Relay Terms of Use

1. The service

Relay is a proprietary photo and messaging app for friends, operated by Tobias Schmidt Services LLC (TSS), a California company. It is TSS's private platform. We can change, limit, suspend, or shut down any part of it at any time, at our discretion, cap how many people can join, restrict it by country, device or app version, require an update, and deny or end anyone's access for any reason. Features labeled beta or experimental can change or disappear without notice.

2. Who can use it

You must be at least 13. If you are between 13 and 18 (or the age of majority where you live), you may only use Relay with a parent or guardian who agrees to these terms for you and for themselves. You may not use Relay if you were removed from it before, if you are required to register as a sex offender, or if you are in a country under a U.S. embargo or on a U.S. restricted parties list. One account per person, no account for anyone else, and no new account to dodge a suspension, ban, block or restriction.

Your birthday counts. Enter your real one. If the birthday you enter at sign-up makes you 19 or older, that entry is final and the app will not let you go back and change it. Relay keeps a record of every birthday entered on a device, including across reinstalls, and may use your iPhone's or App Store's age signals, Contact verification, automated age estimates and your connections to decide which age band applies to your account, even if it differs from what you entered.

Your login. Relay runs its own sign-in. Your username, password and account record are stored in our cloud database without hashing, and the database is read and written directly by the app. Starting with Relay 1.26.9 the app may encrypt your password and the text of your messages before storing them, with a key TSS controls and that is also inside the app. That keeps stored records from being casually read, but it is not hashing or end-to-end encryption, TSS can decrypt them (for example to help you get back into your account), and a determined person could too. Older records may stay unencrypted. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest by our hosting providers, but nothing on Relay is end-to-end encrypted, and TSS, its providers and automated systems acting for TSS can access your credentials and data. You accept that design. Use a password you use nowhere else, turn on two step verification, and tell us at help@relayyyy.com if something looks wrong. This does not change any breach notice the law requires us to give you.

Accounts run by TSS. Some accounts are operated by or for TSS: @relay, team accounts, AI characters, safety and test accounts, and accounts that republish what creators have made public elsewhere. They can post, send friend requests and message you, and they may look like ordinary accounts. Anything you send them reaches TSS.

3. TSS's authority and your safety

Relay is ours to run. At any time, for any reason, with or without notice, we can remove, hide, blur or label content, suspend or end accounts, revoke any feature, check, streak or perk, limit anyone's reach, and put Relay into maintenance or take it offline. The app follows control signals from TSS, including ones that halt it, require an update, sign out sessions, or deliver new versions of these terms.

Safety containment. To protect people on Relay, and minors most of all, TSS may place an account in a restricted, supervised state. That can be based on age, reports, automated signals, behavior or suspicion, and it can be the default for new accounts above an age we set. It usually lasts about seven days and can be shortened or extended. While it lasts, your requests, messages and other interactions with some people, including people under 18, may be held or not delivered; your account may be hidden from them; what you see may be limited and may include accounts and content run by TSS; your activity may be monitored and reviewed; and you may be asked to share contacts or complete Contact verification. You may not be told, and the app may look normal. It ends at our discretion, and it often ends early once people who know you are already on Relay. It is not a finding that you did anything wrong.

Monitoring. We may review and analyze any activity and content on Relay, including private messages and group chats, with people and automated systems. You have no expectation of privacy from TSS in anything on Relay.

Blocking. You can block anyone. A block removes the friendship and pending requests, hides each of you from the other's feed, journal, search, suggestions and map, and stops direct messages and notifications between you. They are not told. It does not undo what was already shared and can lag on outdated versions of the app. If you are in danger, contact emergency services.

Child safety and the law. We report apparent child sexual exploitation, trafficking and online enticement of minors to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as federal law requires, and we may refer other suspected crimes or threats to law enforcement with any data involved. We do not run background checks, and no check or badge guarantees anyone's identity, age or intentions. No feature, including Airhorn or shared location, is an emergency service. In an emergency, call 911.

4. Your content

Your photos stay yours. You keep whatever ownership you have in what you create. You give TSS a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty free, fully paid, sublicensable and transferable license to host, store, copy, use, analyze, modify, filter, crop, compress, adapt, translate, publish, display, distribute and make derivative works from all of it, including the name, image, voice and likeness of you and anyone in it, in any media, for any purpose, including running, moderating, securing, improving and promoting Relay and processing it with the AI systems these terms describe, without further notice, payment or credit. The license survives deletion of the content and of your account. We will not use the likeness of someone we know is under 18 in paid advertising outside Relay without a parent's separate consent.

