Terms of Service

Last updated: 20 May 2026

These Terms govern your use of the Tether mobile application (the "App") provided by Eswarden ("we", "us"). By installing or using Tether, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the App.

1. Who can use Tether

You must be at least 18 years old to use Tether and legally able to enter into a binding contract where you live. Tether is a paired app for two consenting adults; do not use the App to communicate with or about a minor in any romantic context.

2. Pairing

Tether only becomes useful once you pair with one other person. Pairing happens through a 6-digit invite code, valid for 24 hours, that you generate and share with your chosen partner. You can be in only one active pairing at a time. Unpairing requires typing your partner's display name as confirmation — this is intentional, so you don't break a couple by accident.

3. The App is not a chat app or a safety service

Tether is a small, ritual-based companion app for couples. It is not a secure messaging service, a calendar, an emergency-alert service, or a relationship-counselling service. Do not use Tether in life-safety situations. We do not guarantee any specific delivery time for pulses, whispers, or any other content.

4. Your account

You sign in with email + password, Sign in with Apple, or Sign in with Google. You are responsible for keeping that account secure. Tell us at support@eswarden.com if you believe your account has been compromised. You may have only one account at a time, and you may not impersonate another person.

5. Subscriptions, trials, and refunds

• Tether has a free tier and an optional Tether Premium subscription (monthly or yearly). Current prices and trial lengths are shown inside the App and on the product page.
• One subscription covers both partners. If either partner has Premium, both partners get Premium until the entitlement ends. There is no overlap billing; if the other partner buys while one is active, the App will tell them so.
• Subscriptions are auto-renewing. They renew at the end of each period at the then-current price unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends, per the App Store / Play Store rules.
• The free trial is offered once per couple, ever. Re-pairing with a new partner who has not had a trial may make a fresh trial available to the new couple.
• You manage and cancel your subscription from your Apple ID → Subscriptions or Google Play → Subscriptions. Deleting the App or unpairing does not cancel a subscription.
• Refunds are handled by Apple and Google according to their own policies. We do not process card refunds directly.

6. Acceptable use — including between partners

When you use Tether, you agree not to:

• Use Tether to harass, threaten, coerce, surveil, or otherwise harm another person, including the partner you are paired with.
• Use Tether to maintain a relationship in which the other person has not freely and clearly agreed to be paired with you. Coerced or covert pairing is a violation of these Terms.
• Upload sexual content involving minors, hate speech, or content that promotes self-harm, sexual exploitation, or illegal activity.
• Use Tether's location features to track another person without their informed consent.
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract source code, except to the extent the law permits.
• Use the App in violation of any export-control or sanctions law that applies to you.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that break these rules. If you believe your partner is using Tether to harm or surveil you, you can unpair at any time from Settings → Couple → Unpair and report the account to support@eswarden.com. Your safety matters more than these Terms.

7. User-generated content

You keep ownership of the photos, voice notes, drawings, and text you create in Tether. You grant Eswarden a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to host, transmit, back up, and display this content solely to deliver it to your paired partner and run the App for you. We do not use your content for any other purpose, and we do not read whispers, beads, voice notes, or repair-flow entries.

Because Tether is paired, anything you put into the couple's shared space is visible to your partner. Decide accordingly.

8. Intellectual property

The App, the Tether brand, the thread artwork, the Starling design, copy, sound, and code are owned by Eswarden or its licensors. The App also includes open-source components (e.g. OpenMoji art under CC BY-SA 4.0); attributions are listed in the App under Settings → About → Acknowledgements.

9. Privacy

Your data is handled according to our Privacy Policy, which is part of these Terms.

10. App Store terms

If you downloaded Tether from the Apple App Store, you also agree to Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement (the "Standard EULA"), which applies in addition to these Terms. To the extent of any conflict, these Terms control except where Apple's terms require otherwise. Similar terms apply for Google Play.

11. Beta & preview features

Features marked "beta", "preview", or "experimental" are provided as-is, may change without notice, and may be removed.

12. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent allowed by law, the App is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranty of any kind. We do not warrant that the App will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that pulses, whispers, or other content will always be delivered on a particular schedule. Tether is a small, intentionally slow companion app; it is not a fail-safe communication channel.

13. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law, Eswarden and its officers, contractors, and licensors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill. Our total liability arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the App will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the event that gave rise to the claim, or (b) USD 50. Nothing limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

14. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold Eswarden harmless from any claim, loss, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your breach of these Terms or your misuse of the App.

15. Termination

You can unpair from the couple from Settings → Couple → Unpair, and you can delete your account from Settings → Account → Delete account. We can suspend or close your account if you break these Terms or if we discontinue the App. If we end your access without cause, we will refund any unused portion of a prepaid period through the App Store or Play Store, where they support it.

16. Changes

We may update these Terms when the App changes meaningfully. We will show a notice in-app at next launch when we do, and update the "Last updated" date above.

17. Governing law & disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws applicable at Eswarden's principal place of business. The courts at that location have non-exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute. If you are a consumer in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you keep the benefit of any mandatory consumer-protection rules in your country of residence. The European Commission's online dispute-resolution platform is available at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

18. Contact

Support — support@eswarden.com
Legal — legal@eswarden.com