Terms of Use

Last updated 2 November 2026

These terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Tell the Sky (“we”, “us”), which runs the Tell the Sky website at tellthesky.com, the app at beta.tellthesky.com and the Tell the Sky apps for iPhone and Android (together, “Tell the Sky”). By creating an account or using Tell the Sky you agree to them. Our Privacy policy explains what we do with your data, and is part of how Tell the Sky works.

Who can use Tell the Sky

• You must be 13 or older. When you sign up or sign in you confirm this by ticking “I’m 13 or older”. We do not ask for your age or date of birth.
• If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use Tell the Sky only with the permission of a parent or guardian, who agrees to these terms for you.
• You may not use Tell the Sky if we have closed your account before, or if the law where you live forbids it.

If we learn that someone under 13 has an account, we will delete it.

Your account

• Give us a real email address that you control. If you sign in with Google or Apple, the rules of that account apply too.
• Your display name signs every line you write. It must be 2 to 25 characters, follow the same rules as lines (below), and must not pretend to be someone else or be “a stranger”, which is the label we use for hidden and deleted writers.
• Keep your password and devices safe. You are responsible for what happens on your account. If you think someone else is using it, change your password and tell us.
• One person, one account. Don’t sell, share or transfer your account.

What you write

“Your content” means the messages you write on lanterns, blimps and bottles, the lines you add to vessels you catch, your display name and anything else you send through Tell the Sky.

You keep it

You own your content. We don’t claim it, and we never sell it.

The licence you give us

So that Tell the Sky can work, you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, copy, show, translate (when a reader taps Translate) and send your content to the people Tell the Sky shows it to, and to adapt it to fit the app’s screens and formats. This licence is only for running, keeping safe and improving Tell the Sky. We will not use your words in advertising.

Lanterns keep flying

A lantern is shared by everyone who writes on it. When you launch a lantern, or add a line to someone else’s, your words become part of that lantern’s chain: the sender and everyone who catches it, now and later, can read them. Because of that, the licence above lasts for as long as the lantern exists, even after you delete your account. When you do, your name comes off your lines and they are signed “a stranger” (see the Privacy policy). Please don’t write anything you would want removed with your account.

Other people’s words

Lines you read on a lantern belong to the people who wrote them. Words on Tell the Sky are for catchers: you may read them, translate them and reply with a line of your own, but please don’t publish someone else’s lines elsewhere in a way that identifies, mocks or harms them.

Signing as a stranger

You can sign a line “a stranger”. That hides your name from other people, not from us: reports, blocks and these terms still apply to every line you write.

You are responsible for it

You confirm that you have the right to post your content, and that it follows these terms and the law.

Rules for the sky

Tell the Sky only works if it feels safe to write to a stranger. When you use it, you must not:

• Target a person or a place. Don’t use a lantern, a bottle, a blimp’s course, journey stops, the map or any other feature to find, follow, watch or point at a particular person, or to lead anyone to a home, school, workplace or other address. Don’t try to work out where another user is.
• Share personal details. Don’t write anyone’s address, phone number, email address, social media handle, full name (unless it is your own and you choose to) or other details that could identify or locate a private person.
• Harass, bully or threaten. No abuse, intimidation, stalking, hate based on who someone is, threats of violence, or encouraging anyone to hurt themselves or others.
• Post sexual content involving minors, ever. We report it to the authorities. No sexually explicit content of any kind.
• Break the law or help anyone else to: illegal content, fraud, scams, selling illegal goods, or infringing someone else’s copyright, trademark, privacy or other rights.
• Pretend to be someone else, including Tell the Sky, its moderators or another user.
• Spam or advertise, or send links to malware, phishing or scams.
• Cheat or abuse the service: fake your location, use more than one account or automation to farm catches or work the catch lottery, scrape Tell the Sky, get around a block, a hidden lantern or a ban, or try to break, overload or get into parts of Tell the Sky you are not meant to.

If someone is in danger, contact your local emergency services first. Tell the Sky is not an emergency service and we can’t locate people.

Reports, moderation and removal

• Every line and every lantern can be reported, and every writer blocked. Use them when something breaks these terms or upsets you.
• Lines are not filtered automatically before they fly. Reports go to our moderators. Until they review it, a line or lantern is hidden once three different people report it, and a line on your own lantern is hidden as soon as you report it.
• Our moderators may let reported content stay, hide it, or remove it for good, which wipes a line’s words or ends a lantern. They may also hide or remove content nobody reported if it breaks these terms or the law.
• We don’t check everything people write and we are not responsible for what other users write, but we act on reports. If you think we got a decision wrong, email us and we will look again.

Ending your account

You can leave at any time

Open Settings, choose Delete my account under “Your account” and type DELETE to confirm. It takes effect straight away and cannot be undone. What is deleted and what stays (your lanterns and lines, without your name) is set out in the Privacy policy. If you can’t sign in, email [email protected] from the address on your account.

We can suspend or close accounts

We may suspend or close your account, or limit what you can do, if you break these terms, if the law requires it, or to protect other people or Tell the Sky. Where it is safe and lawful to, we will tell you why. If we close Tell the Sky altogether we will give reasonable notice in the app first.

The parts of these terms that by their nature should last after your account ends (the licence for lanterns that keep flying, the disclaimers, the limit on liability and the governing law) still apply after it ends.

The service

• Tell the Sky is free. We may change, add or remove features, and parts of it may be in testing.
• Lanterns ride real wind and bottles real ocean currents, taken from public weather and ocean forecasts that can be wrong or late. We can’t promise where a lantern, blimp or bottle goes, how long it flies, that anyone catches it, or that a catcher adds a line.
• Translations are made by a machine and can be wrong.
• Map data comes from OpenStreetMap contributors and place names from GeoNames. They have their own terms, and we don’t promise they are complete or correct.

Disclaimers

Tell the Sky is provided “as is” and “as available”. As far as the law allows, we make no promises about it beyond those in these terms: we don’t promise that it will always be available, secure or free of errors, or that content on it is accurate, and we disclaim implied warranties such as merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Content written by other users is theirs, not ours, and we don’t endorse it.

Limitation of liability

As far as the law allows, Tell the Sky and the people who run it are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost data, profits or goodwill, arising from your use of, or inability to use, Tell the Sky or from anything other users write or do. Our total liability for any claim about Tell the Sky is limited to the greater of the amount you have paid us in the 12 months before the claim (Tell the Sky is free, so normally nothing) and 50 US dollars.

Some places don’t allow these limits. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law says can’t be limited, such as for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud, or takes away rights you have as a consumer where you live.

Governing law

To be confirmed: the law that governs these terms and the courts where disputes are heard. Until then, this section is a placeholder.

If you live in the EU or the UK, you can also bring a claim in the courts where you live, and the consumer protection rules of your country still apply to you.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as Tell the Sky changes. We will change the date at the top of this page and, if a change is significant, tell you in the app before it applies. If you keep using Tell the Sky after a change applies, you accept the new terms. If you don’t agree, you can delete your account.

If any part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don’t enforce a part straight away, we haven’t given up the right to.

Contact

Questions about these terms, or something to report that the app can’t: [email protected].