Dearest — Terms of Service
Effective date: 19 July 2026 Version: 1.1
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Dearest, a private diary application for two people (the "App" or the "Service"), operated by:
Story Beat Pictures Kft. (full legal name: Story Beat Pictures Korlátolt Felelősségű Társaság; "we", "us", "Story Beat") Registered seat: 2094 Nagykovácsi, Szent Lóránt utca 6., Hungary Company registration number: 13-09-118220 VAT number: 14217931-2-13 Registration court: Budapest Környéki Törvényszék Cégbírósága Email: hello@dearestjournal.com Website: https://www.storybeatpictures.com
The legally prevailing version of these Terms for consumers residing in Hungary is the Hungarian version (Általános Szerződési Feltételek), published at the same location. Where a region-specific addendum applies to you (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia/New Zealand), it supplements and, where stated, overrides these Terms.
1. The Service
1.1. Dearest is a shared private journal for two partners: memories, letters with delayed delivery, prompts ("Sparks"), photographs, voice notes, milestones, and optional printed exports.
1.2. The Service is intentionally private. It contains no advertising, no social feed, and no public content. Your journal is visible only to you and the one partner you link with.
1.3. Sealed mode (end-to-end encryption). You may enable optional end-to-end encryption for letters. When enabled, encryption keys exist only on your and your partner's devices, represented by a twelve-word recovery phrase. We do not hold the key and cannot read, recover, or restore sealed content under any circumstances. If both devices and the recovery phrase are lost, sealed content is permanently unreadable. You accept this as an inherent property of the feature, not a defect.
2. Eligibility and Accounts
2.1. You must be at least 16 years old to use the Service, or older where the law of your country requires a higher minimum age for consenting to data processing or entering contracts.
2.2. You must provide accurate registration information and keep your credentials confidential. You are responsible for activity under your account.
2.3. One account belongs to one natural person. Accounts are not transferable.
3. Your Content
3.1. You own your content. Everything you write, photograph, record, or upload remains yours (or, where authored by your partner, theirs).
3.2. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, transmit, display, and technically process your content solely to operate and provide the Service to you and your linked partner (including backups, format conversion for exports, and delivery of letters on their delivery date). This license ends when the content is deleted, except for transient infrastructure copies, where they exist, which are overwritten under the hosting provider's backup cycle and in any event within 30 days.
3.3. We do not use your content to train artificial-intelligence models, for advertising, or for any purpose other than providing the Service.
3.4. Shared journal. Content you post into a shared journal is, by design, visible to your linked partner. If you delete your account, your authored content is erased, including from your partner's view (see the Privacy Policy). We are not a party to, and bear no responsibility for, any dispute between you and your partner regarding content either of you contributed.
4. Acceptable Use
You must not: (a) use the Service for any unlawful purpose; (b) upload content that infringes others' rights, including intimate images of any person who has not consented; (c) attempt to access another user's data; (d) probe, disable, or circumvent security or technical protection measures, or interfere with the Service's operation; (e) reverse engineer the App except where a statutory right (e.g., §6 of Directive 2009/24/EC) cannot be excluded; (f) resell or commercially exploit the Service.
We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate this section.
5. Paid Access, Subscriptions and One-Time Purchase
5.1. Certain features require a paid unlock, available as either "Dearest Annual", an auto-renewable subscription, or "Dearest Forever", a one-time, non-recurring purchase. Either unlock covers both linked partners.
5.2. All payments are processed by Apple through your App Store account. Prices and refunds are handled according to Apple's terms. We do not receive or store your card details. Dearest Annual automatically renews for successive one-year terms at the then-current price until you cancel; you may cancel any time in your App Store account settings, at least 24 hours before the end of the current period to avoid renewal. Dearest Forever is a one-time purchase: nothing renews and there is no recurring charge to cancel.
5.3. "Lifetime" means the lifetime of the Service, not your lifetime: a lifetime purchase grants access to the paid features for as long as we operate the Service, without further payment. It is not an inheritance right, an insurance product, or a guarantee that the Service will operate indefinitely. Section 10 (Changes and Discontinuation) applies.
5.4. EU/EEA right of withdrawal. For digital services, you may have a 14-day statutory right of withdrawal, which lapses for begun performance where you expressly consented to immediate performance and acknowledged losing the right. Withdrawal and refund requests for App Store purchases are handled by Apple under Apple's process.
6. Intellectual Property
The App, its design, text, graphics, and software are owned by Story Beat or its licensors and protected by copyright and other laws. We grant you a personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive, revocable license to use the App on Apple-branded devices you own or control, in accordance with these Terms and Apple's usage rules. No rights are granted except as expressly stated.
