Your Identity Survives Device Upgrades: How Letter Star Uses iCloud

• Letter Star Team
technology getting-started faq

Got a new iPhone? Wondering what happens to your Letter Star stats, streak, and progress? Good news: everything transfers automatically.

iCloud: Your Identity’s Backup

Letter Star uses iCloud to maintain your identity and progress. This means:

  • Your game statistics persist across device upgrades
  • Your streak survives when you get a new phone
  • Your username and settings transfer automatically
  • Your verification status is preserved

As long as you maintain the same iCloud account, your Letter Star identity remains intact.

What Transfers Automatically

When you install Letter Star on your new device and sign in with the same iCloud account, you’ll get:

Game Progress:

  • Win/loss record
  • Average attempts
  • Total games played
  • Practice mode statistics

Your Streak:

  • Current streak count
  • Maximum streak record
  • Daily puzzle completion history

Account Settings:

  • Username (your 5-character identifier)
  • Privacy preferences
  • Notification settings

Verification Status:

  • Your verified badge (after re-attestation on the new device)

The Re-Attestation Process

Here’s the one thing that changes: device verification.

Since App Attest is hardware-based, your new device needs its own attestation:

  1. Day 1: Install Letter Star on your new device
  2. Automatic Sync: Your stats and identity sync from iCloud
  3. Re-Attestation: Your new device begins the attestation process
  4. 7-14 Days: Your verified badge returns

Your identity is maintained, but your new hardware needs to prove it’s legitimate. This is a feature, not a bug—it ensures every device is verified independently.

Your Identity Is Anonymous

It’s worth emphasizing: even though your identity transfers between devices, it remains completely anonymous:

  • No email address attached
  • No phone number required
  • No real name collected
  • No personal information stored

Your “identity” in Letter Star is simply:

  • A username (which you can change!)
  • Your game statistics
  • Your privacy preferences

Changing Your Username

Many players don’t realize: your 5-character username is changeable.

You’re not locked into your original choice. In app settings, you can:

  • Change your username once every 30 days
  • Keep all your statistics
  • Maintain your verification status
  • Preserve your streak

Your new username appears on leaderboards immediately, but your identity—your stats, your progress, your verification—remains the same.

Multiple Devices, Multiple Identities

What if you want to play on multiple devices simultaneously?

Each device gets its own identity. Letter Star doesn’t support multi-device sync for active play because:

  1. Fair Play: One person, one identity prevents gaming the system
  2. Verification: Each device must prove its authenticity independently
  3. Anti-Cheat: Preventing score manipulation across devices

If you play on both an iPhone and iPad, they’ll have separate accounts and separate verification.

What About Device Restores?

Restoring from iCloud backup:

  • ✅ Your identity and stats transfer
  • ✅ Your username is preserved
  • ⚠️ Device verification restarts (7-14 days)

Fresh install (no backup):

  • ✅ Stats still sync if you use the same iCloud account
  • ✅ Identity is maintained
  • ⚠️ Device verification restarts

New iCloud account:

  • ❌ New identity (you’re starting fresh)
  • ❌ Previous stats don’t transfer
  • ❌ New verification required

Privacy + Convenience

Using iCloud for identity gives you the best of both worlds:

Privacy:

  • No Letter Star account to create
  • No email to verify
  • No password to remember
  • Apple handles authentication

Convenience:

  • Automatic backup
  • Seamless device upgrades
  • No manual data export/import
  • Just works™

Common Questions

Q: Do I need iCloud enabled to play Letter Star? Yes, for full functionality. Your game data is stored in your private iCloud storage.

Q: Can Letter Star see my iCloud data? No. Letter Star can only access its own sandboxed iCloud storage. We can’t see your photos, emails, or other app data.

Q: Does this use my iCloud storage quota? Minimally. Letter Star’s data is typically less than 1MB—smaller than a single photo.

Q: What if I don’t have enough iCloud storage? You only need a few kilobytes. If iCloud is full, free up space or upgrade your storage. Letter Star’s data usage is negligible.

Q: Can I export my data? Not currently, but it’s on our roadmap. Your data is always accessible in the app’s statistics screen.

Q: Will my stats disappear if I delete the app? No. As long as you’re using the same iCloud account, reinstalling Letter Star restores your identity and stats.

The Big Picture

Letter Star’s approach to identity is intentionally different:

  • No account creation - iCloud handles it
  • Anonymous by design - no personal data required
  • Automatic backup - device upgrades just work
  • Privacy preserved - Apple never shares your identity with us
  • Flexible identity - change your username whenever you want

Your progress is safe. Your streak is protected. Your identity persists across devices.

And through it all, you remain completely anonymous.

Ready to Upgrade?

When you get that new iPhone:

  1. Set it up with your existing iCloud account
  2. Download Letter Star from the App Store
  3. Open the app
  4. Your stats appear automatically
  5. Continue your streak

It really is that simple.

Questions about device upgrades or iCloud sync? Check our FAQ or reach out to support.