help):

Short description (80 characters), full description (4,000). Say plainly that Ira reads calls and SMS when you ask, as the default assistant: Play requires the features that use these permissions to be "prominently documented and promoted in the app's description". A draft is below.
App icon 512 × 512 PNG (from docs/assets/icon.svg); feature graphic 1024 × 500 JPEG or PNG without transparency; at least two phone screenshots (1080 × 1920 is the recommended size; up to 8). Use the fictional Sunrise Dental Clinic demo for screenshots, never your own data. Take them from a debug build: a release build keeps its screen out of screenshots and the app switcher (FLAG_SECURE).
Store settings: the support email.

4. App content. Policy and programs → App content, every section:

Privacy policy: https://helloupendra.github.io/ira/docs/privacy/. It has a section on the Android app and a contact, as Play asks (the data handled, how it is protected, kept and deleted), and the app links to it from Settings → Privacy policy (help).
Sign-in details (app access): reviewers test days later, so a 10-minute pairing code will not do. On the demo server's command line, make a demo account and a code that lasts a week (A code for app reviewers):
```
ira user add --email reviewer@example.com --role staff
ira pin set --user reviewer@example.com
ira device code --email reviewer@example.com --kind android --days 7 --uses 3 \
    --skills calls,contacts,messages,reminders
```
Give the reviewers the printed pairing link and code, the account's email, password and PIN, and the steps: open Ira, paste the link, Pair, then "who called?". Use the Sunrise Dental Clinic demo data, never real data, and remove the account and its devices after the review. - Ads: no ads. - Content rating: the IARC questionnaire; answer for an assistant with no violence, gambling or user-generated public content (help). - Target audience: 18 and over (Ira is not designed for children). - News app: no. Government app: no. Financial features: none. Health: none. Each still needs its form filled in. - Data safety (help). "Collected" means sent off the phone, which includes your own server, so declare (all for App functionality, all optional, none shared, none used for ads): - Audio → Voice or sound recordings (during a call; processed ephemerally: transcribed and not kept); - Messages → SMS or MMS and Other in-app messages (what you type or dictate, and messages Ira reads for you); - Contacts, Calendar events, Approximate location (precise too for the personal build if it is ever on Play); - App activity → Other user-generated content (notifications Ira reads for you). Call history has no type of its own: declare it under the closest one the form offers, and name it in the privacy policy.

Encrypted in transit: yes (the app refuses plain HTTP except to the phone itself). Deletion: yes: remove the phone, and "Delete my data" on your Ira. Play has no guidance for self-hosted servers; these answers are the careful reading. - Foreground service permissions (help): type Microphone, use case Background Audio Access ("voice commands for virtual assistant without saving"). Describe it: "A voice conversation with the user's own assistant, started by the user. The microphone is on only during that call, shown by a notification, until the user ends it or it has been quiet for two minutes. If interrupted, the conversation stops mid-sentence." Link a short unlisted YouTube video: open Ira, the microphone disclosure and Agree, the permission prompt, tap the microphone, the notification, speak, Ira answers, End. - Sensitive permissions (Permissions Declaration Form) for SMS and call log, for the full Play build only; Play Lite needs none (help): core functionality Default Assistant handler; reviewer steps (make Ira the digital assistant, pair, ask "who called?"); a video of that. Review can take several weeks. If it is refused, remove READ_CALL_LOG, READ_SMS and SEND_SMS from the Play build and resubmit. - Contacts declaration, when Play Console offers it for apps targeting Android 17: use case Personal Assistants.

5. AI content reporting. Play requires apps whose content is made by AI to let people report offensive content without leaving the app (help). Ira has it: long-press any answer, or tap ⋮, then Report. The reports reach the server's owners and admins in the console (Reporting an answer). Show it in the review video and mention it in the description.

6. Closed testing, then production. A personal developer account made after 13 November 2023 must run a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in continuously for at least 14 days before it may publish to production (help):

Test and release → Testing → Closed testing → Create track, add a tester list (email lists or Google Groups), upload the same AAB, publish, and share the opt-in link.
Keep 12 or more testers opted in for 14 days in a row (a tester who opts out and back in starts their 14 days again), using the app for real.
Then Dashboard → Apply for production: questions about the closed test (how you found testers, their feedback), the app (audience, value, expected installs) and its readiness. Review usually takes seven days or less.

New apps must target Android 16 (API 36) or newer from 31 August 2026 (help); Ira targets Android 17 (API 37).

A draft store listing¶

Short description (76 characters):

Talk to your own self-hosted Ira: calls, messages, reminders, in your words.

Full description:

Ira is the phone app for IRA, the open-source assistant you run yourself. Pair the phone with your own Ira server, then talk to it like a call: Ira hears you, answers a moment after you stop, and stops when you speak over her. Hindi, English and Hinglish are all fine. You can type too.

Ira can use your phone for you, when you ask:

Calls and contacts: "who called?", "whose number is this?", "call him". As your default digital assistant, Ira reads your call log and SMS only when you ask, and only while you are talking to Ira on the phone.

Messages: read your SMS and the notifications on your phone, and reply through a notification's own reply button.

Alarms, timers, reminders and your calendar; apps, directions, music and the flashlight.

Anything that acts for you (a call, a message, a reply, a calendar event) is read back with its exact target and waits for your "yes"; bigger steps need your PIN, typed, never spoken. Each ability is a skill you switch on yourself, and Android asks before each permission.

Your conversations stay on your own server. The microphone is on only during a call you start, and nothing is recorded. If an answer is wrong, harmful or offensive, long-press it and choose Report: the report goes to your server's owner.

You need an IRA server (free and open source, MIT licence): github.com/helloupendra/ira. Long-press the power button to open Ira once it is your digital assistant.