Terms of Use

The Realm — A bookshelf for your heart.

Effective Date: [LAUNCH DATE]
Last Updated: [LAUNCH DATE]

1. About these Terms

These Terms of Use ("Terms") are a legally binding agreement between you ("you", "your") and Allyoucanreserve Ltd, a private limited company registered in England and Wales (company number 10162791) with registered office at 124 City Road, London, England, EC1V 2NX ("we", "us", "our").

They govern your use of The Realm, a mobile application distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, together with all related services, features and content (the "Service" or "App"). These Terms also function as the end-user licence agreement for the App.

By creating an account or using the App you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy (available in the App under Settings and incorporated by reference). If you do not agree, do not use the App.

Nothing in these Terms limits any rights you have under mandatory consumer-protection law in the country where you live. Where these Terms conflict with such law, the law prevails.

2. Eligibility

The Service is for adults: it is rated 18+ on the app stores. You may only use it if you are at least 18 years old and can lawfully enter into these Terms where you live. By using the App you confirm this is true.

3. Your account

Sign-in is passwordless: a one-time email code, Sign in with Apple, or Google Sign-In. You are responsible for keeping access to your email and sign-in accounts secure, and for all activity under your Realm account.
Provide accurate information and keep it current. Your handle must not impersonate another person, infringe anyone's rights or violate Section 8.
One account per person; accounts are personal and non-transferable.
Each sign-in method identifies you by the email address behind it. If you sign in with a method that uses a different email address (for example Apple's "Hide My Email" one day and an email code sent to your own address another day), the Service treats that as a separate account with its own, separate content. Use the same method each time.
Tell us immediately at support@therealmshelf.app if you suspect unauthorised use of your account.

4. The Service, and how it evolves

The Realm lets you build a virtual bookshelf: track your library, arrange books and decor on shelves, write reviews and notes, design covers, and share published shelves with other readers.

The Service is under active development. We may add, change, retire or replace features, designs, decor and shelf artwork, templates and other content at any time. Specifically:

Decorative assets (decor items, shelf styles, templates, stickers, fonts) may be added, updated, replaced or removed. If an asset you placed is removed, your arrangement remains but that item may no longer render.
We may change which features belong to the free tier and which to the paid tier, and we may introduce new paid features. Changes that would materially reduce what you already paid for during a current subscription period will not be applied to you in that period, or we will offer you a proportionate remedy in line with store policies and applicable law.
We may impose reasonable technical limits (for example storage or upload limits) to keep the Service healthy.

If you are an EU or UK consumer, statutory rules about updates to and conformity of digital content and services apply and are not limited by this Section.

5. Your licence to use the App

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and use the App on devices you own or control, for personal and non-commercial purposes, in accordance with these Terms and the applicable store's usage rules. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

You must not (except where the law expressly permits): copy, modify, distribute, sell, rent or lease the App or any part of it; reverse-engineer, decompile or attempt to extract source code; use the Service via automated means (bots, scrapers) or interfere with its operation or security; misuse rate-limited or paid third-party functionality; or bypass, or attempt to bypass, feature gates of the paid tier.

6. The paid tier — "the full Realm experience"

6.1 What it is

Parts of the Service are free; others belong to a paid tier called the full Realm experience (for example: additional shelves, all shelf styles, custom library lists, unlimited notes, premium fonts, stickers and templates, the background remover, and transparent exports — the exact set is shown in the App and may evolve per Section 4). The free tier has limits — for example on the number of books, shelves, notes per book and saved cover designs — and some paid features have fair-use limits of their own (for example a monthly number of background removals). The current limits are shown in the App and may change per Section 4.

6.2 Billing through the app stores

All purchases are made through your Apple App Store or Google Play account and are subject to that store's terms and payment processing. Current prices, plan durations and any free-trial or introductory terms are always displayed in the App and the store's purchase sheet before you confirm. We never see your payment card details.

