Draft This page isn’t final yet. Anything in [brackets] is still being decided.

igotchu Terms

Version [1.0]. Effective [date]. Published at igotchu.app/terms.

These are the rules for using igotchu: the app, and the message pages at igotchu.app. When you tap to agree at sign-up, we save which version you agreed to and when.

The short version

  • igotchu is for adults (18 and older) in the US. One account per person, with your real name.
  • What you write is yours. We only use it to store it, show it to the people you wrote it for, and run the safety check.
  • Whoever wrote a message can take it back. Anything you saved to your phone stays yours.
  • No abuse, threats, harassment, sexual content, intimate images shared without consent, fake sexual images, spam or selling. Child sexual abuse material is reported to NCMEC.
  • An automatic word check stops some messages. It can be wrong, and you can tell us.
  • You can hide, block or report anything. We look at every report within 24 hours.
  • Tips are optional, go through Apple, and don’t unlock anything.
  • No arbitration. If we ever disagree, you can take it to small claims or a court where you live.

The rest says the same things in full. The privacy policy (igotchu.app/privacy) and the consumer health data policy (igotchu.app/health-data) explain what we collect and why; they’re separate documents and aren’t repeated here.

1. Who we are

igotchu is run by jacobstarr LLC, a Louisiana limited liability company (“igotchu,” “we,” “us”). [Publisher: if the App Store publisher or the operating company changes before launch, update this section, the privacy policy and the App Store listing together.] Our mailing address is [business address]. You can reach us at the addresses in section 24.

2. Who can use igotchu

  • You must be 18 or older. At sign-up we ask Apple for your age range, as the law requires; without it, we can’t make an account. We don’t collect your birthday or check ages any other way. If we learn someone under 18 has an account, we close it.
  • You must be in the United States, with a US phone number.
  • Use your real first and last name, the one people know you by. Don’t pretend to be someone else.
  • One account per person. Don’t make an account for someone else, share yours, or make a new one to get around a block, a suspension or a ban.
  • You can’t use igotchu if we’ve banned you before, or if US law bars you from using it.

3. Your account

  • Signing in. You sign in with your phone number and a one-time code we text you. Those codes are the only texts igotchu sends.
  • Your Apple or Google sign-in. At sign-up you add an Apple or Google sign-in to your account. On a new phone, you’ll need it to open your account.
  • New phones and changed numbers. If someone signs in with your number on a new phone without your Apple or Google sign-in, they get a fresh account and yours is locked, so nobody who gets your old number can open your bank. To move to a new number, change it in Settings with a code.
  • Messages waiting for a number. Messages sent to a number that has no account attach to a new account on that number only if they’re less than 45 days old. Older ones open only from their own link. That’s because carriers can give a number to someone new after 45 days.
  • Keep your phone and sign-ins to yourself. You’re responsible for what happens on your account. Tell us at support@igotchu.app if you think someone else is using it.

4. How messages work

  • Writing. You pick someone, choose a type (Memory, Thanks, Thought, Wish or Note), and write up to 500 characters with up to 4 photos. You can write to several people at once (a shared memory).
  • Who’s on igotchu. When you pick someone, igotchu checks that one number and tells you whether they’re on igotchu. If they are, the message goes to them in the app. If not, you send them the link yourself, by text or WhatsApp, from your own phone. People who have your number can see you’re on igotchu when they write to you, unless you turn off “Show me to people who have my number” in Settings. Don’t use this check to find out who’s on igotchu from a list of numbers; there’s a daily limit.
  • Links. Anyone who has a message’s link can read it, so share it the way you’d hand someone a card. Only the people a message was written for can keep it. Links don’t expire.
  • Keeping. Keeping a message puts it in your bank and makes you and the writer friends on igotchu, both ways.
  • Editing. You can edit a message for 15 minutes after you send it. Each edit goes through the safety check again.
  • The widget and wallpaper. If you add the igotchu widget, the words show on your Home Screen to anyone who can see your phone. You can keep a message or a person off your widget at any time.
  • [Spring update, add when “Send on a day” ships: A message set for a future day goes out as set, unless the writer cancels it or the friendship changes first (a block or a removal cancels it).]

