Legal
Terms of Service
Effective date: 28 June 2026 · Operator: Sam Lewis · sam@getlifer.app
These Terms govern your access to and use of the Lifer mobile application, the Lifer website at getlifer.app, and all related services. By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms.
1. Eligibility
You must be at least 13 years old to use Lifer. In EEA member states where the minimum age is 16, you must be at least 16 or have verifiable parental consent. By creating an account, you confirm you meet the applicable age requirement.
We reserve the right to terminate accounts found to belong to users below the applicable minimum age.
2. Your account
You are responsible for keeping your credentials secure and for all activity under your account. Contact sam@getlifer.app immediately if you suspect unauthorised access.
- Do not create more than one account without our explicit permission.
- Do not transfer your account to another person.
- Do not use another user's account without their permission.
3. Acceptable use
You agree to use Lifer only for lawful purposes and in a way that does not harm other users or the integrity of the Service.
You must not:
- Submit catches or records you know to be false or fabricated with intent to deceive.
- Upload content (photos, audio, text) that is unlawful, abusive, harassing, threatening, sexually explicit, hateful, or that you do not have the right to share.
- Impersonate another person or misrepresent your identity.
- Use bots or automated tools to interact with the Service without our written permission.
- Attempt to reverse-engineer the on-device audio model, Lifer AI prompts, service limits, or proprietary scoring logic.
- Interfere with or disrupt the Service or its infrastructure.
- Exploit bugs or scoring edge cases to manipulate leaderboards or rarity outcomes.
- Abuse Camera Catch, Cloud Vault, alerts, social features, or rate limits in a way that harms the Service or other users.
- Use the Service to harvest other users' data or contact information.
Violations may result in content removal, account suspension, or permanent termination.
4. Bird catches and the detection system
Detection results, Lifer AI responses, rarity tier assignments, and point values are algorithmic approximations, not guarantees of ornithological accuracy.
Audio Catch
Audio Catch uses an on-device model and can work offline after the required model setup. Audio detection results are still approximate and should be treated as suggestions.
Camera Catch
Camera Catch is an online Pro feature. It sends a photo captured in the app, or an optional user-selected library photo, to Lifer's backend and OpenAI so Lifer AI can suggest a bird species and photo quality score. You must review the result before adding a camera catch to your collection or adding a library photo result as a Life List-only record. Library-photo records do not create a Lifer catch and do not affect points, streaks, challenges, rankings, maps, or social posts. Camera Catch availability, upload limits, and provider behaviour may change over time.
Manual catches
You may log sightings manually. Manual catches are marked as such, excluded from public leaderboards, and cannot be submitted for public-visibility review.
Catch visibility and appeals
Catches are private by default. Rare and legendary catches that meet quality thresholds may become eligible for public leaderboards and profiles. You may submit a catch visibility appeal for catches not automatically approved. Appeals are reviewed by Lifer staff.
Rarity tiers and points
Rarity tiers and point values are determined algorithmically and may vary by supported region. We reserve the right to update species rarities, the scoring algorithm, regional species packs, or point values at any time. Changes may affect the displayed rarity or points of existing catches.
5. User-generated content
Your licence to us
You retain ownership of content you upload. By submitting content to Lifer, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to host, store, display, reproduce, resize, crop, process, moderate, back up, and distribute that content solely for the purpose of operating, protecting, and improving the Service. This includes showing your content in your Aviary, catch records, Bird Walks, profile, social feed, maps, public/shared pages, moderation tools, backups, and related app features according to your privacy and sharing settings.
This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except where we are required or reasonably need to retain limited copies for legal, security, audit, backup, dispute, or abuse-prevention purposes.
Your warranties
By uploading content, you confirm that you own it or have all necessary rights, permissions, and consents to share it in Lifer, and that it does not infringe any third party's copyright, privacy, publicity, database, moral, or other rights. You must not upload photos, audio, text, or other material copied from another person, website, app, social media post, image library, field guide, or publication unless you have permission or another lawful basis to do so.
Custom Aviary card photos
Custom species card photos submitted for public display are subject to automated moderation by OpenAI before approval. Photos containing inappropriate content, or that are not bird-relevant, will be rejected or held for manual review. Photos submitted for private Aviary use only are not sent to OpenAI.
You may report another user's publicly visible Aviary card photo if you believe it violates these Terms (for example, copyright infringement or inappropriate content).
Catch photos, audio clips, and Cloud Vault
Private catch audio, private catch photos, and private species/card photos may be backed up through Cloud Vault if you use that feature. New private Cloud Vault media is encrypted before storage. Public or social-shared catch photos are separate public/shared copies and are not treated as private Cloud Vault media.
Comments and social content
Comments, reactions, milestone posts, social feed activity, and Discover activity must comply with Section 3. You may report comments you believe are abusive, harassing, or otherwise in violation of these Terms. Reported content is reviewed by Lifer staff.
