Terms of service

The short version: Pigeon is an unfinished alpha, offered free and as it is. Don't use it to hurt people or break the law. If you do, we can stop your account from reaching new people.

Version 1.0, 22 October 2026. These terms are between you and [LEGAL ENTITY NAME] (“Pigeon”, “we”).

1. What you're agreeing to

By installing the Pigeon app or using Pigeon's servers, you agree to these terms, to the acceptable use policy and to the copyright policy. The privacy policy explains what we learn and keep. If you don't agree, don't use Pigeon.

Pigeon is currently a private alpha. You need an invite code to join, and an invite code works only once. The alpha is free. We may change any feature, limit the number of accounts, or end the alpha at any time.

2. Who can use Pigeon

You must be at least 13 years old. If you live in the European Economic Area, you must be at least 16, unless your country has set a lower age for agreeing to online services, in which case that age applies (never under 13). If you're under 18, or under the age of majority where you live, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms for you.

Why these ages: Pigeon doesn't collect anyone's age and can't run a parental-consent process, so we set the minimum at the age below which US law requires one. In the EEA, the default age for agreeing to an online service yourself is 16.

You can't use Pigeon if we have suspended you before, or if the law where you live forbids it.

3. Your account and keys

A Pigeon account is a set of cryptographic keys made on your device. There's no phone number, email address or password that we hold for you. So:

You're responsible for your devices and your seed phrase. Whoever holds your unlocked device or your seed phrase can act as you. We can't tell them apart from you.
We can't recover your account for you. If you lose every device and your seed phrase, the account is gone. We hold nothing that would let us restore it.
A handle (your Pigeon name) is yours to use, not to own. Handles follow the rules shown in the app, including how long an unused handle is kept before it's released. We may release or freeze a handle that impersonates someone or breaks these terms.

4. Using Pigeon

Use Pigeon lawfully and follow the acceptable use policy. In particular, don't:

use it to harm children, threaten or harass people, share intimate images without consent, sell illegal goods or services, promote terrorism, or spam;
attack the service: overload servers, get around rate limits or invite rules, probe other people's accounts, or create accounts in bulk (research within our disclosure policy is welcome);
pretend to be someone else, including Pigeon.

Pigeon is not an emergency service. It can't contact emergency services for you. If someone is in danger, call your local emergency number.

5. Your content

What you send is yours. Messages and files are encrypted on your device, and our servers store and pass on only sealed data they can't open. You give us only the permission we need to do that: to store, copy between servers and deliver the sealed data, and to keep it for the times set out in the privacy policy. If you report a message, you give us permission to read and act on what you chose to send in the report.

You're responsible for what you send and for having the right to send it.

6. If you break these terms

We can't read your conversations, so we only learn about a problem when someone in the conversation reports it, or when the law requires us to act. What we can do is limited by how Pigeon is built:

Remove a file that was reported, from our file servers.
Suspend an account. A suspended account loses its handle and its invite codes, and can no longer message people it hasn't talked to before. Conversations it already has may carry on, because our servers can't tell who sent a sealed message; the people in them can block it.
End your access to the alpha.

The most serious violations, such as sexual exploitation of a child, suspend an account the first time. Repeated lesser violations suspend it after three strikes. The acceptable use policy sets this out. Currently, in-app reporting and appeals are still being built; until they are, contact us by email and we'll review your case by hand.

You can stop using Pigeon at any time. Deleting the app and its data from all your devices removes everything that's yours on them. Messages you sent stay on the devices of the people you sent them to.

7. The app

The Pigeon app's code is licensed under the MIT licence, which governs your rights in the code. These terms govern your use of Pigeon's servers and service. The app may update itself or ask you to update; an old version may stop working with our servers.

8. No warranty

Pigeon is an alpha. It has known gaps (we list them in our threat model), it hasn't had an independent security audit, and messages may be delayed or lost. We provide Pigeon “as is” and “as available”, without any warranty, express or implied, including any warranty that it is fit for a particular purpose, secure, uninterrupted or free of errors, to the fullest extent the law allows. Don't rely on Pigeon where your safety depends on it.

9. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Pigeon and the people who work on it aren't liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost data, profits or opportunities, arising from your use of Pigeon. Our total liability for any claim about Pigeon is limited to the greater of what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim (in the alpha, nothing) or US$50. Some places don't allow some of these limits; there, they apply only as far as the law permits.

If your breach of these terms or of the law leads to a claim against us, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of that claim.

10. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of [STATE], USA, and US federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute about Pigeon will be decided only by the state or federal courts located in [STATE], and you and we agree to their jurisdiction. If you live in a country whose law gives you the right to bring a claim in your own courts, or under your own consumer law, these terms don't take that away.

11. Changes to these terms

We'll post any change on this page with a new version number and date. For a change that reduces your rights, we'll also tell you in the app or on this website at least 14 days before it takes effect, unless the change is required by law sooner. If you keep using Pigeon after a change takes effect, you accept it. If you don't, stop using Pigeon.

12. Everything else

If a part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce something straight away, we haven't given it up. You can't transfer these terms to someone else; we can transfer them to whoever takes over Pigeon. These terms, with the policies they link to, are the whole agreement about the service.

Contact: legal@pigeonmessage.io, [POSTAL ADDRESS].