Search papers, labs, and topics across Lattice.
Last updated: March 2026
Layers is a free iOS app that turns research papers into plain-English reads. It is built to be useful, not to harvest your data. Here is exactly what happens when you use the app.
Layers has no user accounts, no login, and no sign-up. You are identified solely by a random device ID generated on your phone the first time you open the app. This ID is not linked to your name, email, Apple ID, or any other personal information.
Layers collects the minimum data needed to make the app work:
Your preferences and reading state are stored locally on your device using AsyncStorage. Saved papers and read history are synced to our server (Supabase, hosted in the US) so they persist across app reinstalls. The server stores only the device ID and paper interactions described above.
Layers has no ads. Your data is never sold, shared with third-party marketers, or used for advertising purposes. There are no analytics SDKs, no tracking pixels, and no behavioral profiling.
All research papers shown in Layers come from public sources: Semantic Scholar, arXiv, and other open-access repositories. The pop-science summaries are generated by AI and reviewed for quality. Layers does not host or distribute the original papers.
You can delete all your data at any time by going to Settings → Reset app. This clears your local data and your server-side device record. Since we only store a random device ID, there is no way to associate your data with you after deletion.
Layers is created by Flynn Lachendro. If you have any questions about how your data is handled, feel free to reach out.
