Terms of Service

Last updated 5 August 2026 · Effective 5 August 2026

These terms are the agreement between you and Tellby. By creating an account or using the app you accept them. If you don't, don't use the app.

Part A applies to everyone. Part C covers meeting other people — read it before you use those features.

These terms are available in the app and on this page at any time, and the parts that matter most — what you pay, what we may do to your account, and what we are and aren't responsible for — are set out in the boxed passages below. Ask us at [email protected] if you want any clause explained.

Part A · Everyone

1. The service

Tellby is a mobile app that plays audio guides about places, maps content you like onto real locations, shows what's popular locally, lets you publish your own guides, and helps you follow itineraries made by others.

2. Your account

• You sign in with Google or Apple. Keep that account secure — anything done through it is treated as done by you.
• You can also look around as a guest, without signing in. A guest account is tied to the device you're using and is identified by a code derived from that device. It isn't recoverable if you lose or reset the device, it can't be merged into a signed-in account, and anything you bought as a guest stays with it. These terms apply to guests in full.
• Minimum age. You must be at least:
  • 16 if you are in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the United Kingdom;
  • 14 in the Republic of Korea;
  • 13 anywhere else.
  Article 8 of the GDPR sets 16 as the default age at which someone can consent to an online service on their own; individual countries may set it lower, but we apply 16 across the EEA rather than tracking each country. If the law where you live sets a higher minimum, that applies instead. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you need a parent or guardian's permission.
• If you are a minor, you need your parent or guardian's consent before you buy anything. Where the law lets a minor or their guardian cancel a purchase made without that consent, we honour it.
• One person, one account. Don't impersonate anyone.
• You can delete your account at any time in My page → Account.

3. Plans and payment

Audio guides are listened to on a plan. There is a free plan and there are paid plans. What each plan lets you do, and what it costs, is shown in the app before you buy.

• The free plan lets you hear the first audio guide at every place we have already voiced, and gives you a set number of AI itineraries and saved places.
• Paid plans are bought through Apple's or Google's in-app purchase system. An auto-renewing subscription can be cancelled at any time in your store settings; cancelling keeps your access until the period you already paid for ends.
• A plan with a fixed term (a travel pass, for example) ends when that term ends, and so does the access it gave you. The app shows the time remaining.
• A plan is tied to your account. It can't be transferred between accounts or exchanged for anything outside the app.
• Real-world tours are paid separately by card through Stripe.

Refunds

On iPhone and iPad (Apple)

Apple does not allow us to issue refunds for App Store purchases. Only Apple can. Request one at reportaproblem.apple.com or through Settings → your name → Media & Purchases → Purchase History.

Email us at the same time at [email protected] with "Refund" in the subject line. When Apple asks us how much of a purchase you have used, we answer within the 12 hours Apple gives us and confirm what you have used. That answer supports your request. We can't decide the outcome, but we can make sure Apple has the facts.

On Android (Google Play)

Here we can refund you ourselves. Email [email protected] with "Refund" in the subject line and we'll process the refund of the time you haven't used through Google Play. You can also request it directly from Google Play under Google's own policy.

Tours booked through Stripe

We take these payments ourselves, so we refund them ourselves under §14.

If the store says no

Deleting your account closes any plan on it, so ask for a refund before you delete. The deletion screen shows what you have left and this warning before you confirm. If you delete first and realise afterwards, you don't lose the money — contact us within 30 days and we'll refund the unused paid portion. We don't treat deletion as forfeiting time you paid for.

Statutory withdrawal rights

Korea. Under the Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce you may withdraw within 7 days of supply beginning, subject to the statutory exceptions for digital content whose supply has already started with your agreement.

EU/EEA. You generally have 14 days to withdraw from a purchase of digital content. That right ends for a particular item only if all three of these are true: you expressly asked us to start supplying it during the 14 days, you acknowledged that doing so ends your right of withdrawal for that item, and we gave you confirmation of that on a durable medium. Where we have not obtained that express request and acknowledgement, your 14-day right stands even if you have already listened. Buying the plan itself is a separate transaction and the 14 days run on it as normal until you start using the content it opens.

4. What you publish

You keep ownership of everything you create — recordings, guides, plans, photos, text. Nothing here transfers your copyright to us.

