Terms of Service

Effective: September 4, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Hovo Apinyan, doing business as Synapse ("Synapse," "we," "us," or "our"). They govern your access to and use of the Synapse mobile application, synapsebond.com, and related features, content, and services (collectively, the "Services").

Please read these Terms carefully. By creating an account, selecting the acceptance checkbox, purchasing a subscription, or otherwise using the Services, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use Synapse. If you are under the age of legal majority where you live, you may use the Services only with permission and supervision from a parent or legal guardian, who agrees to these Terms on your behalf. Do not use the Services if applicable law prohibits you from doing so.

The Services are intended for personal, noncommercial use unless we agree otherwise in writing.

2. What Synapse Provides

Synapse is an AI-powered relationship-support and organization service. Features may include:

  • records and notes about people in your life;
  • reminders, dates, notifications, and planning tools;
  • AI-generated conversations, summaries, suggestions, rewrites, and relationship-support ideas;
  • gift research and links to third-party retailers;
  • contact photos, bubbles or groups, memories, facts, and interaction history;
  • account export and deletion tools; and
  • free and paid subscription features.

The Services will evolve. We may add, change, suspend, or discontinue a feature, provided that we comply with applicable law and do not retroactively charge you for a feature without your agreement. Features may differ by device, operating system, region, account status, or subscription.

3. Your Account

You agree to provide accurate account information, keep it reasonably current, protect your credentials and device, and promptly notify us of suspected unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity under your account unless it resulted from our breach of duty or another cause for which the law makes us responsible.

You may sign in with email and password, Sign in with Apple, or Google Sign-In where available. Your use of those services is also subject to the provider's terms.

You may not sell, transfer, share, or allow another person to use your account in a way that compromises privacy, security, or these Terms.

4. Information About Other People

Synapse lets you enter personal information about other people. You remain responsible for that information. You represent and warrant that:

  • you have the rights, permission, and lawful basis needed to enter and use it;
  • your use will not violate another person's privacy, publicity, confidentiality, intellectual-property, or other rights;
  • you will not use Synapse to monitor, harass, threaten, deceive, discriminate against, or manipulate anyone; and
  • you will remove or correct information when you no longer have a legitimate reason to keep it.

Do not enter another person's highly sensitive information—including medical or mental-health information, biometric data, government identifiers, financial-account information, precise location, religious or political beliefs, sexual orientation, or reproductive or sexual-health information—unless you have that person's valid permission and applicable law clearly allows it. General acceptance of these Terms is not consent on behalf of another person.

5. Your Content and License to Operate the Services

"User Content" means information, text, photos, notes, prompts, reminders, feedback, and other material you submit, upload, confirm, or save through the Services.

As between you and Synapse, you retain any rights you have in your User Content. You grant Synapse a worldwide, nonexclusive, limited license to host, store, reproduce, transmit, format, display to you, and process User Content only as reasonably necessary to:

  • provide and personalize the Services you request;
  • synchronize your records and generate AI output;
  • maintain, secure, and troubleshoot the Services;
  • respond to support or legal requests; and
  • comply with law and enforce these Terms.

This license ends when the User Content is deleted from active systems, except to the extent a copy must remain temporarily in backups, security records, legal records, or third-party processor systems as described in the Privacy Policy.

You understand that User Content may be processed by the service providers identified in the Privacy Policy. Do not submit material you do not have the right to use.

6. AI Features

Synapse uses artificial intelligence, including technology provided by OpenAI. You are interacting with an AI system, not a human advisor. When you choose an AI feature, relevant prompts, relationship context, notes, recent conversation, preferences, gift criteria, or other User Content may be sent to OpenAI as explained in the Privacy Policy.

AI output is probabilistic and may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, outdated, offensive, or unsuitable. Similar or identical output may be generated for other users. You must review output and use your own judgment before acting on it or sending it to another person.

Synapse does not provide medical, mental-health, legal, financial, therapeutic, crisis, or other professional advice. It is not an emergency service. Do not rely on it for urgent, safety-critical, or high-stakes decisions. If you or someone else may be in danger, contact local emergency services or an appropriate qualified professional.

You may not use AI features to generate or facilitate unlawful conduct, harassment, impersonation, fraud, abuse, exploitation, privacy violations, nonconsensual intimate content, or content that infringes another person's rights. Additional safety restrictions of our AI provider may apply.

