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Thought Vault

Legal

Terms of use

The agreement between you and us when you use Thought Vault.

Last updated: November 12, 2026.

These terms are an agreement between you and Appvanta Labs LLC ("we", "us" or "our") about using Thought Vault: the app for iPhone and Android, and the web page people use to open the stories you send them. By creating an account or using Thought Vault, you agree to these terms. Please also read our privacy policy, which explains what we do with your information.

1. What Thought Vault is

Thought Vault asks you one small question a day and helps you answer it by voice, video, writing, photos or a song. It keeps your answers as stories, and sends them to the people you choose, now or later, including after you've died.

2. Your account

  • You must be at least 18, or the age of majority where you live, to create an account.
  • Keep your sign-in safe. You're responsible for what happens in your account. Tell us at support@appvantalabs.com if you think someone else has used it.
  • Give us accurate details, such as the email addresses of the people you share with.

3. Vaults and family helpers

  • A vault holds one person's stories. The person whose stories they are is the vault's owner.
  • Setting a vault up for someone. A family member can set up a vault for someone they love and hand it over on that person's phone. Once it's handed over, the vault and its stories belong to its owner.
  • Family helpers can do only what the owner allows, such as changing the question time or adding the people stories go to. They can never see a story kept private forever, or its title, and they can bring back a deleted story but never delete one. The owner can change or end a helper's access at any time.

4. Your stories belong to you

  • You keep every right you have in what you record, write and upload.
  • You give us permission to store, copy, back up, transcribe and process your stories, and to show and send them to the people you choose, when you choose, only so we can run Thought Vault for you. This permission is worldwide and free of charge. It ends when you delete a story or your account, except for already-delivered copies the people you shared with may have downloaded, and backup copies that expire as our privacy policy describes.
  • We don't use your stories for advertising, and we don't use them to train AI.
  • Recording other people. Thought Vault is made for recording yourself. If you record anyone else, such as a conversation or a phone call, ask them first. Some US states require everyone being recorded to agree, and you're responsible for following the law where you and they are.
  • Only record and upload what you have the right to. Don't upload other people's recordings, music, photos or private information unless you're allowed to. Songs are added as a link to Apple Music, not as a copy of the music.

5. Sending stories

  • Scheduled stories go out as you set them up, including if your subscription ends and after your death. You can change or cancel a schedule at any time while you can use the app.
  • The people you share with open stories from a private link in an email and don't need an account.
  • Links and printed codes work like keys. Anyone who has a story's link before it's first opened, or a code printed in your book, can open what it leads to, unless they also need the Code PIN. You choose who gets your stories, and you're responsible for that choice. Ask your people not to forward their emails or share their codes.
  • The Code PIN is optional. You can set a PIN in Me that people must type before a printed code, or a shared story on a new device, will open. It makes casual access harder, but it isn't a guarantee: anyone who has both the code and the PIN can open what it protects. Our share emails include the PIN so your people can open their stories.
  • Once a story leaves your vault, it's out of our hands. Someone you share with can download, copy, record, print or pass on a story, and we can't take it back or control what they do with it.
  • You can stop sharing with someone at any time. Stories they already received or downloaded may stay with them.
  • Stories kept private forever are never shared, released or shown to family helpers, including after your death.
  • We work hard to deliver every story on time, but email can be delayed, filtered as spam or bounce, and we can't promise any particular delivery will arrive.

6. Subscription

  • A subscription belongs to a vault. Whoever sets up the vault pays for it: the owner, or the family member who set it up for them, who keeps paying after the handoff. If a subscription ends, the owner can renew it. Invited family helpers are never asked to pay. Paying for a vault doesn't give the payer any access to its stories.
  • Your first story is free. After that, recording and scheduling new stories needs a subscription, yearly or monthly. There is no free trial: you're charged when you subscribe.
  • Payment through the stores. You subscribe through the App Store or Google Play, and their terms apply to payment, renewal, cancellation and refunds. The price is shown in the app before you buy.
  • It renews automatically at the end of each year or month, depending on your plan, until you cancel in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings at least 24 hours before the period ends. Deleting the app doesn't cancel the subscription.
  • Refunds are handled by Apple or Google under their policies. We can't issue refunds for App Store purchases.
  • Price changes. If the price changes, the store will tell you before it applies, and you can cancel before it takes effect.
  • If the subscription ends, nothing is deleted. You can still open the app, read, watch and listen to your stories and download them, and scheduled stories still go out. You can't add new stories or schedule new ones until the subscription is renewed.