To run the service, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt in format, and display your content within Tellby, and to use excerpts of it to promote Tellby — for promotional use we ask you separately first, and you can say no without losing anything else. If you sell content, this extends to delivering it to the people who bought it. The licence ends when you remove the content, except that buyers keep access to what they paid for, and copies may remain in backups for a limited period.

We don't ask for exclusivity. You may publish the same material elsewhere.

Rules

Don't publish anything that:

• Isn't yours to publish, or infringes someone's copyright or trademark
• Identifies or targets a private individual without their consent
• Is unlawful, hateful, harassing, sexually explicit, or promotes violence
• Is deliberately false about a place, a person or a business
• Is spam, or exists to drive traffic somewhere else

Reporting, moderation and appeals

You can report content or a user from the report option in the app, or by emailing [email protected] with "Report" in the subject line. Tell us what the content is, where you found it, why you think it breaks the rules, and how to reach you. Reports can be made by anyone, whether or not they have an account.

• We confirm we've received your report within 3 business days, and tell you the outcome when we've decided.
• Decisions are made by a person, not by an automated system. We use automated checks only to flag obvious spam and abuse for that person to look at; nothing is removed automatically on that basis alone.
• Our measures are, in escalating order: a warning; making content non-public; removing content; suspending an account; and closing it. Which one we use depends on how serious and how repeated the problem is.
• If we act against something you posted, we tell you what we did and why, and how to challenge it — not only where we think it reasonable.
• You can appeal any decision — yours or one made on your report — by replying to us within 6 months. We look at it again and answer. This doesn't affect your right to go to a court or, in the EU, to an out-of-court dispute settlement body.
• We remove accounts for harassment, threats and fraud, and we suspend accounts that break these rules seriously or repeatedly.

Single contact point. For users and for authorities, in English or Korean: [email protected].

Copyright complaints

If something on Tellby infringes your copyright, email [email protected] with "Copyright" in the subject line, identifying the work, where it appears in Tellby, your contact details, a statement that you believe in good faith the use is unauthorised, and a statement that the information is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorised to act for them. We'll review it and remove infringing material. Accounts that repeatedly infringe are terminated.

If we removed your content and you think we were wrong, send a counter-notice to the same address identifying what was removed and where it was, stating under penalty of perjury that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake or misidentification, and giving your name, address, phone number and your consent to the jurisdiction of the courts where you live. We'll pass it to the complainant, and unless they tell us they've started a court action, we'll restore the content within 10 to 14 business days.

5. Using the app safely

Audio guides are meant to be listened to while walking. Pay attention to traffic and your surroundings. Don't use the app while driving or cycling. Locations, opening hours, walking directions and descriptions can be wrong or out of date — check before relying on them, particularly for anything involving safety, money or travel plans.

We are not responsible for your safety while you follow a guide.

Location-based services

Korea's Act on the Protection and Use of Location Information requires us to set the following out in these terms, and we do so for every user, wherever you are.

• Who we are: iai · Representative Changmyoung Kim · Business registration no. 213-08-81338 · Republic of Korea · [email protected].
• What the service does with location: works out which guide stop you have reached, plays it, records that it played so it isn't repeated, and shows you what is nearby.
• Your rights: you may agree to, refuse, or withdraw location use at any time in your phone's settings; ask to see or be notified of records of when your location was used; and ask us to correct or delete them. Refusing means guides need a tap to play — nothing else stops working.
• Records of use: we automatically keep a record of when location information was used or provided, because the Act requires it. We keep those records for 6 months and use them only to answer your enquiries and to resolve disputes.
• Third parties: we do not provide your location information to anyone else. If that ever changes, we will get your consent first and notify you each time.
• Under 14s in Korea: we do not process location information of a child under 14 without their legal guardian's consent.

6. AI-generated content

Much of the guide text on Tellby is written by artificial intelligence, and most of the narration is read by an AI voice. Both are generated from public sources, and the app labels them where that is the case. We try to keep it accurate, but it can contain errors. It is provided for interest, not as authoritative historical, legal, medical or safety information, and we do not hold ourselves out as having editorially reviewed each piece. Content published by other users is their own — we don't endorse or check it.

7. Our stuff

The app, the Tellby name and logo, the interface, and content we produce are ours or our licensors'. Don't copy, resell, reverse-engineer, scrape or bulk-download them. Don't try to break, overload or get around the security of the service.