Copyright and rights complaints
If you believe content in Lifer infringes your copyright or other rights, please email sam@getlifer.app with enough information for us to review it, including:
- Your name and contact details.
- A description of the work or rights you believe are being infringed.
- A link, screenshot, username, species, catch, Bird Walk, or other details that help us locate the content in Lifer.
- A brief explanation of why you believe the use is unauthorised.
- A statement that the information you provide is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorised to act for them.
We may remove or disable access to content while we review a complaint. We may also ask the uploader for information about their rights to use the content. If we determine that content is infringing, unlawful, or otherwise violates these Terms, we may remove it and take action against the account that uploaded it.
Users who repeatedly upload infringing content, or who misuse the reporting process, may have their content removed, upload access restricted, account suspended, or account terminated.
6. Pro subscription
What Pro includes
A Lifer Pro subscription currently unlocks:
- Camera Catch with Lifer AI species ID and photo quality scoring.
- UK and Europe species guide support, including regional image packs where available.
- Cloud Vault backup for private catch audio, private catch photos, and private species/card photos.
- Complete Catch Map beyond the free last 24 hours view, including extended history, date ranges, filters, imported records, Bird Walks, and premium map layers.
- Additional Bird Alerts.
- Offline Bird Walk tools.
- Custom card photos.
- Premium card finishes.
- Expanded profile showcase features.
- Full rankings and competitive features.
- Ad-free social feed where applicable.
- Year in Birds archive access.
The specific features, quotas, and limits included in Pro may change over time. We will not remove core Pro features without notice.
Billing and renewal
Pro is available as a monthly or annual subscription. Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current billing period. Payment is charged to your Apple or Google account at purchase confirmation and at the start of each renewal period.
Free trial
We may offer a free trial (currently 7 days) to eligible new subscribers. Eligibility is determined by Apple or Google, and a trial is generally available only once per account. Unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends, it automatically converts to a paid Lifer Pro subscription and your Apple or Google account is charged the then-current price for the plan you selected. You can cancel at any time during the trial through your App Store or Google Play subscription settings, which stops it converting to a paid subscription. If you start a paid subscription, any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited. Trial length and availability may vary by platform, region, or promotion.
Cancellation
Cancel at any time through your Apple App Store or Google Play subscription settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period. Cancellation does not entitle you to a pro-rata refund for unused time.
Refunds
Refund requests are handled by Apple or Google under their respective policies. We do not process refunds directly.
Grace period
If a renewal payment fails, you may enter a short grace period during which Pro access is retained while payment is retried. Access is revoked if payment cannot be collected.
7. Imports from external services
You can import sighting records from eBird, Birda, BirdTrack, and iNaturalist. By importing records, you confirm you have the right to use that data in Lifer. We are not affiliated with any of these services. Imported records are archive catches and do not carry detection-based quality scores.
8. Content moderation and enforcement
We reserve the right to remove content that violates these Terms without prior notice. We reserve the right to suspend or permanently terminate accounts that:
- Repeatedly violate these Terms.
- Engage in fraud or manipulation of the scoring or leaderboard systems.
- Belong to users below the minimum age requirement.
- Are used for harassment or other conduct harmful to the community.
We will generally provide a warning for first-time, non-severe violations, but are not obligated to do so.
9. Intellectual property
The Lifer name, logo, app design, card artwork, Lifer AI prompts, scoring algorithms, and other proprietary elements of the Service are owned by or licensed to us. The on-device audio detection model and certain supporting components are third-party technologies used under their respective licences; Lifer does not claim ownership of those third-party models. These Terms do not grant you any rights to use Lifer's proprietary elements beyond what is necessary to use the Service for its intended purpose.
© 2026 Sam Lewis trading as Lifer. All rights reserved.
10. Disclaimer of warranties
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, that detection results will be accurate, or that your content will not be lost due to technical failure.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
11. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Lifer's total liability to you for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim.
We are not liable for loss of catches or content due to technical failure, inaccurate detection results, losses from account suspension in accordance with these Terms, or any indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages.
Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law (including liability for fraud, death, or personal injury caused by negligence).
12. Changes to the Service
We may update, modify, or discontinue features at any time. We will give reasonable notice of material changes that negatively affect existing functionality, where practicable.
13. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. We will update the effective date at the top and provide notice through the app or by email for material changes. Continued use of the Service after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.
14. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Disputes that cannot be resolved informally are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, unless mandatory consumer protection laws in your country of residence give you the right to bring proceedings elsewhere.
If you are a consumer in the EEA, you may also use the EU Online Dispute Resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.
15. Contact
For questions about these Terms, enforcement actions, or appeals:
We aim to acknowledge all enquiries within 5 business days.