Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Jakesify Limited (RC 9921649), the company behind Balarnse ("Balarnse," "we," "us," or "our") governing your access to and use of the Balarnse mobile application and the website at balarnse.app (together, the "Service"). By creating an account, downloading the app, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

You must be at least 17 years old to use the Service. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that:

• You are at least 17 years old.
• You have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms (or, where applicable in your jurisdiction, have obtained any parental or guardian consent additionally required for you to do so).
• Your use of the Service does not violate any applicable law.
• All registration information you provide is accurate and current, and you will keep it that way.

We may ask you to verify your age at any time and may suspend or terminate accounts we reasonably believe belong to someone under the minimum age.

Balarnse provides, among other things:

• AI companion chat across multiple modes (Companion, Skills, Buddy), including text, image, and voice messages.
• A structured, click-through CBT toolkit covering anxiety, low mood, stress, sleep, relationships, anger, and cravings & habits.
• A personal journal with mode-aware prompts.
• Structured, day-by-day routines tied to a specific issue, with progress and streak tracking.
• An Insights screen aggregating your own mood, activity, and engagement history.
• Guided courses, mind games, and breathing exercises.
• A marketplace to discover and book sessions with independent, licensed therapists, including optional anonymity.
• Optional voice features, including voice cloning for playback.

We may add, change, or remove features at any time. We will try to give you reasonable notice of material changes that reduce functionality you rely on, but we are not obligated to maintain any specific feature indefinitely.

Nothing in the Service should be understood as a diagnosis, treatment plan, or medical recommendation. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have about a mental or physical health condition, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you read, heard, or were told in the App.

Booking a therapist through the Service creates a relationship between you and that independent therapist, not between you and an AI system, and not a guarantee of any particular clinical outcome.

Responses from the AI companion, the CBT toolkit's suggested reframes and reflections, and any other AI-generated content in the Service are produced by large language models and other automated systems. They are not reviewed by a human clinician before being shown to you, may be incomplete, generic, or simply wrong, and should be treated as a supportive tool, not an authoritative source.

You are responsible for exercising your own judgment about anything the AI companion says, including any suggested technique, reframe, or action step, and for seeking professional help where appropriate.

If you are in immediate danger, experiencing a medical emergency, or having thoughts of harming yourself or someone else, call your local emergency number right now. Do not rely on the App to reach help in an emergency.

The Service includes an automated, keyword-based safety net that may surface crisis resources and, in limited cases, flag a conversation for internal safety review, as described in our Privacy Policy's Crisis Detection section. This is a best-effort backstop, not a monitored emergency response system, and we make no guarantee that it will detect every instance of risk.

• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity under your account.
• You agree to notify us promptly at support@balarnse.app of any unauthorized use of your account.
• You may not share your account with others or maintain more than one account per person without our consent.
• You may request deletion of your account at any time — see our Privacy Policy's "Your rights & choices" section for how.

Therapists available through the Service are independent, licensed professionals — they are not employees, agents, partners, or representatives of Balarnse. Balarnse facilitates discovery, scheduling, messaging, and payment for therapist sessions; we are not a party to the clinical relationship between you and the therapist you book.

• Each therapist is independently responsible for their own licensing, qualifications, professional conduct, and the clinical advice or care they provide. We verify submitted credentials as part of our onboarding review, but we do not guarantee any therapist's competence, availability, or fit for your needs, and we do not control the content of any session.
• Choosing to stay anonymous keeps your identity hidden from the therapist you book with, except where a genuine safety escalation under Section 6 requires disclosure to protect your safety or someone else's.
• Session fees (currently from $45 per session, subject to change and shown in the App before booking) are charged at the time of booking. Cancellation and rescheduling policies are shown to you at the time of booking and may vary by therapist.
• Disputes about the quality or conduct of a session should be raised with us at support@balarnse.app — we will work with you and, where appropriate, the therapist to resolve the issue, but we are not an arbiter of clinical judgment.

9.1 Free and Premium tiers

Balarnse offers a free tier and an optional paid Premium subscription with expanded limits and features, as described on our pricing page. Features included in each tier may change over time; we will give reasonable notice of material reductions to a paid tier's included features.

9.2 In-app purchases (Apple App Store / Google Play)

Where you purchase a subscription through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, that purchase is billed and processed by Apple or Google, not by Balarnse directly, and is governed by their respective payment terms, including automatic renewal unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and their own refund policies. Manage or cancel an in-app-purchase subscription through your Apple ID or Google Account settings, not through Balarnse — we cannot process a cancellation or refund for a store-billed subscription on your behalf, and can only direct you to the relevant store's support channel.

9.3 Direct payments (therapist sessions and, where offered, web checkout)

Therapist session bookings, and any subscription purchased directly through the Website rather than through a store, are billed directly by Balarnse through a third-party payment processor (Paystack, Flutterwave, or Stripe). Prices are shown in USD with an approximate local-currency equivalent where applicable; the currency and amount charged at checkout is the amount that applies. Refunds for directly billed purchases are handled on a case-by-case basis — contact support@balarnse.app.

