FAQ
Fair questions, straight answers.
If yours is missing, ask us via the contact page and we will answer personally.
Product
What is Kata, in one paragraph?
Kata is a personal health coach with a full system behind it. You talk: chat, voice, or a photo of your plate. The system does the rest: it logs weight, food, water, training, sleep and supplements, keeps your charts and streaks, remembers your decisions and plans your day around phase goals like Cut or Build. All of it lives on your device.
Do I still have to fill out forms and search food databases?
No. You say “weighed 101.6, whey shake after training” and Kata turns it into structured entries you confirm with one tap. Photos work too: point the camera at a plate and get a calorie and macro estimate. Classic quick-log buttons exist for the days you would rather tap than talk.
Is Kata a medical product?
No. Kata organizes your own health routine and offers general, AI-assisted coaching. It does not diagnose, treat or replace a doctor, physiotherapist or dietitian. For medical questions, see a professional; Kata will tell you the same.
How does voice input work?
Tap the microphone, talk, done: your words are transcribed on your device and handled exactly like a typed message, so “big glass of water and 20 minutes on the bike” becomes two entries to confirm. People use it while cooking, walking or driving. Replies can also be read aloud: you set the tone Kata speaks in and your language, and the voice follows from that.
Does Kata replace my trainer or my doctor?
No, and it does not try to. Kata is the daily layer: it carries a plan through the week, keeps the numbers honest and answers at 22:00 when nobody else does. A good trainer, physio or doctor stays exactly as valuable; many users bring their trainer’s program into Kata and let it hold them to it. For anything medical, see a professional; Kata will tell you the same.
What are phases?
A phase is your current goal, stated plainly: Cut, Build, or your own variant. The phase sets the targets (protein, water, training focus, bedtime), and every module and every coach answer works toward it. Change the phase, and the whole system re-aims.
Privacy & data
Where does my data actually live?
On your device. Logs, chat history, Kata's memory of you, photos and integration tokens are written to your device, not into a content database of ours. Two things travel: your message and the context it needs go to the AI to generate a reply and are kept by no one afterwards, and on Android and web one restore snapshot of your account, encrypted on your device with a key we never receive, so what we hold is ciphertext we cannot open. That is how Kata is built, not just a promise. Details in the data & privacy model.
What does the server see?
- Your account basics: email and sign-in timestamps.
- How often the app is opened and when it was last active.
- Aggregate AI usage numbers for fair use: never what was said.
- An abstract picture of you the app computes on your device: an archetype word and coarse traits like activity level, sleep pattern or phase. Never names, numbers or content.
- Your invite status and your plan.
- On Android and web, one restore snapshot of your account: a sealed blob we hold no key for.
- Standard technical hosting logs (IP, request time) at Vercel.
Never readable to us: your chats, your logs, Kata’s memory of you, your decisions. Your photos are never uploaded to us at all. What the restore snapshot carries is ciphertext, sealed on your device with a key we never receive, so we can hold it but not open it. We never build an advertising profile from any of this and never sell it. The marketing website does use basic, aggregate visitor analytics you can decline, and it never touches any of this.
Can I export or wipe my data?
Yes. The app has a full JSON export, worth keeping as your own backup, and a wipe that clears everything from the device. Deleting your account removes the email record and the encrypted snapshot with it. Keep your recovery code: a snapshot opens only with your device key or that code, and not even we can open it for you.
What happens when I talk to Kata?
Your message plus the minimum context needed to answer is sent, encrypted, to our AI provider and processed there, transiently. We do not store these requests. Voice is transcribed and photos are analyzed the same way, only when you send them.
Does Kata learn from my data?
Yes, in a way we are proud of. Kata learns from abstract patterns: things like “morning trainers with a steady sleep rhythm stick to their plans”: so the product gets better for everyone. What it learns from is a coarse, anonymous sketch (an archetype and traits like activity level or sleep pattern), computed on your device. Never your chats, never your logs, never your photos, never anything that tells your story. Those stay with you, full stop.
What happens to my data if I delete my account?
Deleting your account removes your email and sign-in record from our systems, and the encrypted account snapshot with them. Nothing readable about your health was ever there: the snapshot is sealed on your device with a key we never receive. Wiping the app clears your local data completely and instantly. Export first if you want a backup, and keep your recovery code, because without it nobody can open a snapshot, us included.
How do the physique photos stay private?
Progress photos are written to your device, like everything else personal. They are never uploaded to us: they are left out of the account snapshot entirely, and they serve nothing but your own before/after view. On iPhone they can travel inside your own private iCloud backup, sealed on your device first, where only you reach them. If you ask Kata to analyze one, the image is processed transiently for that answer and not stored.
