Pestr Terms of Service

Effective date: July 2, 2026
Last updated: August 31, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Pestr website, iPhone app, Pestr Alarm device and firmware, backend services, mailing list, and related support (together, the "Services"). By using the Services, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

1. Eligibility

You must be legally able to enter into these Terms. If you have not reached the age of legal majority where you live, a parent or legal guardian must agree to these Terms for you. You must be at least 18 years old to use Photo mode. If you use the Services for an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind it.

2. Service Availability

The iPhone app lets you sign in with email and password, Google, or Apple. A new email-and-password account must confirm its address with the six-digit code Pestr sends before it can sign in. A signed-in Pestr account authenticates protected backend requests and can enable a Profile, Friends, eligible gifting, limited Friend productivity summaries, and device-benefit activation. Signing in does not upload full tasks or timelapse videos.

The website provides product information, an App Store link, and an optional mailing list, but no checkout or user login. Joining the website mailing list does not create an app account. The optional product-update checkbox shown during initial Profile setup is separate from account creation and is not required to use Pestr.

Core app features can work locally without signing in. Signing in, account confirmation and recovery, Photo validation, Profile and Friend features, productivity-summary sync, device-benefit activation, gifting, firmware delivery, and App Store purchases or restores require network access. Protected signed-out requests may use a random internal anonymous service identifier. That identifier is not a separate user-facing Profile or guest account and cannot activate the included device year or send gifts.

We may change, suspend, or discontinue a feature when reasonably necessary for security, legal, operational, or product reasons. Where practical, we will avoid unnecessarily removing already-paid access.

3. License and Ownership

Subject to these Terms and applicable App Store terms, Pestr grants you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the app and firmware on compatible devices for their intended purpose.

Pestr and its licensors own the Services, software, firmware, design, branding, documentation, and related intellectual property. No ownership is transferred to you.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, sublicense, reverse engineer, bypass security or usage controls, extract device secrets, interfere with the Services, submit fraudulent device claims, manipulate productivity or gift records, misuse backend endpoints, or use the Services to violate law or another person's rights, except where a restriction is prohibited by law.

4. Your Responsibilities

You are responsible for:

Do not use Pestr to harass, surveil, spam, coerce, deceive, punish, or control another person, or as an emergency, medical, safety-critical, or life-support system.

5. Profiles, Friends, Productivity Sharing, and Gifts

A Pestr Profile uses a unique username and selected icon. Your Profile is not published on the open web, but another signed-in Profile that knows your exact username can use it to send a Friend request. Pestr does not verify real-world identity, so a username, Friend request, or accepted connection is not proof of who a person is. You are responsible for deciding whom to accept and what to share.

Accepted Friends can see usernames, Profile icons, friendship dates, and any productivity categories enabled by each person's sharing controls. When Share streak is on, Friends may see current and highest streaks. When Share total hours is on, Friends may see daily, weekly, monthly, and all-time timelapse durations and related rankings. These values are based on limited synced metadata and may be delayed, incomplete, or inaccurate. Turning sharing off hides a category from Friends but does not delete the underlying summary. Removing a Friend stops future Friend-only visibility after the Services process the change, but does not undo a completed gift.

Pestr may reject, restrict, rename, suspend, or remove Profiles, requests, connections, or related access when reasonably necessary to address impersonation, harassment, fraud, abuse, security, legal, or operational risk. Pestr does not promise to monitor all Profile or Friend activity.

Device-bound gifts are promotional benefits, not payments between users. The current eligible alarm owner may gift one month of Pestr Photo to up to three different accepted Friends over that physical alarm's lifetime. Each recipient may receive only one gift from that physical alarm. Each successful gift also adds one month to the giver's Pestr Photo access. A gift has no cash value, cannot be sold or exchanged, and ordinarily cannot be reversed after it is issued. Removing a Friend, changing a username, transferring the alarm, or changing or deleting an account does not restore the physical alarm's consumed gift budget. Deleting an account may end promotional access attached to that account.

6. Reminders and Safety Limitations

Reminders, AlarmKit alarms, notifications, Screen Time shields, QR checks, Photo checks, timelapses, Total Disarm, local-network connections, Pestr Alarm schedules and speakers, battery reporting, Wi-Fi, firmware updates, backend services, Friend features, productivity summaries, gifts, and local storage can fail, be delayed, be inaccurate, or become unavailable because of permissions, volume, Focus settings, battery level, connectivity, distance, interference, operating-system behavior, app termination, setup, storage limits, third-party outages, hardware faults, or software errors.

Pestr is a productivity aid, not a guarantee that a task will start, sound, block an app, be completed, or be verified. Total Disarm and similar controls can weaken a reminder. You remain responsible for important obligations and for using backup alarms where missed timing could cause harm.

7. Photo and QR Features

You must be at least 18 years old to use Photo mode. Photo verification sends a captured image and your task description through your current Pestr service session to a Pestr endpoint that uses Google's Gemini API for an automated match decision. Pestr does not intentionally persist the image in its application database or backend file storage after validation. Google and infrastructure providers may retain inputs, outputs, and related safety or technical records under their applicable terms and Pestr's service configuration.

Automated results can be wrong. Do not use Photo or QR mode for identity verification, access control, legal compliance, safety decisions, or proof on which another person must rely. Do not submit sensitive, confidential, unlawful, infringing, or third-party personal content. Use tap or QR mode if you do not want to send a photo to a cloud service.

