Terms of Service

Agreement to these terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of our website and the A Story app and related services (together, the "service"). By accessing or using the service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

Who we are

The service is provided by A Story Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("A Story," "we," "us"). You can contact us at contact@astoryapp.com.

Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old and able to enter into a binding contract to create an account or purchase the service. By using the service, you represent that you meet these requirements.

What we provide

A Story is a memory-keeping service for families: guided conversations with A Story, a daily call that rings like a phone call, calls between relatives, written memories, a shared family tree, questions family send each other, sealed letters, a private archive, and, when you choose, a printed memory book. The specific features available, the plans we offer, and the details of any printed book order are described at the time of purchase and form part of these Terms.

Your account

You can make an account with your email address, or sign in with Apple, Google or Facebook. Somebody invited onto a single family call can join from a link without an account. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide, for keeping your sign-in secure, and for activity that occurs under your account.

Please notify us promptly at contact@astoryapp.com if you believe your account or a sharing link has been used without your authorization. We can revoke any link at any time.

Your content and ownership

The storyteller and their family own their memories, recordings, transcripts, photographs, and stories ("Your Content"). Paying for A Story does not give the buyer ownership of, or a right of access to, the content another person records. Access is granted by the storyteller and can be withdrawn by them at any time, including from the person who gave them the gift. You grant A Story a limited, non-exclusive license to use Your Content solely to provide the service - to conduct interviews, build and host your archive, produce your book, and support you. We will not sell Your Content, show it to advertisers, or use it to train outside artificial-intelligence models. The storyteller controls with whom Your Content is shared.

Consent and accuracy

Consent comes from the person speaking. Before recording begins, the storyteller is shown what is being captured, who will be able to see it, and how to stop - and nothing is recorded until they agree. Buying the gift does not consent on their behalf, and neither does handing them the link.

You confirm that you have the right to share any photographs and information you upload, and that anyone else audible in a recording you contribute has agreed to it. A Story shapes stories as they are told and does not independently verify the factual accuracy of personal recollections.

Promotions

From time to time we offer promotions, trials or introductory pricing. Each promotion is subject to its own official rules, which are made available at the time of the promotion and which control in the event of any conflict with these Terms. Promotions may be modified or withdrawn where permitted by law.

Plans, payments, and refunds

A Story is free to use at its Free tier, and offers paid plans that lift the limit on AI-guided conversations. Individual and Family are annual subscriptions and Monthly is a monthly subscription, each renewing at the price shown until canceled; Express is a one-time purchase covering thirty days and does not renew. Every account begins on the Free tier, at no charge and without a card; there is no free trial of the paid plans. The Individual, Family and Express plans include a printed book as described on the Pricing page, with shipping charged separately; on other plans a printed book is purchased separately.

Buying in the app. Plans bought in the iPhone app are paid to Apple and charged to your Apple account. A subscription renews automatically unless you turn renewal off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, in your Apple account's subscription settings; deleting the app does not cancel it. Refunds for App Store purchases are decided by Apple under its own policies, and we will help you ask for one. Restore purchases, on the Plans screen, brings a plan back on a new phone.

Before public launch we offer two pre-launch purchases. A Reservation is a one-time payment of $1 per place, up to 2 places per family, refundable in full on request at any time before launch; it holds a place in the order reservations are made and, for reservations made by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on 2 November 2026, 15% off the first year of an Individual or Family annual plan. Reservations made before that date keep the discount whatever happens to the offer afterwards. A Founding Family place is a one-time payment of $29, limited to 25, refundable in full on request at any time before the first call; places are offered on a rolling basis in the order they are bought, with the first call arranged with the purchaser after purchase; it gives access before launch, set up with the purchaser, 30 days of access equivalent to the Individual plan beginning on the date of the first call, and 50% off the first year of an Individual or Family annual plan. In both cases the amount paid is deducted from that first year, and the discount applies to the first year of a plan bought on the website within 60 days of launch or of the founding month ending, whichever is later.

What continues if you cancel or stop paying. Your account returns to the Free tier and your archive does not expire. You keep the ability to read, search, add to and export it; everyone the storyteller has invited keeps their access; and you may go on recording, writing and uploading photos, and using the question bank, at no further charge, for as long as we operate the service. The only thing that stops when a package's period ends is the AI-guided conversation. We will not delete an archive, restrict access to material already recorded, or place any of it behind a later payment because a package has ended.

Gifts that go unused. If you bought A Story on our website for someone who does not use it, write to us at contact@astoryapp.com and we will refund you. We would rather return the money than have a gift sit there unopened, and we do not put a deadline on this. For a gift bought through the App Store, we will help you ask Apple.

