The short version
- You must be 16 or older to use Lumio.
- Send one kind line. Nothing cruel, sexual, hateful, or personal.
- Don't try to find out who anyone is, or tell anyone who you are.
- A match is never guaranteed. Rarity is how Lumio works.
- We can stop anyone who breaks these rules from using Lumio.
- Lumio isn't a crisis service. If you're in danger, contact your local emergency number.
About these terms
These terms are an agreement between you and the independent developer who makes Lumio (“we”, “us”) about your use of the Lumio app and this website. Our Community & Safety Standards are part of them. Our Privacy Policy explains how data is handled. By using Lumio you agree to these terms; if you don't, please don't use it.
Who can use Lumio
You must be at least 16 years old, or older if the law where you live sets a higher age for using a service like this without a parent's permission. If you're under 18, you confirm that a parent or guardian has read these terms and agreed to them with you. You can't use Lumio if we've previously stopped you from using it.
What Lumio is, and isn't
Lumio lets two people who are holding at the same moment exchange one short line each. It isn't a messaging app: there are no replies, no profiles, no followers, and no way to reach the same person again.
If you're struggling
Lumio isn't medical, psychological or crisis support. If you're in danger or thinking about harming yourself, please call your local emergency number or reach a crisis line — you can find one near you at findahelpline.com.
The kindness rules
Your line must be kind. You agree not to use Lumio to send, or try to send, anything that:
- insults, harasses, bullies, threatens or belittles anyone;
- is hateful or discriminatory, or promotes violence;
- is sexual or sexualises anyone — and never anything that sexualises or exploits a child, which we report to the authorities;
- encourages self-harm or suicide;
- shares personal information, yours or anyone else's: names, usernames or handles, phone numbers, email or home addresses;
- asks someone to contact you or meet you, or tries to move the connection somewhere else;
- advertises, promotes, links to anything, or is spam;
- is unlawful, promotes unlawful activity, or infringes anyone's rights;
- pretends to be someone else.
You also agree not to: try to get around the kindness screening; use bots, scripts or modified versions of the app; overload, probe, scrape or interfere with our servers; try to identify, track or contact another person through Lumio; or help anyone else do any of these things.
Anonymity
Lumio never asks who you are, and you agree not to try to learn who anyone else is. Your partner sees your line, the country your connection appears to come from, and your light moving on their screen during the exchange — nothing else.
Your line
Your words stay yours. By sending a line, you give us permission to process it (including screening it) and to deliver it to the one person you're matched with. You also give that person permission to keep it: the app saves received letters to their journal on their phone, and they can share an image of your line through their phone's share sheet. That image never carries your name, because we don't have it. You're responsible for what you write, so only send what you'd be comfortable with a stranger keeping.
Screening
Every line is checked automatically before it's delivered, and we may decline to deliver any line. Screening is automated and imperfect: it will sometimes turn away a line that was kind, and it may occasionally let through one that wasn't. If a letter doesn't feel kind, use “this didn't feel kind” beneath it (see Safety).
No guarantee of a match
An exchange only happens when another person is holding at the same moment. Often, no one will be. That is how Lumio is designed, not a fault, and we can't promise it will change. We also don't promise that Lumio will always be available or free of errors, and we may change, pause or end features, or Lumio itself, at any time.
Reports, blocks and ending things
If you report a letter, you and its writer won't be paired again. We may, without notice, restrict or stop anyone's use of Lumio — for example by refusing their anonymous id — if we reasonably believe they have broken these terms, put others at risk, or if the law requires it.
You can stop using Lumio whenever you like: erase your data with Settings → Forget me and delete the app.
Price
Lumio is currently free. It has no ads and no in-app purchases. If that ever changes, we'll tell you clearly before you pay for anything.
Lumio's own content
The app — its design, words, sounds and artwork — belongs to us or our licensors. We give you a personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the app on devices you own or control, for your own non-commercial use, under these terms and the rules of the store you got it from. Please don't copy, modify, sell or reverse-engineer it, except where the law allows you to.
Apple and Google
If you got Lumio from Apple's App Store, Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies. These terms are between you and us, not Apple. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for Lumio, and isn't responsible for any product warranty, for claims relating to Lumio (including product-liability, legal or regulatory compliance, and consumer-protection claims), or for investigating or defending intellectual-property claims. You confirm that you're not located in a country subject to a US Government embargo, and that you're not on any US Government list of prohibited or restricted parties. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.
If you got Lumio from Google Play, Google Play's terms of service also apply, and Google isn't responsible for Lumio.
Disclaimers
Lumio is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no promises about Lumio beyond those in these terms — including that it will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that any line you receive will be kind, accurate or welcome. Other people's lines are theirs, not ours. Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer that can't be waived or limited by contract.
Liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for loss of data, arising from your use of Lumio, and our total liability to you for any claim about Lumio is limited to £50 (or the amount you've paid us, if more — currently nothing). Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that can't be limited by law.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms, for example if Lumio or the law changes. We'll update the date at the top, and for significant changes we'll tell you in the app before they take effect. If you keep using Lumio afterwards, the updated terms apply.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and disputes will be decided by the courts of England and Wales. If you use Lumio as a consumer and live somewhere else, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country and may be able to bring a claim in your local courts.
General
If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce something straight away, we haven't given up the right to. You can't transfer your rights under these terms. We may transfer ours to someone who takes over Lumio, who will be bound by them.
Contact
Lumio
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