8. Timelapses and Imported Media

Timelapses remain local unless you choose to share them. Limited timelapse metadata may be included in the productivity-summary sync described in Section 5, but titles, descriptions, and video files are not uploaded for that feature. Imported audio may be copied or converted on the iPhone and transferred to a paired Pestr Alarm.

You keep ownership of your original content and grant Pestr and its service providers only the limited rights needed to host, transmit, process, display, and protect content or metadata you submit through the Services.

Deleting an original file or the app may not delete media already stored on the physical alarm. Remove it separately or reset the alarm.

9. Pestr Alarm, Wi-Fi, and Firmware

Use only supported devices, firmware, accessories, power sources, and update methods. Do not interrupt an update, install untrusted firmware, expose an owner or device secret, or attempt to defeat pairing, device-benefit verification, gift limits, or firmware integrity controls.

During a temporary setup window, the alarm creates a Wi-Fi network that the iPhone can join. If you pair while using a completed Profile, the app may use part of your username in the alarm's display name and setup-network name, which can be visible to nearby devices while the setup network is active. Do not choose a username you would not want used in that temporary network name.

If you provide home Wi-Fi credentials, you direct the app to transmit them to the paired alarm and the alarm to encrypt and store them locally. Configure only networks you are authorized to use. Unpair or reset the alarm before selling, giving away, returning, or disposing of it, and remove custom audio, network credentials, and device names separately when needed.

The alarm is not a backup for full task content. Unpairing, resetting, storage failure, or certain repair operations can erase schedules, settings, credentials, or media. Normal supported firmware updates are designed to preserve them, but you should not rely on the alarm as the only copy of important information.

10. Purchases, Subscriptions, and the Included Device Year

The app is free. Pestr Photo is offered as monthly and yearly auto-renewing subscriptions through Apple's App Store. Apple displays and processes the price, renewal period, taxes, cancellation, refund, and billing terms. Manage or cancel a subscription through your Apple account settings; deleting the app or your Pestr account does not cancel it.

An eligible Pestr Alarm may include one complimentary year of Pestr Photo. Activation requires a paired eligible alarm, network access, a completed signed-in Pestr Profile, and successful cryptographic verification. The one-year period begins with the first successful activation, has no cash value, is tied to the eligible physical alarm, cannot be resold, and does not restart or extend when the alarm is re-verified. If the alarm is transferred and successfully claimed by a different eligible Profile, the remaining fixed device benefit may move with it; the previous owner's device-based access then ends unless that person has another valid entitlement. The included year itself cannot be divided or gifted. The separate three-recipient promotional gift described in Section 5 becomes available only when Pestr can verify the alarm and current owner are eligible.

App Store subscriptions, the included year, and promotional months may be subject to separate platform or offer rules. If more than one entitlement is present, the app determines access from the valid entitlements it can verify. An included year or promotional month does not automatically change Apple's billing schedule.

11. Third-Party Services

The Services depend on Supabase, Google (including Google Sign-In and Gemini), Apple (including Sign in with Apple, the App Store, and iOS services), Cloudflare, Resend, internet access, and device or operating-system features. Their terms and privacy policies apply to their services. Pestr is not responsible for a third party's independent service, outage, billing decision, policy, or processing, to the extent permitted by law.

12. Suspension, Termination, and Deletion

You may sign out, delete your Pestr account, reset signed-out service data, stop using the Services, delete the app, remove Friend connections, unpair or reset the alarm, unsubscribe from product updates, and cancel App Store subscriptions through Apple. These are separate actions. Deleting a Pestr account does not cancel an App Store subscription, unsubscribe an email address from product updates, or automatically erase local or on-alarm data. A device-bound gift ledger may remain after account deletion to preserve the physical alarm's permanent gift limit and previously granted benefits, as explained in the Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or delete accounts or Profiles, restrict social, backend, or device-benefit access, invalidate sessions or tokens, reject claims or gifts, or remove prohibited content if necessary to address fraud, abuse, security, legal, payment, or operational risk. Local features that do not require the backend may continue, but compatibility is not guaranteed.

13. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Services are provided "as is" and "as available." Pestr disclaims warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, uninterrupted operation, and error-free operation. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain disclaimers, so some may not apply to you.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Pestr and its suppliers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, opportunities, goodwill, or business interruption arising from the Services.

Where liability cannot be excluded, Pestr's total liability for claims relating to the Services will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid to Pestr for the Services during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim or US $50. These limits do not apply where prohibited by law or to liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

15. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Pestr and its personnel from third-party claims arising from your unlawful misuse of the Services, violation of these Terms, or infringement of another person's rights. This does not apply to the extent a claim results from Pestr's own unlawful conduct.

16. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, except where your local consumer law requires otherwise. Courts located in California will have jurisdiction unless applicable law gives you the right to bring a claim elsewhere.

Before filing a formal claim, contact app.pestr@gmail.com and describe the issue so we can try to resolve it informally. Nothing in these Terms prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief or using an available small-claims process.

17. Changes

We may update these Terms as the Services or law changes. We will revise the date above and provide additional notice when required. Continuing to use the Services after updated Terms take effect means you accept them, except where law requires another form of consent.

18. Contact

Email: app.pestr@gmail.com