Terms of Service

Last updated: May 19, 2026

These terms are an agreement between you and Tilted Planet, Ltd., an Illinois corporation ("we", "us", "Tilted Planet"). By using teacups you agree to all of this.

What teacups Is

An anonymous, location-based chat app. You talk to people nearby without sharing your real identity.
You get a random color and shape instead of a name. It changes with each conversation.
Messages disappear after 4 hours of inactivity.
Teacups dynamically adjusts the size of your chat group based on the number of active users in your area. When fewer people are nearby, the radius widens to include a larger area. As more users join, the radius narrows to bring conversations closer to your immediate surroundings.
Some chat zones may require you to be stationary for a short period before you can send messages.
Automated participants (bots) may be present in chat zones. Bots are operated by Teacups to foster conversation. Their messages are generated by AI.
Teacups may prevent screenshots and screen recordings to protect user privacy.

Who Can Use It

You must be at least 18 years old.
One account per device. If your device gets banned, that's it.

The Rules

No bullying, harassment, threats, or hate speech.
No illegal content. No spam. No scams.
No sharing other people's personal information.
No abusing the report system. Filing fake reports can get you banned.

Community Moderation

Your neighbors can become community reviewers.
If enough people report you, reviewers vote on what happens.
Consequences range from a warning to a permanent device ban.
Reports are reviewed by AI to assess severity before being presented to community reviewers.
Reviewer votes are anonymous. No one knows who voted or how.

Magic Teacups

You earn tea leaves by chatting with neighbors, or you can buy them.
Spend tea leaves to tap into conversations in other areas.
Each teacup shows the last 42 minutes or last 42 messages, whichever is more.
Teacup visits are read-only unless you have an active Tea Infuser, which lets you send messages in any Magic Teacup.

Tea Balls

A Tea Ball is a unique, persistent handle (alias, pseudonym) you can purchase in the Tea Shop.
Your Tea Ball appears on your messages in purple when visible. You can toggle visibility on or off at any time.
Tea Ball handles are unique — once claimed, no one else can use that name.
You may not impersonate real people, brands, or public figures with your Tea Ball.
Tea Balls can be revoked by moderation for violating the rules. No refund is given for revoked Tea Balls. Serious abuse may trigger a ban from the platform.

Tea Parties

A Tea Party is a private group chat. You need a Teaspoon to start or join one.
The creator gets a 6-character invite code to share with others.
Tea Party messages live in memory only and disappear when the party ends, but may be encrypted and retained for up to 2 years in case of trust and safety issues.
The creator can make the party persistent, meaning it won't expire from inactivity.
Participants can optionally set a Tea Bag — a free, disposable, one-time-use handle visible only within that party.
Tea Bags are ephemeral and not stored after the party ends.
All standard conduct rules apply within Tea Parties. Don't ruin a good thing.

Subscriptions

Tea Infuser lets you send messages in any Magic Teacup worldwide. Requires a Tea Ball.
Live Translation automatically translates messages to your preferred language.
Style Anonymizer attempts to rewrite your messages in a different voice to reduce identifiability by writing style.
Subscription features may change over time.

teater

teater is a curated feed of notable conversations from teacups.
Content may be selected by community upvotes, AI curation, or community nomination.
If you do not use Tea Balls and your message appears on teater, it remains anonymous — no identity information is attached. Tea Ball users will have their handle attached to teater messages.

Private Teacups (Teaspoons)

A Teaspoon is a $9.99 one-time consumable token that lets two anonymous users open a private chat called a Private Teacup.
Both users must own a Teaspoon and have Teaspoon Time enabled to participate.
Phone verification is required before purchasing a Teaspoon. Your phone number is encrypted and stored on our servers.
Either user can break a Private Teacup at any time. Once broken, the other user loses access immediately and silently.
After chatting, both users can mutually agree to reveal their phone numbers. Reveal is simultaneous — neither sees the other's number until both agree.
Private Teacup messages are stored encrypted on our servers for up to 2 years, then permanently deleted.
You accept all risk of meeting or communicating with strangers. Tilted Planet is not responsible for anything that happens in a Private Teacup or as a result of revealing your phone number.
Declining a Teaspoon request is always silent. The requester sees a neutral "something didn't work out" message — they cannot tell whether you declined or the request expired.
Abuse in Private Teacups is subject to the same rules and enforcement as regular chat, including device bans.