If you started under an earlier offer. Where you began using A Story under different terms - including while it was free during early access - those terms continue to apply to your archive for as long as you keep it, whatever we charge afterwards. We will not move you onto new pricing, and we will not close an archive because the offer it was created under has ended. Printed books are charged at the price current when each book is ordered.

Printed books are produced to order. Once printing has begun a book order cannot be canceled, except where required by law or where a book arrives damaged or defective - in which case we replace it. Additional copies are priced separately and charged when ordered.

App store terms

If you download A Story from the Apple App Store, these Terms are between you and A Story only, not with Apple, and A Story, not Apple, is responsible for the app and its content. We grant you a non-transferable license to use the app on Apple-branded devices you own or control, as the App Store's Usage Rules allow. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app. If the app fails to meet a warranty that applies to it, you may tell Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any; beyond that, Apple has no warranty obligation. A Story, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims about the app, including product liability, failure to meet legal or regulatory requirements, consumer protection, and claims that the app infringes someone's intellectual property. You confirm that you are not in a country under a U.S. embargo and are not on a U.S. government list of prohibited parties. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

You agree to comply with any third-party terms that apply when you use the app, including your mobile carrier's.

Family content, reporting and blocking

A Story is shared among family, so what you add can be seen by the people the storyteller chooses. There is no tolerance for abusive, hateful, harassing, sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable content, or for abusive users. You may not use A Story to harass or threaten anyone, to record someone who has not agreed, to impersonate anyone, to add false or harmful claims about a real person, or to upload anything illegal or that infringes someone else's rights.

A memory, photo or detail that someone else added can be reported from the app, and any person can be blocked, so that they can no longer reach you through A Story. We review reports within 24 hours, and we may remove content and suspend or close the account of anyone who breaks these rules.

Conversations, calls and AI

A Story's conversations, transcripts, summaries and retellings are made with artificial intelligence. They can mishear, misremember or get a name, place or date wrong, so A Story shows you what it wrote before it is kept, and you can change or remove it at any time. AI output is not professional, medical, legal or financial advice.

The daily call rings at the time you choose and can be turned off at any time. A Story is not a telephone service and cannot be used to call emergency services.

Letters

A sealed letter is opened only by the person it is written for. If you do not open A Story for six months, your sealed letters pass to the trusted person you named, or, if you named nobody, to the closest relative with an account in your family, as the Privacy Policy describes. By writing a letter, you ask us to do this. You can change your trusted person or delete a letter at any time before then.

Acceptable use

You agree not to misuse the service, for example by attempting to disrupt or interfere with it, accessing it unlawfully or without authorization, reading another family's archive, reverse-engineering it except where the law allows, or using automated means to collect anything from it.

Ending your account

You can stop using A Story at any time, and delete your account in the app (Menu, then Account, then Delete account) or by writing to us; the Privacy Policy says what is deleted and when. Ask for an export first if you want a copy. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these Terms, after telling you why where we can, and if we ever close the service itself we will give you at least 90 days' notice and a way to download everything your family recorded.

Our intellectual property

The A Story name, logo, app, website, and our editorial and production materials are owned by A Story Technologies, Inc. and are protected by intellectual-property laws. You may not use them without our prior written permission. Nothing in these Terms affects your ownership of Your Content.

Third-party services

We rely on third parties to operate the service - for example, hosting, printing, and payment providers. We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of these third parties, and their services may be subject to their own terms.

Disclaimers

The service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties not expressly stated in these Terms, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or completely secure.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, A Story will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, even where we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. To the maximum extent permitted by law, A Story's total liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the service will not exceed the greater of (a) the total amount you paid to A Story in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (US $100).

Because the recordings and stories you entrust to us are irreplaceable, we encourage you to keep your own copies of any content that is important to you.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless A Story and its officers, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the service, or Your Content.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Subject to the Dispute Resolution section below, any claims not subject to arbitration will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to the jurisdiction of those courts.

Dispute resolution and arbitration

Please read this section carefully, as it affects your legal rights.

Before bringing a formal claim, you agree to first contact us at contact@astoryapp.com and attempt to resolve the dispute informally; if we cannot resolve it within 60 days, either party may proceed as set out below.

Except for the exceptions noted here, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. Either party may instead bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either party may seek injunctive relief to protect its intellectual property.

All disputes will be conducted only on an individual basis, and not as a class, consolidated, or representative action. You may opt out of arbitration within 30 days of first accepting these Terms by emailing contact@astoryapp.com with your name and a statement that you wish to opt out; if you opt out, disputes will be resolved in the courts identified in the Governing Law section.

Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will post the revised version here with a new "Last updated" date, and we will tell you about material changes by email or in the app before they take effect. Your continued use of the service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

Contact us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please email us at contact@astoryapp.com. We respond to every message.