It's a Trap!
The It's a Trap! app icon: two pawns and four walls on an isometric board.

It's a Trap!

Nine by nine, ten walls each. First pawn across wins — played inside iMessage.

Download on the App Store

iPhone & iPad · Free · No account, no ads, no tracking

The app on iPhone, showing a fresh nine-by-nine board with a pawn at each end. A game in progress inside an iMessage conversation.
How it plays

One move per message.

1

Move your pawn

One square a turn. Reach the far side first.

2

Or drop a wall

Ten each. Block their route and make them go round.

3

Never a dead end

A wall that seals someone in is refused.

4

Or one phone

No one to text? Play hot seat in the app.

Privacy policy

No server. Nothing to leak.

Updated 19 August 2026
The short version No accounts, no backend, no tracking. Everything the app remembers stays on your device. Deleting the app deletes it.

What's collected

Nothing is sent to us. Stored locally on your device only:

  • Game state — board position, walls, whose turn.
  • Apple's opaque participant IDs — random per-conversation identifiers, never names, numbers, emails or photos. We can't resolve them to a person and never touch your contacts.
  • Your win/loss record — a device-local tally.
  • Sound state — so effects don't repeat.

The app requests no system permissions at all.

Not collected

  • ✕ Name or email
  • ✕ Phone number
  • ✕ Contacts
  • ✕ Location
  • ✕ Photos or camera
  • ✕ Usage or analytics
  • ✕ Ad identifiers
  • ✕ Crash reports

How it's used

To run the game on your device: resume a board, know which side is yours, show your score. Never for ads, profiling or analysis.

Your moves

Each turn is an ordinary iMessage. Delivery is Apple's, under Apple's Privacy Policy. We run no server, so your messages never reach us.

Third parties

None. No analytics, ad, or crash SDKs. Nothing is sold or shared — we never receive it.

Game Center is not used The app never signs you in, and reads no player ID, alias, leaderboard or achievement.

Retention and deletion

Data stays in the app's sandbox for as long as it's installed. Deleting the app erases all of it permanently — there's no copy elsewhere and no account to close. It doesn't follow you to a new device. Sent messages live in Messages, like any other.

Children

No personal data is collected from anyone, at any age. No ads, no in-app purchases.

Changes

If this ever changes, the page and the date above change with it.

Contact

hellojustinrodriguez@gmail.com

Support

Stuck? Just email me.

Get in touch

Bugs, questions, requests — it all goes to one inbox and gets a reply from a person.

Include your device, iOS version, and what you tapped.

hellojustinrodriguez@gmail.com

Quick answers

Not in my Messages drawer?
Tap + beside the text field → More, and switch It's a Trap! on.

Opponent doesn't have it?
They'll get a prompt to install. Then tapping the bubble opens the game.

Lost my earlier moves?
State is per device, so a new phone won't have it. Tap the latest bubble to pick up from there.

Wall won't place?
It would seal off a player's only route. Shift it one slot.