To the extent permitted by law, you may use AI output generated for you for personal purposes, but Synapse does not guarantee that the output is unique, copyrightable, noninfringing, or fit for a particular use.

7. Gift Research and Third-Party Retailers

Gift suggestions are informational AI-generated ideas. They may use live web search and third-party product information. Prices, images, availability, delivery dates, product descriptions, reviews, and retailer identity can be inaccurate or change without notice. Verify all information directly with the retailer before purchasing.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, Synapse is not the seller, manufacturer, distributor, broker, or delivery provider for a suggested product and does not control a retailer's inventory, checkout, shipping, returns, warranties, safety, or customer service. A purchase from a linked retailer is a separate transaction between you and that retailer and is governed by its terms and privacy policy.

Links do not imply endorsement or a guarantee. Synapse is not responsible for third-party products, websites, transactions, or losses caused by relying on third-party product information, except where applicable law does not allow that limitation.

8. Reminders and Notifications

Reminders, dates, and notifications are convenience features. Delivery can be delayed, duplicated, or fail because of device settings, connectivity, operating-system behavior, provider outages, time-zone changes, or other causes. Do not rely on Synapse for emergencies, medication, health, legal deadlines, safety obligations, or any situation where a missed notification could cause harm.

You control notification permission and previews through the app and your device. You are responsible for choosing what information is suitable to appear on your device and lock screen.

9. Subscriptions, Trials, Billing, and Cancellation

Synapse may offer a free tier and optional automatically renewing subscriptions. The features, billing period, current price, and any introductory trial or offer are displayed before purchase in the app and in the Apple purchase sheet. Taxes may apply.

If you purchase through Apple:

  • payment is charged to your Apple Account;
  • the subscription renews automatically unless you cancel through your Apple subscription settings at least as required by Apple before the end of the current period;
  • Apple controls billing, renewal timing, payment methods, cancellation, and refunds;
  • trial eligibility is determined by Apple and our subscription provider, and an offer may not appear if you are not eligible;
  • canceling stops future renewal but ordinarily does not provide a refund for the current period; and
  • after cancellation, paid access ordinarily continues until the end of the period for which Apple has received payment, unless you delete the Synapse account needed to use that access.

You can manage or cancel a subscription in your Apple Account subscription settings. To avoid the next charge, cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, or earlier if Apple instructs you to do so. Deleting the Synapse app or deleting your Synapse account does not cancel your Apple subscription. Cancel it separately with Apple.

Except where required by law or Apple's policies, subscription charges are nonrefundable. If a refund is available for an App Store purchase, request it from Apple. Restoring purchases may require the same Apple Account used for the original purchase.

We may change future subscription prices or paid features. Apple will provide any notice or consent required for price changes. A change does not alter amounts already paid for a current period.

10. Acceptable Use

You may not, and may not help anyone else to:

  • use the Services unlawfully or violate another person's rights;
  • access another user's account or data without authorization;
  • upload malicious code or interfere with security, availability, or operation;
  • probe, scan, overload, scrape, or reverse engineer the Services except to the limited extent a law expressly permits despite this restriction;
  • bypass rate limits, subscription controls, access controls, or safety measures;
  • use automated means to extract data or generate excessive requests;
  • misrepresent AI output as human-authored where disclosure is required by law;
  • use the Services to build, train, or benchmark a competing product without our written permission; or
  • resell or commercially exploit the Services without our written permission.

We may investigate suspected violations and take proportionate action, including limiting a feature, removing unlawful content, suspending an account, or contacting appropriate authorities, subject to applicable law.

11. Synapse Intellectual Property

The Services—including the software, design, branding, logos, text, graphics, and other materials supplied by Synapse—are owned by Synapse or its licensors and are protected by intellectual-property law. Except for the limited app license described below, these Terms do not transfer ownership to you.

You may provide feedback voluntarily. You grant us a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free right to use feedback that does not identify you or disclose your confidential information to improve and develop Synapse. We are not required to use or compensate you for feedback.

12. Mobile-App License and Apple Terms

Subject to these Terms, Synapse grants you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable license to install and use the app for personal, noncommercial use on devices you own or control, in accordance with the applicable app-store rules.

