Terms of Service
These pages explain the rules for using Elsewhere : Each Story, together with its support site and related services (collectively, the "Service"). The Service is provided by DAIJIN TECH (M) SDN. BHD. ("we," "us," or "our"). Opening the app or holding an account means you have read and agreed to what follows; anyone who does not agree should not use the Service.
1. Eligibility and territory
The Service is built for adults. You need to be 18 or older, and old enough under the law that applies to you, to form a binding agreement before creating an account. Nobody under 18 may register or use any part of the Service. You also promise that the details you give us are true and kept current.
The Service is offered to people located in the United States. If you are outside the United States, you are not the intended audience; choosing to access the Service anyway is your own decision, and you remain responsible for obeying these Terms and the law where you are.
2. The storytelling experience
Inside the Service you can step into imagined lives, write and read illustrated stories, arrange a bookshelf, and exchange story-related messages with fictional characters. Every character and plot is invented: none of it depicts a real person, a real event, or a forecast of what will happen to you.
The Service exists for entertainment and creative play. Any meaning you take from a story, and any choice you make away from the app because of it, is yours to own.
3. Accounts and access
Everything done through your account is your responsibility, including actions you have allowed someone else to take. Choose a sign-in method you can trust, do not hand access to another person, and let us know promptly if an account appears to have been used without permission.
Which sign-in methods and features you see can depend on your device, where you are, and the options you select. Where you use Sign in with Apple or another third-party sign-in, that provider's own terms govern its part of the relationship.
4. Your content and sharing choices
Titles, drafts, artwork, recordings, and anything else you bring into the Service remain yours ("Your Content"). Only submit material you created or have the rights to use, and never share another person's private details or voice without the consent that situation requires.
So that the features you select can actually work, you allow us to handle, keep, copy, show, and send Your Content to the degree needed to run those features, follow your sharing instructions, answer safety or support questions, and meet legal duties. Nothing in this permission transfers ownership to us.
Beginning a conversation does not expose your whole bookshelf. Look at what you are sending and to whom before you confirm; copies you export or pass along may stay with a recipient or another service even after the original is gone.
5. Acceptable use
When using the Service, you will not:
- produce or forward material that is illegal, threatening, aimed at harassing someone, hateful, exploitative, or in breach of another person's rights;
- create sexual material involving minors, share intimate images without consent, or take part in any other form of abusive content;
- pretend to be someone else, mislead members, run a fraud, or reveal confidential information that is not yours to share;
- upload malicious software, probe or attack the Service, gain access you were not granted, bypass safety measures, or run automation that disrupts other users;
- duplicate, redistribute, or sell anything from the app without authorization, except where these Terms or the law permit it.
6. Reports, blocking, and enforcement
The Report and Block controls in the app, or a message to elsewhereiosfeedback@elsewhereliv.com, can be used to flag a problem. Please name the story or character involved and describe what happened so the report can be assessed.
Where a concern is substantiated, we may limit content, take material down, or suspend an account when that is a reasonable step to fix a violation, protect members, satisfy the law, or keep the Service running. We will normally tell you about action taken, unless giving notice would create a safety or legal problem. If you think a restriction was mistaken, contact support and explain.
7. App materials and limited permission
The software, branding, illustrations, and sample stories supplied through the Service belong to us or our licensors, apart from Your Content and anything credited to a different owner. In exchange for complying with these Terms, you receive a personal, non-commercial right to access and use the Service under the applicable app license.
Do not remove ownership markings or present another author's work as your own. Any restriction here is subject to rights the law will not let you waive, and to any open-source license that applies.
8. Price, devices, and connectivity
Downloading the Service itself costs nothing. Your phone carrier or internet provider may still bill you for the data used, and you are responsible for having a compatible device and a working connection where a feature needs one. Parts of the Service are paid, either through a subscription or with virtual coins; the cost and what it covers are displayed before you confirm, and Sections 9 and 10 set out the detail.
9. Paid features, subscriptions, and auto-renewal
One of the plans available may be an auto-renewing subscription called Elsewhere Plus. Each plan's name, length, and per-period price appear on the purchase screen before you decide, and the plan you choose is the one that applies to you.
