Tern is a messaging app operated by Nomli Tech Limited. By using it you agree to these terms. If you don’t agree, don’t use it.
Tern is free. We may change it, add to it, or stop offering it.
You must be at least 13. If you are under the age at which you can agree to a contract where you live, you need a parent’s or guardian’s permission. Don’t use Tern if the law where you are says you can’t.
When you install Tern you get a Tern ID — an eight-character public identifier — and your app generates keys that stay on your phone. Your Tern ID is not a secret; it’s meant to be shared. Your recovery code is a secret, and it is the only way back into Tern other than the Google sign-in you linked (if any).
If you lose both your recovery code and access to your linked Google account, your access is gone and we cannot restore it. This is not a policy we can make an exception to — we hold nothing that would let us. Save your recovery code somewhere safe.
Anything sent from your device is treated as sent by you. Keep your phone locked.
Your messages are yours. We don’t own them, we don’t read them, and we don’t use them for anything.
Photos and documents you send are deleted from our servers after 30 days. If the person you sent them to hasn’t downloaded them by then, they can’t. Tern is not a backup service — keep your own copies of anything you care about.
Payment details you store or share in Tern stay on devices. Tern never moves money and is not a payment service.
We deliver messages as best we can. We don’t guarantee that every message arrives, or arrives quickly, especially on a poor connection.
Because your messages are end-to-end encrypted, we cannot look for problems ourselves. We only see what someone chooses to show us.
You can block anyone, which stops their messages reaching you. You can also report a person — doing so may send us the reason you chose and related context so we can judge it. That is your choice to make and nothing is sent unless you make it.
If a report shows a breach of these terms, we may warn, restrict or ban that Tern ID. We will act faster and harder on anything involving children or a threat to someone’s safety.
Tern does not use a traditional account. Clear the app’s data or uninstall it to remove Tern from your phone. Write to dev@niilox.com if you want us to remove what we still hold for your Tern ID on our servers.
We may suspend or ban a Tern ID that breaks these terms. Where we reasonably can, we’ll tell you why and give you a way to respond — except where the breach is severe or telling you would put someone at risk.
Tern is provided as it is. We don’t promise it will be available, uninterrupted, or free of faults, and we don’t promise it fits any particular purpose. Nothing here takes away rights you have under consumer law where you live.
To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for lost messages, lost access, lost data, or losses that follow from using or not being able to use Tern. Nothing here limits liability we cannot limit by law — including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
If we change these terms we’ll update the date above and tell you in the app before the change takes effect. If you keep using Tern afterwards, that is your agreement to the new terms.
These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Courts of England and Wales have non-exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer you keep the protections and the right to bring a claim in the courts of the country you live in, and nothing here limits those rights.
Nomli Tech Limited
Email: dev@niilox.com
Registered office address: available on request at that email.