For an iOS app downloaded through Apple, the Apple Standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement ("Apple Standard EULA") applies to the app license and is incorporated by reference. These Terms govern the Synapse service and supplement the Apple Standard EULA. If there is a conflict concerning the iOS app license, the Apple Standard EULA controls.

Apple is not a party to these Terms and is not responsible for the Synapse Services, maintenance, support, warranties, product claims, or third-party intellectual-property claims, except as stated in the Apple Standard EULA or required by law. Apple and its subsidiaries are intended third-party beneficiaries of the provisions applicable to an Apple-distributed app and may enforce those provisions.

13. Third-Party Services

The Services depend on third parties such as AWS, OpenAI, Apple, Google, RevenueCat, Expo, OpenStreetMap/Nominatim, Squarespace, and third-party retailers. Your use of a third-party service may be governed by that provider's terms and privacy policy.

We are not responsible for a third party's independent acts, content, products, availability, or policies. We may replace a provider or integration when reasonably necessary to operate, secure, or improve the Services.

14. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information and is incorporated into these Terms. If these Terms and the Privacy Policy conflict about privacy practices, the Privacy Policy controls for that subject.

15. Suspension, Termination, and Account Deletion

You may stop using Synapse at any time. You may delete your account through the in-app account settings. Account deletion is subject to the retention and provider limitations described in the Privacy Policy and, again, does not cancel an Apple subscription.

We may suspend or terminate access if we reasonably believe you materially violated these Terms, created security or legal risk, used the Services fraudulently or abusively, or if providing the Services is no longer commercially or technically feasible. Where appropriate and legally required, we will provide notice and an opportunity to appeal or cure.

When these Terms end, the licenses granted to you end. Provisions that by their nature should survive—including ownership, payment obligations, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnity, disputes, and general terms—will survive.

16. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Services are provided “as is” and “as available.” Synapse disclaims implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, noninfringement, quiet enjoyment, and any warranty arising from course of dealing or usage of trade.

We do not warrant that the Services or AI output will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, accurate, complete, current, or suitable for your situation; that reminders will be delivered; or that third-party products or links will meet your expectations.

These disclaimers do not limit any warranty or consumer right that cannot lawfully be excluded. If applicable law provides a mandatory warranty, its shortest permitted duration applies.

17. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Synapse and its suppliers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, goodwill, data, relationships, opportunities, or business interruption, arising from or related to the Services, even if advised that such damages were possible.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the total liability of Synapse and its suppliers for all claims arising from or related to the Services will not exceed the greater of US $100 or the amount you paid to Synapse for the Services during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

These limitations do not apply to liability that cannot legally be limited, which may include liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or violation of nonwaivable consumer rights. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

18. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Synapse from third-party claims, losses, liabilities, and reasonable legal costs arising from your unlawful use of the Services, your material breach of these Terms, or User Content you did not have the right to provide. This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim was caused by Synapse's own negligence, willful misconduct, or breach of these Terms, and it does not limit nonwaivable consumer rights.

19. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Any court proceeding must be brought in the state or federal courts located in King County, Washington, and you and Synapse consent to their jurisdiction.

Before filing a claim, you and Synapse agree to make a good-faith effort for at least 30 days to resolve it informally by written notice. Send notice to synapse.stayclose@gmail.com and include your name, the nature of the dispute, and the relief requested.

Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief, using an eligible small-claims court, reporting an issue to a regulator, or exercising a nonwaivable consumer right. If you live in a jurisdiction whose consumer law gives you mandatory rights or permits you to bring a claim in your home courts, those rights are not displaced by this section.

20. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms to reflect changes in the Services, law, security, or business practices. We will post the revised Terms, update the effective date, and provide additional notice when required. Material changes will apply prospectively. If applicable law requires your consent, we will request it. If you do not agree to revised Terms, you must stop using the Services and may delete your account.

21. General Terms

These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Apple Standard EULA where applicable are the entire agreement between you and Synapse about the Services and replace prior agreements on the same subject.

If a provision is unenforceable, it will be modified only as much as necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining provisions will remain in effect. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of the business, subject to applicable law. We are not liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

Headings are for convenience only. The word "including" means "including without limitation."

22. Contact

Questions or legal notices may be sent to:

Hovo Apinyan, doing business as Synapse
429 9th Ave
Kirkland, WA 98033
United States
Email: synapse.stayclose@gmail.com