8. Availability

We aim to keep Tellby running but make no promise of uninterrupted service. We may change, suspend or discontinue a feature where there is a good reason to — a technical, legal, security or business one — and not simply because we feel like it. Where a change would meaningfully reduce what you have already paid for, we tell you in the app before it takes effect and refund the paid time affected by it. If we discontinue the service entirely, we'll give reasonable notice and a way to recover the paid time you have not used. We don't currently have a self-service export tool; if you ask us before we shut down, we'll send you a copy of the guides, plans and recordings you made, by email, in a common file format.

9. Your responsibility to us

If someone brings a claim against us because of content you published or something you did that broke these terms, and you were at fault, you agree to cover our reasonable costs and damages arising from it. This covers ordinary, foreseeable loss only — not indirect or special loss — and it doesn't apply to the extent the claim is our fault or arises from something outside your control. It applies to consumers only as far as the law allows.

10. Liability

Tellby is provided "as is", without warranties beyond those the law requires. To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability for any claim is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before it arose.

Neither the exclusion nor the cap applies where we caused the loss intentionally or through gross negligence, or to loss we could foresee because we knew about your particular circumstances. Nothing here limits liability that cannot legally be limited — including death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or your statutory rights as a consumer.

11. Ending things

You can stop using Tellby and delete your account whenever you like. We may suspend or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms, or where we must for legal reasons. Sections 4 (licence to content already sold), 9, 10, 13 and 14 survive.

12. Changes and law

We may update these terms. We announce a change in the app at least 7 days before it takes effect, and at least 30 days before if it is unfavourable to you or changes something significant. That notice tells you what is changing, when, and that if you keep using Tellby after the date without objecting, you are taken to have accepted it. If you don't accept it, tell us or delete your account before that date; we won't apply the change to you retroactively.

If you are a consumer, the mandatory law of the country you live in applies to you, and you may bring proceedings in the courts where you live. Nothing in these terms takes that away.

Otherwise, these terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Korea, and the Seoul Central District Court is an available court of first instance. This is not an exclusive jurisdiction clause — it is in addition to any court that would ordinarily have jurisdiction, including the court where you live.

Part C · Meeting other people

13. Meetups, friends and community

Before you meet anyone:

• Meet in a public place, in daylight where you can.
• Tell someone you trust where you're going and who with.
• Arrange your own transport, and keep your phone charged.
• Don't send money to, or share financial details with, anyone you met here.
• Leave if you feel uncomfortable. You don't owe anyone an explanation.

Any meetup is between the people taking part. We're not a party to it, we don't organise or supervise it, and we take no responsibility for what happens. To the extent the law allows, you release Tellby from claims arising out of a meetup, and you accept the risks of meeting people you don't know.

This release runs between you and us only. It does not release the other people at a meetup — if someone there wrongs you, your claim against that person is unaffected, and nothing in these terms takes it away from you.

The release does not apply to consumers in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, and nowhere does it cover death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, our intent or gross negligence, or anything else that cannot legally be released. If you are in California, you waive California Civil Code §1542 as to claims against us, which reads: "A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release, and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party."

If you create a meetup you are responsible for what you organise. This release is not a substitute for your own judgement, and for anything beyond an ordinary social meeting you should make your own arrangements.

Report anyone who behaves badly from the report option in the app, or to [email protected]. We remove accounts for harassment, threats and fraud. §4 sets out how reports are handled and how to appeal.

14. Real-world tours

Some creators run paid tours you attend in person, booked and paid through Stripe. Unless the listing says otherwise, this is the policy:

Refunds are processed by hand, not automatically. Email [email protected] with the booking details. We reply within 3 business days and, where a refund is due under the table above, return the money to the card you paid with within 10 business days. Cancelling a booking in the app frees the seat but does not by itself move the money.

Where the law where the tour takes place gives you more than this table does, the law wins. For tours in Korea, the Fair Trade Commission's Criteria for the Resolution of Consumer Disputes apply, and they are more generous than the table above near the date — a partial refund is due even for a late cancellation or a no-show. We apply whichever is better for you.

Organisers must cancel promptly if they can't run a tour. Repeated cancellations or no-shows end the ability to run tours. The tour itself is between you and the organiser — we handle the booking and the payment, not the tour.

15. Contact

iai · Representative Changmyoung Kim · Business registration no. 213-08-81338
[email protected] · Republic of Korea
Single contact point for users and authorities, in English or Korean, at the same address.
Privacy Policy · Delete Your Account