Everyone in your content. You choose what and whom you photograph, post, send and alter. For every identifiable person in anything you post or send, or that Relay collects from your device, you promise you have their consent (and a parent's where they are a minor and the law requires it) to appear on Relay, to have their image processed by our automated and AI systems, and to the license above, and you take full responsibility for any claim they make. Anyone who appears in something on Relay and wants it removed can write to help@relayyyy.com.

AI altered and filtered content. When you use Glow, a darkroom filter, a custom sticker or any other AI or editing tool, you are the author of that request and its result, and you are solely responsible for the result and what you do with it, even though a machine made it. You promise everyone pictured agreed to having their image altered. Results are artificial, can be wrong or offensive, and may not be protected by copyright. Review a result before you post or send it. We may label altered content.

Originals and recent library photos. When you post a snap, TSS also stores the unedited full resolution original of that photo, and on iPhones with an ultra wide lens the wider frame from the same shutter press. If you grant full photo library access, TSS stores copies of your thirty most recent photos as a safety backup. Location coordinates are stripped on your device first. These copies are your content under this section, access inside TSS is restricted and logged, and they go outside TSS only for a valid legal request or a child safety report. Revoking photo library access in iOS Settings stops the library copies. You promise you are entitled to provide every photo Relay collects, that everyone in it consented, and that it contains nothing unlawful. TSS does not review your camera roll and has no duty to. To the fullest extent the law allows, you waive and agree not to bring claims against TSS arising from collecting, sending, storing, keeping or internally accessing those photos.

Disappearing is not a promise. Instants and anything else described as view once or protected disappear only from other people's ordinary view. TSS keeps copies. Screenshot blocking and screenshot and screen recording alerts are best effort and can be beaten, for example with another camera.

Copyright. Send notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to dmca@relayyyy.com with the subject "Copyright": your signature, the work, where the material is on Relay, your contact details, a statement of good faith belief that the use is not authorized, and a statement under penalty of perjury that your notice is accurate and you may act for the owner. Counter notices go to the same address. We terminate repeat infringers.

Intimate images (Take It Down). If an intimate image of you, real or made with AI, is on Relay without your consent, report it in the app or email legal@relayyyy.com with the subject "Take it down". Include your signature, enough to find the image, a short statement of your good faith belief that it is not consensual, and how to reach you. We remove it, and make reasonable efforts to remove identical copies, within 48 hours of a valid request.

Minors in California can delete what they posted in the app or ask us to remove it at help@relayyyy.com. Removal hides it from others but does not guarantee it is gone from our systems or from copies others made.

Feedback. If you send us ideas, we can use them without restriction or payment.

5. Rules

Relay is for real moments with people you know. You agree not to:

Harass, threaten, bully, stalk, shame, defame, or intimidate anyone, or get others to.
Post anything illegal, hateful, obscene, or sexual, including nudity or sexually suggestive material.
Sexualize, exploit or endanger a minor in any way, including asking a minor for images, grooming, or arranging to meet one for any improper purpose.
As an adult, seek out, befriend or message minors you do not know in real life, or ask a minor to move a chat elsewhere or keep it secret.
Share, or threaten to share, intimate images of anyone without consent, including AI deepfakes, or use any image to extort anyone.
Promote violence, self harm, suicide, eating disorders, dangerous challenges, or terrorism.
Post political content: promoting or attacking a candidate, politician or party, campaign material, election claims, protest signs or slogans, political memes, or taking a side on a contested political issue. Civic things that take no side, like an "I voted" sticker, a flag or a school election, are fine. Relay may warn you before you post something it reads as political, and anything posted after that warning can be reviewed and removed.
Aggressively push any viewpoint, belief, cause or ideology on people, political or not: repeated unsolicited persuasion in messages, groups or comments, keeping at it after someone disengages, mocking or pressuring people for their beliefs or identity, or organizing others to do it. Sharing what you care about with friends who want to hear it is fine. Imposing it is not.
Post other people's private information, or screenshot, record or repost someone's content to harass, shame or expose them.
Buy, sell or promote drugs, alcohol, vapes, weapons, gambling, or other regulated or illegal goods.
Spam, scam, phish, or advertise without our written permission.
Impersonate anyone, lie about your age, or run fake or duplicate accounts.
Use AI or editing tools to show a real person in a sexual, humiliating, deceptive or defamatory way, or alter anyone's image without their consent.
Infringe anyone's copyright, trademark or publicity rights.
Scrape or harvest data, use bots, or use anything from Relay to train or evaluate an AI model.
Read or write Relay's database, storage or servers except through the unmodified app, reverse engineer the app, probe its security, or interfere with how it works.
Get around any security measure, rate limit, block, safety containment, age or country restriction, suspension or ban.
Manipulate streaks, votes, polls, games, reactions or reports, or file false reports.

