Terms of Use

1. Who can use Echo

You must be at least 13 years old (or the minimum digital-consent age in your jurisdiction) to use Echo. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use Echo only with the consent and involvement of a parent or guardian. To buy credits or a subscription you must be of legal age to contract, or have the permission of the person who pays the bill. You must not use Echo if you are barred from doing so under applicable law or sanctions.

2. Your account

• Creation. Provide accurate information and keep it current. You may sign up with an email address (and optionally a phone number) or through a supported identity provider.
• Verification. We may verify your email with a one-time code before unlocking certain features.
• Security. You are responsible for activity under your account. Keep your password safe and tell us promptly at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorised access.
• One account. One account per person; we may merge or remove duplicates.
• Closing. You can delete your account in-app at any time (see the Data Request Policy). Closure doesn't cancel obligations already accrued.

3. The Service

We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable licence to use Echo for your own personal, non-commercial purposes, subject to these Terms. We may add, change, or remove features, and we may set or change limits (including credit costs) with reasonable notice where required.

4. AI features — accuracy and your responsibility

Echo uses third-party AI models (currently OpenAI and/or Anthropic) to generate situations, options, outcomes, narrative, and expert-skill guidance. You agree that:

• AI output may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or wrong, and is generated automatically without human review.
• Echo is not a substitute for professional advice — including medical, legal, financial, tax, psychological, or career advice. Do not rely on it for decisions that require a qualified professional; verify anything important independently.
• Simulated outcomes are illustrative, not predictions. Echo does not promise that any real-world result will follow.
• To generate guidance, the relevant simulation content you enter is sent to our AI provider (see Privacy Policy, Section 5). Don't enter sensitive information you wouldn't want processed by a third party.
• You are responsible for the decisions you make in real life. You own your choices; Echo only helps you think.

5. Your content

You ownthe goals, worlds, simulations, stories, and other content you create (“User Content”). You grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt, and display your User Content solely to operate, secure, and improve the Service and to show content you choose to publish. For content you publish as a public story, you also permit other users to view, react to, comment on, and fork it. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for backup copies kept briefly and content others have already forked or that we must retain by law. You warrant that you have the rights to your User Content and that it doesn't infringe anyone else's rights or break the law.

6. Public stories & community conduct

Publishing a story is optional and turns a private simulation into public (or unlisted) content. When using public features you must not post content that is unlawful, hateful, harassing, defamatory, sexually exploitative, deceptive, infringing, or otherwise objectionable. Our EULA sets out a zero-tolerance policy for objectionable content and abuse, the tools to report and block, and our moderation response. We may remove content or restrict accounts that breach these Terms or the EULA, but we are not obliged to monitor content.

7. Credits, Premium & payments

• Credits. Some actions consume credits (for example, creating and setting up a simulation, forking a story, AI-planning the whole journey, pivoting a goal, regenerating a world, running an expert skill, branching a what-if, or exporting a story). The core play loop — taking a move and conversing — is free. Current costs are shown in-app and are admin-configurable.
• Free allowance. We offer an allowance of free credits you can claim each calendar month (it is opt-in — not granted automatically). It is an allowance, not stored cash, and unclaimed or unused credits may not roll over.
• Premium. A Premium subscription removes credit metering for the covered features for its term and renews automatically until cancelled. You can cancel at any time: Premium stays active until the end of the current billing period and then stops renewing — it is not pro-rated, and we do not provide partial-period refunds (see Section 8). Subscriptions bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play are billed and renewed by that store; manage or cancel them in your Apple or Google account settings. Cancelling Premium does not remove or refund any credits you have purchased — your credit balance is unaffected.
• Processors. Payments are handled by third-party processors — Paystack and Flutterwave (card/bank), Apple App Store and Google Play in-app purchases on mobile, and, where offered, manual bank transfer. Where a platform requires it, digital purchases are made through that platform's in-app billing and are subject to its terms.
• Prices & taxes. Prices are shown before purchase (in NGN and, where available, USD) and may include applicable taxes. We may change prices prospectively.

8. Refunds

Credits and subscriptions are digital goods delivered immediately. Except where the law or a platform's policy requires otherwise, purchased credits are non-refundable once granted, and subscriptions are non-refundable for the current period — you can cancel to stop the next renewal and keep access until the period ends. Purchases made through the Apple App Store or Google Play are subject to those platforms' refund processes; please request those refunds through Apple or Google. If you were charged in error or double-charged, contact us at [email protected] within 14 days and we'll investigate. Nothing here limits any non-waivable statutory refund or consumer rights you have.

9. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• reverse-engineer, decompile, scrape, or build a competing dataset from the Service;
• use bots or automated means to access the Service or its AI features, or resell access or credits;
• probe, breach, or circumvent our security or rate limits, or access another user's account or data;
• misuse the AI to generate unlawful, harmful, or abusive content, or to attempt to extract another party's confidential information;
• impersonate others, or post content you don't have the rights to;
• place an unreasonable load on, or otherwise disrupt, the Service.

Violations may lead to suspension or termination and, where warranted, referral to authorities.

10. Intellectual property

The Echo.Me name, logo, app, website, and underlying software and content (other than User Content) are owned by HelloWorld and protected by intellectual-property laws. These Terms grant you no right to our trademarks. AI-generated output within your simulation is provided for your personal use as part of the Service.

11. Third-party services

Echo integrates third-party services (AI providers, payment processors, push and email delivery, identity providers, infrastructure). Their terms and privacy practices apply to their parts, and we don't control or guarantee their availability or output. See our Privacy Policy for the list.

12. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind (including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement). We do not warrant that the Service or its AI output will be uninterrupted, error-free, accurate, or fit for any decision you make. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all such warranties.

13. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Echo and HelloWorld will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, data, goodwill, or any decision made in reliance on the Service. Our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or (b) NGN 20,000 (or USD 50). Some jurisdictions don't allow these limits, in which case they apply to the fullest extent permitted.

14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Echo, HelloWorld, and our staff from claims arising out of your User Content, your use of the Service, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

15. Termination

You may stop using Echo and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms or the EULA, or where required by law, with notice where reasonable. Sections that by their nature should survive (content licence, IP, disclaimers, liability, indemnity, governing law) survive termination.

16. Governing law & disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Before any formal action, please contact us so we can try to resolve the matter informally within 30 days. Disputes that can't be resolved informally will be settled by arbitration in Lagos, Nigeria under the Arbitration and Mediation Act 2023, on an individual basis (you and we waive class actions); matters that cannot be arbitrated will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Nigerian courts. Nothing here removes any non-waivable rights you have under your local law.

17. Apple & Google platform terms

If you use Echo on iOS or Android, you also agree to the applicable app-store terms, and to our EULA. The EULA is between you and Echo only — not Apple or Google — and Apple is a third-party beneficiary entitled to enforce it.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We'll post the new version here and update the date above; for material changes we'll give notice in-app or by email. Continuing to use Echo after a change means you accept the updated Terms.

19. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email [email protected].