Rewards, coaching and AI
How Rewarding Habits decides
Last updated: September 2026
What picks your rewards, where the coach's words come from, and where AI is and isn't involved, platform by platform.
- Rewards: A weighted random draw on every phone and watch. No AI picks them.
- Where AI is used: Only on Android phones that support Gemini Nano, Google's AI model that runs on the phone: for coaching messages (including the Surf the Urge timer's prompts and the summary at the end of your Ocean Story), the Surf the Urge chat, and ideas for rewards and quotes.
- iPhone, iPad and watches: No AI model. Rules, templates, and pre-written messages built into the app.
At a glance
| Feature | Android | iPhone and iPad | Apple Watch and Wear OS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which reward you get | A weighted random draw. No AI. | A weighted random draw. No AI. | The same draw as your phone. A setting on the watch decides whether the reward shows on your wrist or on your phone. |
| Coaching messages | On supported phones, Gemini Nano writes many of them; the rest come from rules and pre-written messages built into the app, as all of them do on other phones. | Rules and pre-written messages built into the app. No AI model. | A coaching tip on your watch face, written on the watch by built-in rules. No AI model. |
| The Surf the Urge chat | Gemini Nano replies on supported phones. Other phones use a scripted conversation built into the app. | A scripted conversation built into the app. No AI model. | Not on watches |
| Ideas for rewards and quotes | On-device AI (Gemini Nano) on supported phones. Other phones use templates built into the app. | Templates built into the app, shaped by your habits. No AI model. | Not on watches |
How a reward is picked
Every completion gets something. Which one you get is decided by a weighted random draw: the app keeps a pool of possible rewards for each habit and picks one at random. Some rewards have more places in the pool than others. That's the "weighted" part, and it's why a gentle swell is common and the water lighting up along your wave is rare. No AI is involved, on any platform.
The pool holds:
- Moments in your ocean, from a quiet swell to rarer ones
- A quote chosen for that kind of habit
- Rewards and quotes you wrote yourself, once you've added some
A few rules shape the draw:
- Your own rewards
- Your own rewards don't come every time; they turn up now and then, when you least expect them. One of your rewards joins the draw only on the days you picked for it, once you've reached any minimum you set, and once a day unless you let it repeat.
- Variety
- The app sets aside anything from your last five rewards, so the same one rarely comes straight back.
- Coming back after time away
- The draw leans toward rarer, warmer moments. It's still random, and the app never mentions how long you were away.
- Quit habits, money habits
- Quit habits get their own calm moments, and when you're building a money habit, the water can turn gold.
- Milestones
- Certain milestones skip the draw and always bring a Golden Bloom.
How the coach decides what to say
The coach responds to what just happened, like a completion, or a missed day and the reason you picked, using the details you've given that habit. Where its words come from depends on your device.
Android
On supported Android phones, coaching uses Gemini Nano, Google's on-device AI model; on other Android phones it uses guidance built into the app. Some messages, like many of the tips on your home screen, always come from the app's built-in messages. If a Gemini Nano reply doesn't pass the check below, or takes too long, the app uses those built-in messages instead.
iPhone and iPad
On iPhone and iPad, coaching comes from rules and pre-written messages built into the app, with no AI model. Rules pick the message that fits what happened.
Apple Watch and Wear OS
A coaching tip complication on your watch face shows a short tip, written on the watch by built-in rules from your habits. Tap it to open the tip.
A check on the coach's words
On Android, every reply Gemini Nano writes is checked against a list of guilt, shame, and streak phrases before you see it. A reply that uses one of them is thrown out, and the app uses its built-in messages instead. On Android, iPhone and iPad, many of the built-in messages are checked as well.
Rewarding Habits is a skill-building app informed by psychological science. It isn't therapy or a crisis service. If you're struggling, please reach out to a professional.
What happens to your data
This part is quoted word for word from our Privacy Policy, so the two always say the same thing.
Your habits and goals are stored on your devices, never on our servers. We never see them or sell them. If you use a Wear OS watch, Google's watch connection also keeps a backup of your habits in Google's cloud. The Android app can hand your habits to that connection even when no watch is connected (see How Your Phone Talks to Your Watch). There's no account, no ads, and no ad tracking. On Android, the app sends crash reports so we can fix bugs; they're built to leave out your habit names and anything you type, and you can turn them off in Settings. The Android app also uses Google's ML Kit for on-device AI; ML Kit sends Google diagnostics, and Google says everything the app sends the model is processed on your device (see Smart Features).
If you use coaching, the urge chat, or the reward and quote suggestions, all the "thinking" happens right on your device. On Android phones that support it, the app uses Gemini Nano, Google's AI model that runs on your phone; on other Android phones, it uses guidance built into the app. On iPhone and iPad, no AI model is involved: coaching and suggestions come from guidance and templates built into the app. Either way, these features never send your habits or anything you write to a server.
On Android, the app uses Google's ML Kit to check for and run Gemini Nano, including for the short message you see when you complete a habit. ML Kit sends Google diagnostics such as your phone model and Android version, the app version, your language settings, identifiers for your phone and your copy of the app, error codes, the length of each request and reply, and how long a reply took. Google says everything the app sends the model, and every reply, is processed on your device. If Gemini Nano isn't on your phone yet, the app asks Android to download it from Google.
Crash reports: the full section
On Android, the app uses Firebase Crashlytics, a Google service, to tell us when something goes wrong so we can fix it. It's on when you install the app, and you can turn it off anytime in Settings → About → Crash Reporting. Here's what that means for you:
- When the app crashes or runs into an error, it sends a report: where in the code it happened, your phone model and Android version, and technical details like available memory and storage
- A report also carries a log of what the app was doing in that session, such as "habit completed," "reward shown," or "purchase started," plus simple counts, like how many habits and goals you have. Habits show up only as random IDs, never by name
- Each report includes a random ID for your copy of the app, so we can tell one phone's crashes from another's. It's a random ID, not your name, email, or Google account
- We built crash reports to leave out your habit and goal names, your reflections, and anything you type
- While Crash Reporting is on, the app also lets Crashlytics know when you open it, so we can see how often it runs without crashing
- Turn Crash Reporting off and the app stops sending reports. Crashes that happen while it's off stay on your phone, and they're sent only if you turn it back on
The iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch apps have no crash reporting or analytics of their own. If you've chosen to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone's settings, Apple may share crash reports and usage statistics with us in a form that doesn't identify you. Google Play does something similar on Android if you've allowed usage and diagnostics sharing. You control both in your phone's settings.
How your phone talks to your watch: the full section
If you have an Apple Watch or Wear OS watch, your habits sync between your phone and watch automatically, using the connection Apple or Google builds into the watch. Here's how it works:
- When your phone and watch are connected by Bluetooth, they sync over it. When they're apart, the connection can switch to Wi-Fi or cellular instead
- There's no Rewarding Habits server anywhere in the path. We don't receive, see, or store what syncs
- Apple says everything your iPhone and Apple Watch send each other is encrypted
- On Wear OS, Google says synced data may pass through its own servers at times, for example when Bluetooth isn't available. Google says its Bluetooth link is encrypted and that data it carries through its cloud is end-to-end encrypted
- On Wear OS, Google also backs up to its cloud what your phone sends the watch: your habits and their details (names, identity statements, triggers, plans, rewards, quotes, reminders and health goals) and the last 7 days of completions, including which ones Health Connect completed. Your reflections aren't included. If your watch backs up to your Google account, that backup can include the habits it holds too. On Android, the app hands this copy to Google's watch connection whenever your phone makes that connection available, whether or not a watch is connected at the moment