TSS decides, in its sole discretion, whether something breaks these rules, and can act on anything harmful even if no rule names it.

Moderation. Everything you post or send, photos, videos, notes, polls, captions, comments and messages included, can be analyzed on your iPhone and on our servers by automated AI models, including models from Anthropic, PBC and Google, and reviewed by people working for TSS. Content can be blurred, hidden, labeled or removed automatically, including based on reports from other people's devices. Using Relay means you consent to this.

Zero tolerance. Relay has zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive users. You can report content and accounts and block anyone from inside the app. When something is reported, we review it and, if it breaks these rules, remove the content and the responsible user within 24 hours.

6. Features

Filters and the darkroom. Most filters run on your iPhone. Darkroom filters are made by third party AI image models: when you shoot with one selected, the unfiltered original goes through our servers to an AI provider at the moment of capture, whether or not you post it, and the result comes back to your phone. Darkroom filters have daily limits, and any filter can change or go away. Posts can show which filter was used.

Glow. An optional, experimental AI retouch. Only when you tap it, the original photo goes through our servers to a third party AI provider (currently Poe, operated by Quora, Inc.) and the retouched version comes back for you to review. Nothing posts on its own, there is a daily limit, and Glowed photos may be marked as altered.

Snap Intelligence. When you take a photo, a smaller copy may go to an AI provider right away, before you decide to post, to suggest captions and emoji, tag topics and mood, and catch content that breaks the rules, including sexual and political content. The results are stored with the content and are not statements of fact about anyone.

Political content warnings. Before you post, Relay may tell you something looks political. Posting anyway sends it to TSS for review and it can be removed. A warning, or the lack of one, is not a ruling on whether something is allowed.

AI characters and Lynx. Relay includes fictional characters and an assistant powered by third party AI. They are not human, even with names, photos and personalities, and they may message you or add you first. Nothing they say is fact, advice or an endorsement; do not rely on them for medical, mental health, legal, financial or safety decisions. AI characters may not be suitable for some minors. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, or your local emergency number. Every chat with a character is labeled as AI. If you are under 18, or your birthday is not on file, Relay shows a notice at least every three hours of ongoing chatting with a character, reminding you to take a break and that it is AI, not human. Characters are told not to produce sexual content and not to encourage or describe suicide or self-harm. When a message to a character sounds like a crisis, Relay shows its own notice pointing to 988 and the Crisis Text Line; how that works is published at relayyyy.com/safety. Conversations go to AI providers to generate replies, voice goes through a voice provider (currently ElevenLabs), and conversations may be logged and reviewed for safety.

Contact verification. Optional, unless TSS requires it for an account. Tapping Continue is your written consent: the Face ID camera checks depth, movement and expression on your iPhone only, and those measurements are never sent and are discarded when the check ends; one still photo goes over an encrypted connection to our server and an AI provider only to estimate an age range and catch spoofs, and is not stored; no face template is created; we keep the result, the age band, the signals behind it and a dated history until your account is deleted (a verification expires after 12 months or on your 18th birthday); nothing from it is sold or used for ads.

Messages, groups, games and Airhorn. Direct messages work between friends and with some TSS accounts. Group members see everything sent to the group. Send later messages are stored until delivery and can be late or fail. Airhorn can break through Focus and must not be used to harass. Games, polls, streaks and stickers are for fun and have no monetary value.

Location, maps and workouts. Sharing your location is optional and your call. Workouts read, never write, the Apple Health data you allow, share only when you or a setting you chose shares them, and health data is never sold or used for ads. None of it is medical, fitness or navigation advice.

Relay Extra. Paid features cost what is shown at purchase. App Store purchases are billed by Apple under Apple's terms, a subscription renews until you cancel in your Apple account settings, and refunds go through Apple or as the law requires. TSS may also grant, extend or revoke paid features by hand and change what they include.

Virtual items. Invite codes, streaks, badges, checks, credits, Rays and game results are features, not property or currency. They have no cash value and can be changed, reset or removed.

Neon and sponsored posts. Sponsored posts are labeled, reviewed by TSS first, and delivered by TSS itself, with no ad network and without telling the advertiser who you are. Businesses and creators on Neon get only aggregated, de-identified statistics, and you can opt out in Settings.

Relay Parents, extensions and the web. A parent can link through Relay Parents only when you approve it in your own app, can set limits, and can never read message contents. Parents also agree to the Relay Parents terms. These terms also cover Relay for iMessage, the share extension, Apple Watch, widgets, Live Activities and Relay for the web. Anything you send through iMessage or share outside Relay is also under those services' terms and we cannot pull it back.