The AI coach
Which AI model runs Kata?
Kata runs on our own coaching intelligence, Kata AI, included free during the launch phase. Behind the scenes it uses several large language models and picks the right one for the moment. It reads your data on your device, can render charts from your own numbers in the chat, and checks the web when facts matter.
Do I need my own ChatGPT or Claude account?
No. Kata AI is built in: it is part of the product, there is nothing to connect, no key to manage and no separate AI bill. You open the app and talk.
Does Kata adapt to how I write and live?
Yes, and that is most of its value. It learns your shorthand (“the usual shake” means your shake), your schedule, your lifts, the way you talk about hard days. Decisions land in a memory you can read and edit, so Kata gets more yours over time without ever guessing in the dark.
Getting started, pricing & invites
How do I sign up and create my profile?
Kata is in early access. Join the waitlist with your email and confirm it: your place is held, and invites go out in order. Every friend who joins through your personal link moves you forward. When your invite arrives, creating your account and setting up your profile takes a few minutes.
What does Kata cost?
The core of Kata is free, forever. Above it sit two paid plans: Kata Plus, with Kata voices, photo logging, coach-set reminders, the written weekly reading and 500 Kata AI interactions per Month; and Kata Unlimited, with everything in Plus plus the deep weekly reading, unlimited Kata AI and the earliest features first. Both are sold by the year, with the per Month figure shown beside it, and a monthly option if you prefer. Every new account starts with the first Month of Plus free, no card. Prices show in your region, in CHF, EUR, USD or SEK: the numbers are on the pricing page.
How do I cancel or change my plan?
You change or cancel any time from your account settings in the app: no email, no phone call. Switching between Kata Plus and Kata Unlimited takes effect right away, and cancelling keeps your access until the end of the period you already paid for. On the free core there is nothing to cancel.
What do the fair-use limits mean in practice?
Kata Plus includes 500 Kata AI interactions per Month: that is 16 real exchanges a day, more than almost anyone uses, since one message often logs several things at once. Logging, charts, streaks and everything non-AI stay unlimited on every tier. If you genuinely talk more than that, Kata Unlimited removes the ceiling.
How does Invite a friend work?
Earn 3, give 1: 3 Months of Kata for you for every friend who joins, and 1 free Month for each friend you invite. Invites are sent from the app. While the launch phase is free your invites already count, and the Months you earn are honored. Full mechanics in the invite docs.
Which languages does Kata speak, and where is it available?
Kata works worldwide, wherever you can reach the app. It understands and replies in the language you write in, and this site is available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish. Prices adapt to your region in CHF, EUR, USD or SEK.
How do I reach support?
Through the contact form, or by mail to contact@yourkata.com. A human reads every message and replies personally, usually within a day or two.
Integrations & devices
Which integrations does Kata support?
WHOOP and Apple Health. From WHOOP: recovery, HRV, resting heart rate, sleep stages and strain sync overnight. From Apple Health, or Health Connect on Android: steps, active energy, workouts, sleep and weight. Your own entries always take priority, the connection stays on your device, and Kata never keeps a copy. Details in the integration docs.
Is Kata a mobile app?
Yes, and it is built for the phone first: notifications, nudges and your whole day where you expect them, plus the widgets and the Apple Watch app. Kata will also open in your browser on any computer, on the same account and the same data. iPhone, Android and the web are all coming soon.
How do I get Kata on my phone?
Not yet, and we will not pretend otherwise. The App Store version, the Google Play version and the web app are all built and all coming soon. Join the waitlist and we will tell you the moment yours lands. Step-by-step help lives in the docs.
How do I back up my data?
Three ways, and they stack. Signed in, Kata keeps one restore snapshot of your account, sealed on your device before it goes: into your own private iCloud on iPhone, into one row in our database on Android and web. Sign in on a new phone in the same ecosystem and the key travels with your Apple or Google account, so Kata offers your history straight back. In a new browser, or crossing from iPhone to Android, your recovery code is what opens it, so keep it somewhere safe. Your Kata data also rides along in the normal encrypted device backup of your iPhone or Android. And the built-in JSON export gives you one complete file any time, to keep wherever you like.
Which devices and browsers work?
Kata is built for iPhone and Android, and for any computer in Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox. All three are coming soon. Switching to a new phone is one step: sign in, and Kata offers your encrypted snapshot back. What that is not is live sync. Your data lives on the device you are using, the snapshot refreshes at most every few hours, and two devices used side by side will not merge. Proper sync is on the roadmap and will be announced honestly.