7. Warranties and Disclaimers
7.1. For consumers in the EU/EEA and other jurisdictions with mandatory warranty rights: nothing in these Terms limits your statutory rights, including conformity remedies for digital content and services under Directive (EU) 2019/770 as implemented in your country (in Hungary, 373/2021. (VI. 30.) Korm. rendelet).
7.2. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Service is otherwise provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-interruption. We do not warrant that the Service will be error-free, that content will never be lost, or that any feature will remain available in its current form.
7.3. Back up what matters. The App provides export tools (PDF story export, printable volumes). You are responsible for keeping the recovery phrase for Sealed mode and for exporting content you cannot afford to lose.
8. Limitation of Liability
8.1. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence; (b) damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence; (c) fraud; (d) any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law (including, for Hungarian consumers, Ptk. 6:526).
8.2. Subject to 8.1, and to the maximum extent permitted by law: (a) we are not liable for indirect or consequential damage, loss of profits, loss of data caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control, or emotional distress arising from the content either partner contributes or from the end of a relationship; (b) our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Service is capped at the greater of (i) the amounts you paid us in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to liability, and (ii) EUR 50.
8.3. We are not liable for the permanent unreadability of end-to-end encrypted content where the keys have been lost by the users, nor for content deleted by you, your partner, or at either of your requests through the features of the App working as described.
9. Indemnity
To the extent permitted by the law of your habitual residence (and not applying to consumers where such clauses are unenforceable), you will indemnify us against third-party claims arising from your content or your breach of Section 4.
10. Changes and Discontinuation of the Service
10.1. We may modify the Service to reflect technical, security, or legal requirements, or to improve it. Where a modification negatively and more than insignificantly affects your access to paid features, we will notify you in advance and you may terminate and seek a pro-rata remedy as provided by applicable consumer law.
10.2. If we discontinue the Service entirely, we will give at least ninety (90) days' notice by email and in-App, keep export features available throughout the notice period, and — for lifetime purchases made within the preceding 24 months — offer a fair pro-rata remedy where required by applicable law.
11. Termination
11.1. You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time in the App (Profile → Delete account). Deletion is permanent.
11.2. We may suspend or terminate your access for material breach of these Terms, with notice and an opportunity to remedy where the breach is remediable and the law requires it.
12. Changes to these Terms
We may amend these Terms for valid reasons (legal changes, new features, security, pricing structure). We will give at least 30 days' notice of material changes by email or in-App. If you do not accept a material change, you may terminate before it takes effect; continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. Amendments never apply retroactively.
13. Governing Law, Disputes, Consumer Forums
13.1. These Terms are governed by the laws of Hungary, excluding its conflict-of-law rules. If you are a consumer habitually resident in another country, you also enjoy the protection of the mandatory provisions of that country's law, and you may sue and be sued in the courts of that country.
13.2. Hungarian consumers may turn to the conciliation body (Békéltető Testület) competent for their residence. The body competent for our registered seat is the Pest Vármegyei Békéltető Testület (1055 Budapest, Balassi Bálint u. 25. IV/2.; pmbekelteto@pmkik.hu; +36 1 792 7881; panaszrendezes.hu). We have not made a general submission statement accepting all conciliation-body decisions as binding; this does not affect our statutory duty to cooperate in a proceeding or any decision that is binding by law.
13.3. The former EU online dispute-resolution platform was discontinued and the underlying regulation repealed with effect from 20 July 2025.
13.4. For users in the United States, the U.S. Addendum (including arbitration and class-action waiver) applies.
14. Apple App Store Terms
These Terms are between you and Story Beat only, not Apple. Apple has no obligation to furnish maintenance or support, and no warranty obligation except any statutory refund of the purchase price. Apple is not responsible for addressing claims relating to the App (product liability, regulatory non-compliance, consumer protection) or third-party IP claims. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you. You represent that you are not located in an embargoed country and are not on any U.S. Government restricted list.
15. Miscellaneous
Severability: if a provision is invalid, the remainder stands. No waiver by conduct. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them to a successor of the business with notice to you. Force majeure applies to events beyond reasonable control. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and any applicable addendum are the entire agreement. Contact: hello@dearestjournal.com.
16. Clauses Requiring Specific Approval (Italy — Art. 1341–1342 c.c.)
Where Italian law applies to you as a consumer, you specifically approve, pursuant to Articles 1341 and 1342 of the Italian Civil Code, the following clauses: 4 (suspension), 7 (disclaimers), 8 (limitation of liability), 9 (indemnity), 10 (changes/discontinuation), 11.2 (termination by us), 12 (amendments), 13 (governing law and forum).