5. Your words and photos

  • You own what you write and the photos you add. We don’t claim ownership of any of it.
  • What you let us do with it. You give igotchu a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, US-wide license to store your messages, notes and photos; show them to the people you wrote them for (and to anyone you give the link to); make the copies and smaller versions needed to do that; and run the safety check on them. This license is only for running igotchu. It ends when the message is taken back or deleted, except for the copies described in section 6.
  • Printing for the recipient. When we offer printed keepsakes [V2, planned for 2027], the person a message was written for can order a print of it. Your license also lets us, and the print partner we name at ordering, print that message and its photos for that person. We’ll never print a message that’s been taken back, is under a report or a hold, or comes from someone they’ve blocked. A print that’s already shipped can’t be taken back.
  • What the people you write to can do. They get a personal, non-commercial right to read, keep, save as wallpaper and screenshot what you wrote to them.
  • We never use your words or photos in marketing without asking you first and getting a clear yes.
  • igotchu never writes, suggests or rewrites your words. - Your promises. You only add photos you took or have the right to share, and you don’t add photos of other people that they’d object to. What you write doesn’t break anyone’s rights or the law.
  • Feedback. If you send us ideas about igotchu, we can use them without owing you anything. Your messages aren’t feedback.

6. Taking a message back

Whoever wrote a message can take it back. Anything you saved to your phone stays yours.

  • Any time, even after it’s kept. Taking back a message removes it from every recipient’s bank and widget without a notice. Taking back a shared memory removes it for everyone in it. You get 10 seconds to undo, and the message goes back to your Drafts.
  • What a take-back can’t reach:
    • copies someone already saved to their own phone, such as a wallpaper or a screenshot;
    • copies we hold because of a report, or because the law requires it (sections 9 and 11). We keep those only as long as the privacy policy says;
    • a print that’s already shipped [V2].
  • Removing a message from your own view (Hide) works for you only. It moves the message to Settings > Hidden, where you can unhide it or delete it for good, and it doesn’t take the message back from anyone else.

7. The rules

igotchu is for saying kind things to your people. Zero tolerance means one serious break of these rules can end your account, with no warning first.

Don’t use igotchu to:

  • abuse, threaten, harass, stalk, bully or intimidate anyone;
  • use slurs or attack anyone for who they are (race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or anything like them);
  • encourage anyone to hurt themselves;
  • send sexual content or nude images, even between adults who agree. igotchu isn’t for that;
  • share an intimate image of anyone without their consent;
  • share a fake or AI-made sexual or nude image of a real person;
  • share any sexual image of someone under 18, real or computer-made, or try to contact a minor for sexual purposes. We report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and keep what the law requires us to keep;
  • pressure, control or keep tabs on someone;
  • send spam, or the same message to lots of people;
  • sell or promote anything, ask for money, or run scams;
  • pretend to be someone else, or use igotchu to find out who’s on it;
  • keep reaching someone who blocked you or asked not to be contacted, including through a new account;
  • break the law, or someone’s copyright or privacy;
  • get into accounts or systems that aren’t yours, copy igotchu in bulk, or get around its limits or the safety check.

What we can do if someone breaks these rules or the law: remove a message, note or photo; slow down or pause sending; suspend or close an account; ban a person from making a new one; and report to NCMEC or the police where the law requires it or someone is in danger. We tell you what kind of rule it was when we suspend or close your account, unless that would put someone at risk or the law doesn’t allow it.

These rules apply to everyone who uses igotchu, including people reading a message on its web page.

8. The safety check

  • What it is. An automatic word and phrase list, on your phone and on our servers. It runs when you tap Send, on messages and notes, in English and Spanish. It doesn’t use AI, and no person reads along.
  • What it stops. Messages whose words include slurs, threats, sexual content or encouragement of self-harm. Some stock insults, and a few phrases that read like a joking threat, get a pause instead: you can reword or send anyway.
  • It never changes your words. It only stops, pauses or lets a message through.
  • It can be wrong. It’s a list, so it can stop something harmless and miss something unkind. It doesn’t check photos for adult nudity (section 10 says what photos do get checked).
  • “This is a mistake.” When the check stops a message, it tells you what kind of rule it hit. Tap “This is a mistake” to tell us. It sends a reference to your draft, never its words, and we use these to fix the list. It doesn’t release that message; to send it, change the words. [Confirm with the build: what support can see from the draft reference.]
  • Patterns. We count how the check is used, as numbers only, never words or names. Sending too fast, to too many new numbers, or the same text to many numbers can slow sending for a while.