Games

teacups may offer optional zone-based games such as Spot the Bot, Word Guess, Guess the Teacup, and Poker.
Games are for entertainment purposes only. Tea leaves earned through games have no monetary value and cannot be exchanged for currency, gift cards, or anything outside of teacups.
Game results, scores, and tea leaf awards are determined by our servers. Errors in calculations or deposits may occasionally occur. We will make reasonable efforts to correct errors but are not obligated to do so.
No refunds or compensation will be provided for game outcomes, lost tea leaves, or technical issues during gameplay.
Games may be added, modified, or removed at any time.

Home Teapot

You can set a home address and switch back to it for free from anywhere.
Your home address can only be changed once per year. Additional resets can be purchased in the Tea Shop.
Your street address is stored locally on your device. Your home coordinates are stored on our servers to enable the teleport-home feature.
You can customize which nearby areas are visible from your home teapot using the Home Zone Editor.

Purchases

Teacups offers in-app purchases including Tea Leaves, Teaspoons, Tea Balls, Tea Tags, and Home Teapot Resets. Prices are displayed in the Tea Shop at time of purchase.
Teacups offers non-renewing 1-year purchases including Tea Infuser, Live Translation, and Style Anonymizer. These do not auto-renew and are lost if the app is deleted. Prices are shown at time of purchase.
Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the renewal date. Manage or cancel through your Apple ID settings.
Tea Leaves can be spent on Magic Teacups and other features.
Teaspoons are consumed when a Private Teacup is opened. They cannot be transferred or resold.
Tea Balls are consumed when a handle is claimed or changed.
Tea Tags are consumed one per photo or video upload. A pack contains 100 Tea Tags and they do not expire. Tea Tags are not refunded if an upload is rejected by content moderation.
If a Teaspoon request expires or is declined, your Teaspoon is automatically refunded.
All purchases are processed through Apple and subject to Apple's terms.
Purchases are non-refundable except where required by law.
We can change prices, amounts, or what you get for your purchase at any time.

Photos and Videos

Sending photos or videos requires Tea Tags. Receiving and viewing photos and videos is always free.
Every photo and video upload is scanned by a commercial content-moderation service before it is delivered to other users. Uploads that fail moderation are not delivered, and the Tea Tag used is not refunded.
Photos and videos that match a known restricted file (for example, content listed in the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children hash database) are not delivered and may be reported to authorities as required by law.
Before your photo or video is delivered to other users, technical metadata is stripped from the file. This includes location coordinates (EXIF GPS), camera model and serial number, capture timestamp, and other embedded device information.
The version delivered to other users contains the image or video data only, with this metadata removed.
The original file (with metadata intact) is retained on our servers only for trust-and-safety purposes, including responding to abuse reports and law-enforcement inquiries. See our Privacy Policy for retention details.
Photos are compressed before sending. Videos are trimmed to 15 seconds and compressed.

Your Content

You own what you write, but you give us permission to relay it to other users in your area.
If you have a Tea Ball, your chosen handle is stored on our servers and associated with your device.
We don't store text messages permanently. They live in memory and vanish after 4 hours of inactivity.
Photo and video originals are retained server-side for trust-and-safety purposes only; the metadata-stripped versions delivered to other users are not permanently stored. See our Privacy Policy for retention details.

Apple Watch

The teacups Apple Watch companion app lets you read nearby conversations.
The same rules and terms apply on the watch as on the phone.

What We Can Do

Ban devices that break the rules.
Remove content or restrict access at any time.
Revoke Tea Balls that violate impersonation or conduct rules.
Collect and retain anonymous, aggregated statistical and usage data to operate, improve, and evolve the service. This data cannot be used to identify individual users.
Shut down or change the service at any time. We'll try to give notice, but no promises.

Platform Participants

Certain individuals may be granted operational roles (such as developer, moderator, or contractor) to help build, test, maintain, or moderate teacups.
Platform participants use the app under a credential linked to their identity. Their activity — including messages sent, features accessed, and connections made — may be logged and monitored for security, quality assurance, and accountability purposes.
Platform participants are subject to confidentiality obligations and all standard conduct rules.
If you are granted an operational role, you consent to this monitoring as a condition of access.

No Warranties

teacups is provided "as is." We don't guarantee it will always work, be safe, or be available. Use it at your own risk.

Liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law, Tilted Planet is not responsible for anything that happens on teacups — including things other users say or do. Our total liability to you is limited to the amount you've paid us in the last 12 months.

Changes

We can update these terms. If we make big changes, you'll see them next time you open the app. Continuing to use teacups means you accept the new terms.

Contact

Tilted Planet, Ltd.
legal@teacups.com