# Merrin > Merrin is a private personal intelligence that helps you think, reflect, and remember. Talk, journal, and discover patterns over time — on your device. Merrin is a private personal intelligence app for iOS and Android, built by Lightrains. You talk or write to it; it remembers what you have discussed, connects experiences across days and weeks, and helps you notice recurring patterns and see a situation from different perspectives. Conversation is the interface, memory is the foundation, and personal understanding is the outcome. Key facts: - Availability: Merrin is live on the App Store and Google Play for supported iOS and Android devices. - On-device: Merrin is designed so its core AI runs on your device. Conversations, journal entries, memories, transcripts, and insights are intended to stay on the device during normal local use. Some features use the internet, such as downloading AI models, purchases, configuration, and optional diagnostics. - Offline: conversation, journaling, search, and memory are designed to work without a connection once the AI models are installed. - Memory control: you can view, edit, and delete individual memories, exclude conversations, turn memory off, and export or delete all data from Settings. No account is required. - Perspectives: Merrin can respond as a Listener, Coach, Devil's Advocate, Analyst, or Future You. - Not a replacement for professional help: Merrin is for reflection, journaling, and self-awareness. It does not give medical, mental-health, legal, or financial advice and is not an emergency service. AI output can be inaccurate. - Quality varies with device hardware and storage, because the models run on the phone. Pricing (USD, purchased in-app through the App Store or Google Play): - Merrin Free: $0 (no subscription). A private place to think, talk, and keep a journal. - Merrin Pro Annual: $29.99 (per year). Unlock deeper memory, journaling, and personal understanding. - Merrin Pro Lifetime: $99.99 (one payment). Pay once. Keep Pro forever, including future Pro features. Contact: hello@merrin.xyz ## Product - [Merrin home](https://merrin.xyz/): What Merrin is, how it works, the five perspectives, privacy, pricing, and FAQ. - [Articles hub](https://merrin.xyz/articles/): Every article, grouped by topic. - [Support](https://merrin.xyz/support/): Help, contact form, and how to delete your data. ## Articles - [Private Intelligence in 2026: AI That Runs on Your Device](https://merrin.xyz/articles/private-intelligence-on-device-ai/): Discover private intelligence in 2026. Learn how on-device AI keeps your personal conversations on your device, remembers what matters, and works without relying on cloud servers. - [AI Memory You Can See and Delete](https://merrin.xyz/articles/ai-memory-you-can-see-and-delete/): Invisible memory is a rumour you cannot check. What a memory should carry, what each control does, and what happens after you delete the memory an answer used. - [Is It Safe to Journal in ChatGPT? What the Policies Say](https://merrin.xyz/articles/is-it-safe-to-journal-in-chatgpt/): A dated comparison of the training, retention, and deletion terms for ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, and Grok, with quotes and source links. - [On-Device vs Cloud AI: An Honest Comparison](https://merrin.xyz/articles/on-device-vs-cloud-ai/): We scored on-device and cloud AI across six axes and published the scoring rubric, including the cases where cloud still wins. - [Building a Local-First AI That Remembers What Matters](https://merrin.xyz/articles/building-a-local-first-ai-companion/): A build log on the architecture behind Merrin: on-device inference, a hybrid memory loop, a per-stage latency budget, and the trade-offs of local-first AI. - [7 Best Private AI Chat Apps in 2026](https://merrin.xyz/articles/best-private-ai-chat-apps/): Compare 7 private AI chat apps for iPhone, Android, and desktop. Explore offline AI, personal memory, voice chat, privacy, and pricing. - [Best Private AI Journaling Apps in 2026: 5 Compared](https://merrin.xyz/articles/best-private-ai-journaling-apps-2026/): Compare the best private AI journaling apps in 2026. Explore offline AI, encryption, voice journals, memory, and which apps keep your thoughts private. - [10 Best ChatGPT Alternatives for Private Conversations (2026)](https://merrin.xyz/articles/private-chatgpt-alternatives/): Explore 10 private ChatGPT alternatives for confidential conversations. Compare offline AI apps, encrypted chatbots, and self-hosted assistants. - [PocketPal AI vs Merrin: The Model Is Not the Product](https://merrin.xyz/articles/pocketpal-ai-vs-merrin/): PocketPal AI runs local models on your phone. Merrin remembers what you talk about. See where each app wins, and what you get after the model answers. ## Policies - [Privacy Policy](https://merrin.xyz/privacy/): What stays on your device, what uses the internet, and the controls you have. The authoritative source for any privacy claim. - [Terms of Service](https://merrin.xyz/terms/): Terms for the Merrin app, its AI models, features, and paid plans. ## Optional - [Seven Weeks, 1,080 Commits: The Merrin Build Timeline](https://merrin.xyz/articles/merrin-development-timeline/): How Merrin went from first commit to a privacy-audited 1.2.x release in seven weeks: 1,080 commits, seven phases, no backend and no cloud inference. - [Building Merrin: It Was Supposed to Be a Journal](https://merrin.xyz/articles/merrin-development-journey/): An interactive build story: why Merrin chose on-device AI, the voice that was too slow, the memory bug that mattered, and the question that changed the roadmap. - [Full text](https://merrin.xyz/llms-full.txt): This summary plus the landing-page FAQ, every article, and both policies in one Markdown file. - [RSS feed](https://merrin.xyz/rss.xml): New articles as they are published. - [Sitemap](https://merrin.xyz/sitemap.xml): Every public URL with its last-modified date. - [Merrin on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@merrin_ai): Product videos.