When you confirm, the charge is made to your Apple ID. Renewal happens automatically unless the auto-renew setting is switched off no later than 24 hours before the period runs out. The renewal charge is made in the final 24 hours of the period, at the price of the plan you are on, subject to the price-change rules below.
After purchase, your Apple ID account settings are where subscriptions are managed and auto-renew is turned off. Turning renewal off prevents future charges; it does not cut short the period already paid for, which remains usable until its end.
Where a free trial or promotion is offered, the rules for qualifying and the date paid billing starts are shown up front. The unused part of a trial is lost if you take a paid subscription while it is running, where that is how the offer works; to avoid being charged, cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends.
What a subscription includes — content access, message or profile allowances, daily grants, and similar benefits — is described inside the Service and may evolve over time. Those benefits belong to the account and have no cash value.
Plan prices can change. When a change requires agreement, Apple will present the notice and obtain your consent before the new price applies to a renewal; if you would rather not accept, you can cancel before that renewal.
After reinstalling the app or moving to a new device, Restore Purchases (in the app or in your Apple ID purchase history) brings back an active subscription, following Apple's rules and the account you are signed into.
Subscriptions are tied to one account, cannot be transferred, and may not be shared, resold, or combined with another account, except where the law requires otherwise. If a plan is ever sold through a channel other than the Apple App Store, the purchase terms shown there apply as well.
10. Virtual coins and virtual items
Virtual coins and other virtual items may be offered inside the Service and spent to open features such as messages, stories, profile views, calls, or other interactions.
They represent a limited, revocable, personal right to use features. They are not currency or property, do not accrue interest, and cannot be treated as holding a cash value.
Coins are bought through Apple in-app purchases and added once the transaction is verified. Coins granted as a bonus or through a promotion follow the rules attached to that offer.
Coins and items cannot be moved between accounts. Selling, gifting, swapping, or trading them outside the Service, or trying to redeem them for real money or anything of value, is not permitted.
While an account stays active, its coins do not expire, except where the law requires otherwise or where a promotional balance carries its own stated terms. Daily grants and coins included with a subscription are benefits and may change or end when the subscription or promotion does.
Coin and item purchases are final and cannot be refunded, except where the law or Apple's refund policies require it. Coins already spent on a feature are not returnable simply because you later gave up that feature.
If an account is deleted, or closed by us because of a breach, any coins or items left on it are lost and no money is owed back, subject to what the law requires.
Balances can be corrected, transactions reversed, or accounts suspended where we reasonably believe an error, fraud, abuse, chargeback, or breach lies behind them.
Coin prices, the features coins open, and item availability may change. Changes look forward and do not touch coins already bought, except as stated here or required by law.
Subscriptions and coins are separate things. A subscription does not come with unlimited coins, and buying coins does not start a subscription; any coins or allowances bundled with an offer are described with that offer.
11. Apple App Store, EULA, billing, and refunds
Your license to the iOS app is also governed by Apple's usage rules and the Apple Standard End User License Agreement (the "Apple EULA"), which is folded into these Terms by reference for the app license. These Terms govern the Service itself and do not replace that license; if the two ever disagree about the app license, the Apple EULA takes precedence within the area of conflict.
Apple does not run the Service and is not a party to these Terms. Apple is a third-party beneficiary of the Apple EULA and may enforce it, and Apple has no duty to maintain or support the Service.
Anything bought through the App Store is billed by Apple and sits under Apple's payment and refund terms. We cannot refund an Apple purchase ourselves; Apple's refund process is the route to request one, and Apple makes the decision. We will still help with purchase problems where we reasonably can.
Should the app fail to match a warranty that applies, you can tell Apple and, under the Apple EULA, Apple may return the purchase price if there was one. Beyond that, and to the degree the law allows, Apple carries no other warranty duty for the app. Claims about the Service — product liability, legal compliance, and intellectual-property claims included — are ours to handle, to the extent the Apple EULA requires.
You promise you are not in a country under U.S. government embargo, or treated by the U.S. government as a country supporting terrorism, and that no U.S. government list of barred or restricted parties includes you.
