Terms of Service
Last updated 14 August 2026
Always is a private space for two people. Use it kindly, be at least 13, and don't send your partner anything you wouldn't want a court to read back to you. The app is free to use; Always+ is an optional auto-renewing subscription, billed by Apple and cancellable in your App Store settings. If someone abuses you in the app, report them and unpair; we treat that seriously and act fast.
1. The agreement
These Terms are a contract between you and Nikolai Portnov, the independent developer who builds and operates Always ("we", "us"). By creating an account or using the app you accept them. If you don't accept them, don't use Always. Our Privacy Policy explains what we do with your data and forms part of this agreement.
2. Who can use Always
You must be at least 13 years old. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use Always only with the involvement of a parent or guardian. One account per person, and the information you give us — including your birth date — must be accurate.
3. Your account
You sign in with Apple; we never see or store a password. You are responsible for keeping your Apple account and your device secure, because anyone who unlocks your phone can read your conversation. You can delete your account at any time from Settings.
4. Pairing
Always connects exactly two people. You pair by sharing a six-character invite code, which means nobody can reach you inside the app unless you hand them that code. Either partner can unpair at any time. Unpairing ends the shared space; it does not delete copies already downloaded to the other person's device.
5. Content and behaviour — zero tolerance
Everything you send inside Always goes to one person: your partner. That does not make it lawless. We have zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive behaviour, and there is no appeals-friendly grey zone here.
You must not use Always to send, request or store:
- Any sexual content involving a minor, or any content that sexualises a minor, in any form. This is reported to the authorities, not just removed.
- Intimate images of anyone who has not knowingly consented, or images obtained or shared without consent.
- Threats, harassment, stalking, coercion, intimidation, or content intended to frighten or control another person.
- Hate speech, or content attacking someone for who they are.
- Content that is illegal where you or your partner live, or that infringes someone else's rights.
- Malware, spam, scraping, or attempts to break, overload or reverse-engineer the service.
Reporting someone
If your partner sends you something abusive, use Report & unpair in Settings. It ends the pairing immediately, cuts off their access to you, and sends us the report. You can also write to support@alwaysapp.cc.
What we do about it
Using Report & unpair ends the pairing for you immediately, so the person you reported can no longer reach you, and it files the report with us. We review reports by hand, as promptly as we can. Content that violates these Terms is removed, and the account responsible may be suspended or terminated without notice and without refund. Serious cases are referred to law enforcement. Reviewing a report may require us to look at the reported content; see the Privacy Policy and the Security page for what that means in practice.
6. Your content stays yours
You keep every right you have in the messages, drawings and photos you create. To run the service, you grant us a limited, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, transmit and display that content — solely to deliver it to your partner, sync it to your devices, and back it up. That licence exists for no other purpose: we do not use your content to advertise, to train models, or to build anything else. It ends when you delete the content or your account.
You are responsible for what you send, and for having the right to send it.
7. What Always costs, and Always+ subscriptions
Always is free to download and use. Always+ is an optional subscription that unlocks additional features inside the app. You never have to buy anything to stay in touch with your partner.
- Billing. Always+ is an auto-renewing subscription sold through Apple. Payment is charged to your Apple ID account when you confirm the purchase. We never see or handle your card details — Apple does.
- Price and duration. The available plans, their prices in your local currency, the length of each billing period, and any free trial or introductory offer are shown in the app on the purchase screen, before you confirm. Prices can differ by country and may change; we will tell you in advance and any change applies only from your next renewal.
- Renewal. Your subscription renews automatically for the same period unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your Apple ID is charged for the renewal within the 24 hours before the period ends.
- Managing and cancelling. Manage or cancel at any time in your device's Settings → your name → Subscriptions, or in the App Store. Cancelling stops future renewals; you keep Always+ until the end of the period you already paid for. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription.
- Free trials. If a free trial is offered and you subscribe, any unused portion of the trial is forfeited when the paid subscription begins.
- Refunds. Purchases are handled by Apple, so refunds are governed by Apple's policy and requested through Apple, not through us. Where mandatory consumer law in your country gives you a withdrawal or refund right, that right applies regardless.
- Termination. If we terminate your account for a breach of these Terms, we are not obliged to refund any unused portion of a subscription, except where the law requires it.
Nothing you already have in the free app will be taken away and put behind a charge.
8. The service will change, and sometimes break
We add, change and remove features. We may suspend the service for maintenance. Always is not a backup service and not a system of record: keep your own copy of anything you cannot afford to lose. We do not guarantee that every message arrives instantly, that real-time features work on every network, or that the service is uninterrupted.
9. Ending things
You can stop using Always and delete your account whenever you like, from Settings. We may suspend or terminate an account that breaks these Terms, that puts other users at risk, or where we are required to by law. If we terminate your account for a violation, you may not create a new one.
10. Disclaimers
Always is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, to the fullest extent the law allows. We do not warrant that the app will be error-free or that it will meet your expectations. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain warranty exclusions, in which case the exclusions above apply only as far as your local law permits.
11. Limitation of liability
To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for lost data, lost profits or loss of goodwill arising from your use of Always. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for Always in the twelve months before the claim, or 50 EUR. Nothing here limits liability for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law.
12. The App Store
Always is distributed through Apple's App Store, and Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement applies alongside these Terms; where the two conflict on a matter Apple governs, Apple's terms win. Apple is not a party to this agreement, has no obligation to provide support or maintenance for Always, and is not responsible for any claim relating to the app. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you. Support questions go to support@alwaysapp.cc, not to Apple.
13. Law and disputes
If something goes wrong, email us first — most problems are solved in one message. These Terms are governed by the law of the country in which the operator is established, except that nothing in them removes the protections of mandatory consumer law in your country of residence, or your right to bring a claim in your local courts where that law gives you one.
14. Changes to these Terms
We will update the date at the top when these Terms change, and we will notify you in the app or by email before a material change takes effect. Continuing to use Always after that means you accept the new version.