7. Apple

These terms are between you and TSS only, not Apple. TSS, not Apple, is responsible for the app, its content, its maintenance and support, any warranty not disclaimed, and any claim about it, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, consumer protection, privacy and intellectual property claims. Your license is to use the app on Apple-branded devices you own or control, as the App Store's Usage Rules allow. If the app fails a warranty you may notify Apple, which will refund the purchase price, if any, and has no other warranty obligation. You confirm you are not in a U.S. embargoed or "terrorist supporting" country and not on a U.S. restricted parties list, and you will follow third party terms that apply, like your carrier's. Apple and its subsidiaries are third party beneficiaries of these terms and can enforce them against you. Questions and claims go to Tobias Schmidt Services LLC, California, at help@relayyyy.com, or legal@relayyyy.com for legal matters.

8. As is, no warranties

Relay is provided as is, as available, and with all faults. To the fullest extent the law allows, TSS disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non infringement. We do not promise Relay will be available, secure, error free, accurate or safe, that it will keep your content, or that it will catch harmful content or conduct. AI features, moderation, age checks, safety containment and personalization are best efforts, and nothing they produce is a statement of fact about anyone. TSS is not responsible for what other people do, online or off.

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree not to bring any lawsuit or claim against TSS or its people arising from Relay or these terms, any claim the law does not let you waive can only be brought as section 11 describes, and you release them from all such claims, known or unknown, including a waiver of California Civil Code section 1542. TSS is never liable for lost profits, data or content, emotional distress, or indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, and TSS's total liability for all claims never exceeds fifty U.S. dollars or what you paid us in the past year, whichever is greater. Some places do not allow some of these limits, and there the limits apply as far as the law allows.

10. You cover us

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold TSS and its owners, officers, employees, contractors and service providers harmless from claims, liabilities, losses, damages and costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your content, any photo Relay collected from your device, any AI or filtered result you asked for, any claim by someone who appears in or is affected by any of that, your use of Relay, your breach of these terms, or your violation of any law or anyone's rights. TSS may take over the defense, and you will not settle in a way that obligates TSS without our written consent.

11. Disputes and arbitration

Talk to us first. Before any claim, email legal@relayyyy.com with what happened, what you want, your username and how to reach you, and give us 60 days to work it out. Deadlines pause while we do.
Individual arbitration. Otherwise, disputes about Relay, these terms or our data practices go to final, binding individual arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act, run by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Rules, by video, phone or paper, with any hearing in your county or Orange County, California. Either side can still use small claims court, and either side can go to court to stop intellectual property misuse or unauthorized access to Relay. Public injunctive relief the law won't let you waive is decided by a court afterward.
No class actions. Claims are individual only, never class, collective or representative. If 25 or more similar arbitrations are filed by coordinated counsel, they run in batches of 25. If the class waiver is ever found unenforceable for a claim, that claim goes to court instead. Where a claim is in court, both sides waive a jury as far as the law allows.
Opt out. You can opt out of arbitration within 30 days of first accepting terms that include it, by emailing legal@relayyyy.com with the subject "Arbitration opt out", your username and a clear statement that you opt out.
Law, venue and timing. California law applies. Anything not arbitrated goes to the state and federal courts in Orange County, California. Claims must be brought within one year of when they arose, to the extent the law allows.

12. The fine print

Changes. We can change these terms at any time, including by delivering a new version to the app. We will update the date and version, and for material changes we may ask you to review and accept before you keep using Relay. Accepting, or continuing to use Relay after a new version reaches you, means you accept it. Only versions delivered by TSS through the app or published here count. We record which version you accepted, when, and from which app version.
Ending it. We can suspend or end your access at any time without notice, and a ban can apply to your device and other accounts we think you control. You can stop using Relay and delete your account in Settings whenever you like. The sections that should survive, survive.
Electronic notices. You agree to receive terms and notices electronically, through the app, push notifications, @relay messages and any contact details you gave us. Accepting in the app is your signature.
Other. These terms and the Privacy Policy, as set out in the in app agreement, are the entire agreement, and the in app version controls if anything here conflicts. An unenforceable provision is narrowed as little as needed. Not enforcing something right away is not giving it up. You may not transfer your rights without our consent; we may transfer ours freely. We are not liable for delays caused by things outside our control.
California consumers. The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs can be reached in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or at (800) 952-5210.

13. Contact

Support and privacy: help@relayyyy.com. Legal notices: legal@relayyyy.com. Copyright: dmca@relayyyy.com. The full, binding agreement is inside the app.