Billing, subscription, and refund questions go to Apple Support. Questions about features, stories, or your account can come to us using the details in Section 18.
12. Privacy and permissions
The Privacy Policy describes how information is handled and the choices available to you. Some features ask for optional access, which may include the microphone, camera, selected photos, or location; iOS Settings is where any of these can be reviewed or withdrawn, and saying no may limit the feature that relied on it.
Payment and purchase details are handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy. What reaches us is limited to the information needed to confirm a purchase, apply coins or a subscription, guard against fraud, and answer support questions.
13. Backups and account deletion
Supported content can be exported or restored from the backup area of the app. Before confirming a restore, check what will be imported, since it can replace what is already there, and keep any exported copies somewhere safe.
You can walk away from the Service at any point. Account deletion is started from within the app while signed in, by following the delete-account confirmation steps; save anything you want first. The Privacy Policy explains what happens to information afterward and what choices remain, and support can help if the process is unclear.
Deleting an account does not switch off an Apple subscription; that has to be done separately in Apple ID settings. Coins and items left on the account follow Section 10.
Clauses about ownership, permitted use of copies that remain, liability, and anything else meant by nature to continue will survive the end of your use.
14. Availability and changes
Features may be updated or adjusted for maintenance, security, legal compliance, or improvement. Uninterrupted access cannot be promised, and no feature is guaranteed to stay available forever. Where a change materially affects your rights or access, notice will be given as the law requires.
Paid features or offerings may be modified, paused, or withdrawn. If a paid subscription product is discontinued, the notices required by law and by the App Store will be provided, and nothing here narrows any refund or remedy available to you under the law or Apple's policies.
15. Disclaimers and responsibility
Where the law allows, the Service is delivered "as available," without a promise that it will always be uninterrupted, free of faults, or fit for any particular purpose. This does not remove a warranty, remedy, or consumer right that cannot lawfully be given up.
Where the law allows, we are not answerable for indirect or consequential loss flowing from your use of the Service. Nothing in these Terms removes or caps responsibility for fraud, wilful misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
16. Governing law, arbitration, and class action waiver
16.1 Talk first. If something is wrong, contact support before filing anything; we will try to resolve it, and aim to do so within 30 days. The majority of concerns are settled at this stage.
16.2 Governing law. These Terms, and any dispute touching the Service or these Terms, are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without applying its conflict-of-law rules and without the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. A mandatory consumer-protection law in your state or country that gives you greater protection still applies and cannot be taken away.
16.3 Binding arbitration. A dispute not settled informally or in small claims court goes to binding, individual arbitration run by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, in front of one arbitrator. Hearings sit in Wilmington, Delaware, or take place by phone or video where the rules allow. To the degree the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules require, the filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees are paid by us. The arbitrator's decision is final and binding, and a court with jurisdiction can enter judgment on it.
16.4 Small claims. Either side may bring an individual claim in small claims court in Delaware or in the state where you live, if that court has jurisdiction.
16.5 Class and jury waiver. To the fullest extent the law permits, claims between us can only be brought individually, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, consolidated, or representative proceeding, and both sides give up the right to a jury. Class-wide arbitration is not available. If a court or arbitrator finds this 16.5 unenforceable for a given dispute, the arbitration agreement in 16.3 no longer applies to that dispute and it proceeds in court.
16.6 Opt-out. You may step outside 16.3 and 16.5 within 30 days of first agreeing to these Terms by emailing the address in Section 18 with your name and account details. The rest of the Terms remain unaffected.
16.7 Rights you keep. Nothing in this section removes a protection you cannot waive, stops you from speaking to a regulator, or blocks a court route where the law preserves it. If any clause is held unenforceable, the others continue to apply as far as possible.
17. Updates to these Terms
The Terms may be revised as the Service and the rules around it change. The effective date on this page will be updated, and material changes will be noticed as required; where fresh consent is needed, it will be requested before the change takes effect.
18. Contact
DAIJIN TECH (M) SDN. BHD.
Elsewhere support: elsewhereiosfeedback@elsewhereliv.com
Related pages: Privacy Policy.