9.4 Taxes

Prices do not include applicable taxes unless stated otherwise; you are responsible for any taxes associated with your purchase, except taxes on our net income.

You retain ownership of the content you create in the Service — your journal entries, chat messages, thought records, and any photos or voice notes you send ("Your Content"). You grant Balarnse a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, and process Your Content solely as necessary to operate and provide the Service to you (for example, sending your message to an AI provider to generate a reply, or displaying your journal history back to you), and, where the safety process in Section 6 applies, to the limited personnel involved in that review.

We do not use Your Content to train our own general-purpose AI models, and we do not sell Your Content. This license ends when you delete the relevant content or your account, except to the extent we are permitted or required to retain a copy under our Privacy Policy's retention terms.

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose, or in violation of any applicable local, national, or international law or regulation.
• Harass, threaten, abuse, or impersonate any person, including a therapist or another user.
• Attempt to circumvent, disable, or probe any security or safety feature of the Service, including the crisis-detection safety net.
• Use the Service to generate content that is illegal, that exploits or endangers a minor, or that promotes self-harm to others.
• Scrape, reverse-engineer, decompile, or otherwise attempt to extract the Service's source code, models, or underlying data, except to the extent applicable law expressly permits.
• Use any automated means (bots, scripts) to access the Service outside of the App's own interface.
• Submit fraudulent payment information or attempt to obtain services without valid payment.
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Service without our prior written consent.

We may investigate and take appropriate action against anyone who violates this section, including suspending or terminating accounts and, where warranted, reporting to law enforcement.

The Service, including its software, design, text, graphics, logos, and the Balarnse name and marks, is owned by Balarnse or our licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. Except for the limited right to use the Service as intended by these Terms, nothing here grants you any right, title, or interest in the Service or its intellectual property.

The Service relies on and may link to third-party services (including AI model providers, voice providers, payment processors, and app stores). We are not responsible for the content, accuracy, or practices of third-party services, and your use of them may be subject to their own terms and privacy policies.

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, created risk or legal exposure for us, or if required by law. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 10, 15, 16, 17, and 18) will survive.

Please read this section carefully.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR THAT ANY AI-GENERATED CONTENT WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION. NOTHING IN THIS SECTION LIMITS ANY WARRANTY THAT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, INCLUDING MANDATORY CONSUMER-PROTECTION WARRANTIES IN YOUR JURISDICTION.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, BALARNSE AND ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, INCLUDING ANY RELIANCE ON AI-GENERATED CONTENT OR ANY INTERACTION WITH A THERAPIST BOOKED THROUGH THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED US DOLLARS ($100). SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Balarnse and its officers, employees, and service providers from any claims, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your violation of these Terms, your misuse of the Service, or your violation of any third party's rights.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, without regard to its conflict of laws principles, except where mandatory local consumer-protection law in your country of residence requires a different result — in which case that local law applies to the extent it is mandatory.

We encourage you to contact us at support@balarnse.app first so we can try to resolve any dispute informally. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, except where applicable law gives you the right to bring a claim in your own local courts, or requires a different dispute-resolution forum — such mandatory rights are not waived by this section. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction, or from using small-claims court where available and appropriate.

19.1 Apple App Store

If you downloaded the App from the Apple App Store, you also acknowledge the following, which exists specifically for Apple's benefit as a third-party beneficiary of these Terms:

• These Terms are between you and Balarnse only, not Apple, and Apple is not responsible for the Service or its content.
• The license granted to you to use the App is limited to a non-transferable license to use the App on any Apple-branded product you own or control, as permitted by the App Store's Usage Rules.
• Apple has no obligation to furnish any maintenance or support services for the App.
• In the event of any failure of the App to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price (if any) for the App; to the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation of any kind for the App.
• Apple is not responsible for addressing any claims by you or any third party relating to the App, including product-liability claims, claims that the App fails to conform to legal or regulatory requirements, and claims arising under consumer-protection or similar legislation.
• Apple is not responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement, or discharge of any third-party intellectual-property infringement claim related to the App.
• You must comply with applicable third-party terms of agreement when using the App (for example, your wireless data service agreement).
• You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated as a "terrorist supporting" country, and are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• Apple and Apple's subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and upon your acceptance, Apple has the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary.

19.2 Google Play

If you downloaded the App from Google Play, your use is also subject to Google Play's own terms of service, and Google may be an intended third-party beneficiary of these Terms to the extent required by its policies.

We may modify these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the effective date above and, where appropriate, notify you in-app or by email before the change takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after a change becomes effective constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. We may also change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time.

• Entire agreement — these Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Balarnse regarding the Service, and supersede any prior agreements.
• Severability — if any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full effect.
• No waiver — our failure to enforce any right or provision will not be a waiver of that right or provision.
• Assignment — you may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Force majeure — we are not liable for any failure or delay resulting from circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
• Notices — we may provide notices to you via the email address on your account or an in-app notice.

Questions about these Terms? Contact us at support@balarnse.app, or by post at Lagos, Nigeria.