9. Reports, blocks and appeals

  • Your controls. You can Hide, Block, Report, Remove from friends or Keep off my widget, any time. The other person isn’t told. On a message’s web page, anyone can Report it or choose “Don’t contact me again.”
  • Reporting. Report from the message, the note or the person’s page in the app, from the web page, or by email to safety@igotchu.app. The person you report isn’t told who reported them. We look at every report within 24 hours.
  • Who looks. Nobody at igotchu reads messages as a matter of course. A person looks at a message when it’s reported or a decision is appealed [open, Thursday #26: “or when our systems flag a pattern that looks like abuse,” with every look logged]. When something is reported, we keep a locked copy of it so we can look into it, even if it’s later taken back.
  • Appeals. If we remove something of yours or suspend your account and you think we got it wrong, reply to our email or write to safety@igotchu.app. A person who wasn’t part of the first decision, where we can, looks again within [7 days] and tells you the outcome. [At launch Jacob makes every decision; the “different person” part waits on a second reviewer.]

10. Photos and intimate images

  • Photo checks. Nothing checks photos for adult nudity, and you can report any photo.
  • Removing an intimate image (TAKE IT DOWN). If an intimate image of you, real or fake, was shared on igotchu without your consent, ask us to remove it at igotchu.app/takedown, or email safety@igotchu.app. You don’t need an account. Include your name and signature, enough to find the image (the link is best), a statement that you believe in good faith it was shared without consent, and how to reach you. When the request includes the link, the image is hidden right away. We confirm removal within 48 hours and remove copies of the same image we know about. Misusing this form to remove something that isn’t yours can break the law.

11. Child safety and the law

  • Child sexual abuse material. We report it to NCMEC’s CyberTipline, keep what the law requires (currently 1 year), and close the account. Nothing on hold for a report is erased by a take-back or an account deletion.
  • Requests from police and courts. These go to legal@igotchu.app. We share account details only with legal process, such as a subpoena or court order, and message content only with a search warrant, except in an emergency involving a risk of serious harm, which we check before acting. We tell the person unless the law or the emergency doesn’t allow it.
  • Notices. If you believe something on igotchu infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent: [agent name, street address, to register with the US Copyright Office], legal@igotchu.app. Include what’s required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3): your signature; the work; where it is on igotchu (the link); your contact details; a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn’t authorized; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and you’re the owner or authorized to act for them.
  • Counter-notices. If we remove something of yours and you think it was a mistake, you can send a counter-notice to the same agent with what 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3) requires. We may put it back after 10 to 14 business days unless the person who complained tells us they’ve gone to court.
  • Repeat infringers. We close the accounts of people who repeatedly infringe copyright, generally after [3] valid notices.

13. Not a health or crisis service

igotchu isn’t health care, counseling or a crisis service, and it doesn’t watch over anyone’s wellbeing. If your own words match certain phrases, the app quietly shows you 988 and Crisis Text Line, in case it’s useful. That’s a list match, not monitoring: it’s never stored, nobody is alerted, and it doesn’t mean igotchu can tell how anyone is doing. If someone is in danger right now, call 911.

14. Tips

  • Tips are optional, one-time payments through Apple’s in-app purchase. They go toward running igotchu.
  • They don’t unlock anything, and nothing in the app is behind a paywall.
  • Apple handles the payment. Refunds go through Apple (reportaproblem.apple.com), under Apple’s rules; we can’t refund a tip ourselves.
  • A tip isn’t a charitable donation and isn’t tax-deductible.
  • [V2: printed keepsakes will have their own order terms, shown before you pay.]

15. Deleting your account, and when we close one

  • You can delete your account any time in Settings. You choose what happens to the messages you wrote, with nothing preselected:
    • Leave them: messages people have kept remain with them, the way texts do. Messages nobody has kept are removed.
    • Take them all back: every message you wrote is taken back, as in section 6.
  • 30 days to change your mind. Your account switches off right away and is deleted after 30 days. Sign in with your number and your Apple or Google sign-in before then to turn it back on.
  • What happens after 30 days (including messages people wrote to you, and the copies we hold for reports or the law) is in the privacy policy.
  • We can close an account that breaks these rules (section 7) or that’s been taken over, and we can stop offering igotchu. If we ever stop offering igotchu, we’ll tell you at least [60] days ahead [and say how to save what you want].

16. If someone passes away

  • An account can’t be passed on to anyone else, and nobody else can sign in to it.
  • A family member or executor can ask us to close the account by writing to legal@igotchu.app, with official proof and proof of their authority (such as letters testamentary or a court order).
  • We share what’s in an account only if the account holder arranged it or a court orders it. We never name the people who wrote to them.
  • When we close the account, the messages they wrote [open, Jacob’s call: “remain with the people who kept them, as under Leave them” is recommended]. Messages they took back or deleted are gone and can’t be recovered.