7. Using Thought Vault fairly

Don't use Thought Vault to:

  • break the law, or infringe anyone's rights, including their copyright or privacy;
  • harass, threaten, impersonate or deceive anyone;
  • share content that sexually exploits or endangers children, or any content that's illegal;
  • send spam, or send stories to people who've asked not to get them;
  • try to get into accounts, vaults or systems that aren't yours, or interfere with how Thought Vault works, including by copying, reverse engineering or overloading it, except where the law allows.

If an account breaks these rules, we may limit or suspend it. We'll tell you why unless the law or someone's safety stops us, and you can write to support@appvantalabs.com if you think we got it wrong.

8. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app at any time (Me, then Delete my account). Nothing is deleted for 30 days, and you can change your mind until then. Our privacy policy explains exactly what's deleted. If you'd like a copy of your stories, download them first (Me, then Download my stories). Deleting your account doesn't cancel a store subscription; cancel it in your store settings.

9. Our service

  • We may change Thought Vault, adding, improving or removing features. If a change takes away something important you pay for, we'll tell you first.
  • If we ever have to stop offering Thought Vault, we'll give you at least 90 days' notice and a way to download all your stories.
  • Thought Vault and its content, apart from your stories, belong to us and our licensors. We give you a personal, non-transferable right to use the app while these terms apply.
  • Other services. Thought Vault links to and relies on services we don't control, such as Apple Music, and their own terms apply to them.

10. Disclaimers

We work hard to keep your stories safe, with encrypted storage and backups in two places. But no service is perfect. To the fullest extent the law allows, Thought Vault is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We don't promise that Thought Vault will always be available, free of errors, or that no story will ever be lost. Keep your own copy of anything you couldn't bear to lose.

11. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we aren't liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost data, profits or goodwill, arising from your use of Thought Vault. We also aren't responsible for what anyone does with a story after you share it, print it or give out its link, code or PIN, including if it reaches people you didn't intend. Our total liability for any claim about Thought Vault is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for Thought Vault in the 12 months before the claim and 50 US dollars. Some places don't allow these limits, so they may not all apply to you, and nothing in these terms limits rights you have under consumer law that can't be waived.

12. Your responsibility to us

If you break these terms or the law, or infringe someone's rights through what you upload or send, and that leads to a claim against us, you agree to cover our reasonable losses and costs from that claim, to the extent the law allows.

13. Ending this agreement

You can stop using Thought Vault and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or end your access if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, or if the law requires it. Sections 4 (for already-delivered stories), 10, 11, 12 and 14 keep applying after this agreement ends.

14. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Utah, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. If you have a problem, please write to legal@appvantalabs.com first, and we'll try to sort it out together within 30 days. If we can't, either of us may bring a claim in the state or federal courts located in the State of Utah, or in small claims court where you live if your claim qualifies. If you live outside the United States, you may also have the right to bring a claim in your own country's courts.

15. Apple App Store

If you downloaded Thought Vault from Apple's App Store:

  • These terms are between you and us, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for Thought Vault and its content.
  • Your right to use the app is limited to Apple-branded devices you own or control, as the App Store's Usage Rules allow.
  • Apple has no duty to provide maintenance or support for the app.
  • If the app fails to meet a warranty that applies, you may tell Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any. To the extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty duty for the app.
  • We, not Apple, are responsible for handling any claims about the app, including product liability claims, claims that it fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, consumer protection claims, and claims that it infringes someone's intellectual property.
  • You confirm that you aren't located in a country subject to a US government embargo, and aren't on a US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
  • You must also follow any third-party terms that apply when you use the app, such as your wireless data service agreement.
  • Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.

16. General

These terms, with our privacy policy, are the whole agreement between you and us about Thought Vault. If part of them can't be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a part right away, we haven't given up the right to. You can't transfer this agreement to anyone else; we may transfer it if the company changes hands, and we'll tell you if we do.

17. Changes to these terms

If we change these terms in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app or by email before the change takes effect, and update the date at the top. If you don't agree, you can stop using Thought Vault and delete your account.

18. Contact us

Appvanta Labs LLC. Legal questions: legal@appvantalabs.com. Help with the app: support@appvantalabs.com.