17. Using the app

  • Your license to the app. We give you a personal, non-transferable, revocable license to use the igotchu app on devices you own or control, under these Terms. igotchu’s name, design and code belong to us.
  • Things outside igotchu. Sending a link uses your own Messages or WhatsApp, and your carrier’s and those apps’ terms apply to that.
  • If you got igotchu from Apple’s App Store [check against Apple’s current “Minimum Terms” page before publishing; it couldn’t be fetched when this was drafted]:
    • these Terms are between you and igotchu, not Apple, and Apple isn’t responsible for igotchu or its content;
    • you may use the app on Apple-branded products you own or control, as Apple’s Usage Rules allow;
    • Apple has no duty to provide maintenance or support for igotchu;
    • if the app fails to meet a warranty the law requires, you can tell Apple and Apple will refund the price you paid for the app (igotchu is free); Apple has no other warranty obligation;
    • we, not Apple, handle any claims about igotchu, including product liability, legal compliance, consumer protection, privacy and intellectual property claims;
    • you confirm you’re not in a country under a US embargo and not on a US list of prohibited or restricted parties;
    • Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and can enforce them against you.

18. No promises beyond these

We work to keep igotchu running well and to keep every promise in these Terms. Beyond those promises, igotchu is offered as it is and as available. To the extent the law allows, we don’t make other promises, such as that it will always be available, have no bugs, or be fit for a particular purpose. Some states don’t allow these limits, so they may not apply to you.

19. Limits on what we owe

  • To the extent the law allows, igotchu isn’t responsible for indirect, special or punitive damages, or for what other people write or do.
  • To the extent the law allows, if we’re responsible for a loss, the most we owe is the greater of what you paid us in tips in the 12 months before the claim, or $100.
  • These limits don’t apply to anything the law doesn’t let us limit, including our fraud, gross negligence or willful misconduct, personal injury we cause, or our duties under your state’s consumer protection laws.

20. If someone makes a claim because of you

If someone makes a legal claim against igotchu because you knowingly broke these Terms or the law (for example, by posting someone’s photo you had no right to share), you agree to cover igotchu’s reasonable costs of that claim, to the extent the law allows. This doesn’t cover anything igotchu did wrong itself, and we’ll let you know about the claim and let you take part in the defense.

21. Disagreements

  • Tell us first, if you can. Write to legal@igotchu.app. Most things can be fixed quickly, and we’ll try within 30 days. This isn’t required before you go to small claims court, and it doesn’t shorten any deadline.
  • No arbitration. Neither of us has to go to arbitration, and you keep your right to go to court.
  • Where. You can bring a claim in small claims court, or in a state or federal court in the county where you live or in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, whichever you choose. If we ever bring a claim against you, we’ll bring it where you live.
  • Which law. Louisiana law applies, except where your state’s law gives you protections that can’t be waived. Those still apply.
  • Nothing here:
    • waives your right to a jury, to join a class or group action, or to ask a court for public injunctive relief;
    • shortens the time you have to bring a claim;
    • waives your rights under state consumer protection laws, such as California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act or the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act;
    • stops you from writing an honest review of igotchu.

22. Changes

  • To these Terms. If we change them in a way that matters, we’ll tell you in the app at least [30] days before the change takes effect, except changes the law or someone’s safety requires sooner. You’ll see the new version and tap to accept it, and we save the version and time. If you don’t agree, you can delete your account (section 15). A change never applies to a disagreement that started before it.
  • To igotchu. We’ll keep improving igotchu and may change features. We won’t take away something that’s free, and we’ll tell you before changing how igotchu pays for itself.
  • If a part doesn’t apply. Some parts of these Terms may not apply in your state. If a court decides a part can’t be enforced, the rest still applies, and that part is changed only as much as needed to make it enforceable. If you live in New Jersey, nothing in these Terms limits a right New Jersey law gives you, and sections 18 to 20 apply only as far as New Jersey law allows.
  • The whole agreement. These Terms, together with the privacy policy and the consumer health data policy, are the whole agreement between you and igotchu.
  • Not giving up a right. If we don’t enforce a part of these Terms right away, we can still enforce it later.
  • Transfers. You can’t transfer your account or these Terms. We can transfer them to a company that takes over igotchu [for example, the second company formed before keepsakes ship], and we’ll tell you if we do.
  • Things outside our control, like outages at the companies we rely on, aren’t a break of these Terms.

24. Contact