6.3 Auto-renewal and cancellation

Unless stated otherwise at purchase, subscriptions renew automatically for successive periods of the same length at the then-current price, and your store account is charged within 24 hours before the current period ends.
You can cancel any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep the paid features until then. Cancel at least 24 hours before renewal to avoid the next charge:
- Apple: device Settings → your name → Subscriptions → The Realm → Cancel.
- Google: Play Store → profile → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions → The Realm → Cancel.
Deleting the App or your Realm account does not cancel a store subscription — cancel it in the store as above.
If offered, unused free-trial time is forfeited when you purchase early, per store rules.

6.4 Price changes

We may change subscription prices for future periods. Price changes are handled through the stores' own consent and notice mechanisms and never apply retroactively; if you do not accept a price change you can cancel before it takes effect.

6.5 Refunds and the EU/UK right of withdrawal

Refunds for store purchases are handled by Apple (reportaproblem.apple.com) or Google (Play Store refund flow) under their policies. If you are an EU or UK consumer, you have a 14-day right of withdrawal for digital purchases; the stores implement this right in their purchase flows (it may lapse early once you expressly consent to immediate performance, as their flows describe). Nothing here limits your statutory rights, including remedies for digital content that is not as described or does not work.

6.6 Restoring purchases

Reinstalled the App or switched devices? Use Restore Purchases (Settings, or on the plans page) with the same store account. Signing into your Realm account also links your entitlement across your devices.

6.7 When a subscription ends

Nothing you made is deleted. Your books, shelves, lists, notes and designs stay on your account and you can keep using them. While you are above a limit of the free tier you cannot add more of that kind — for example more books or another shelf — until you subscribe again or go back under the limit. Features that belong only to the paid tier (such as the background remover) are no longer available.

7. Your content

7.1 What "User Content" means

Everything you create or upload in the Service: your shelves and their arrangements, shelf names and captions, reviews and ratings, comments, your profile (name, handle, bio, avatar), photos you upload (avatar, spine submissions, cover-editor images), and cover designs.

7.2 You own it — we need a licence to show it

You retain all rights in your User Content. So the Service can function, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence, with the right to sublicense to our service providers, to host, store, reproduce, adapt (for technical display purposes, such as rendering, resizing and generating shelf images, and so that the Service works with accessibility features such as screen readers, text resizing or translation), publish and display your User Content within the Service, and to distribute it to other users as you direct through the App's sharing features (publishing a shelf, sharing reviews, commenting, your public profile and profile link). This licence ends when the relevant content or your account is deleted, except for content other users have interacted with where continued display is technically inherent (for example your comment quoted in a notification already delivered), and for our routine backups until they rotate.

We will not use your User Content in external marketing without asking you first.

7.3 Spine submissions

When you add your own spine photo for a book, the App uploads it and submits it for our review automatically. By adding it, you grant us the licence in 7.2 and agree that an approved spine may be displayed as the canonical spine for that book on any user's shelf, without attribution — so that licence expressly covers distributing an approved spine photo to all users as part of the shared book catalogue. You confirm you created the photo yourself (a photograph of a physical book spine you own) and that submitting it does not infringe third-party rights.

Until it is approved, your spine photo is used only on your own shelves — including the picture of any shelf you publish. "Revert to original spine" removes the photo from your device and your shelves, and also withdraws the uploaded copy as long as it has not been approved yet. A spine that has already been approved stays available to other users under the licence above — contact us if you want it removed. Your spine photos, including approved ones, are removed from our systems when you delete your account.

7.4 Your promises about your content

You confirm your User Content: is yours or used with permission; does not infringe intellectual-property, privacy or other rights; and complies with Section 8. You are solely responsible for it. We may (but are not obliged to) review, refuse or remove User Content per Section 9.

7.5 Feedback

Ideas and suggestions you send us can be used by us without restriction or payment — please only send feedback you are happy for us to use.

8. Community rules

The Realm is a place for readers. You must not post, upload or share content that:

is unlawful, defamatory, fraudulent or misleading;
is pornographic or sexually exploitative, or sexualises minors in any form (zero tolerance — immediate ban and, where appropriate, referral to authorities);
harasses, threatens, bullies or hates — including on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability;
promotes violence, self-harm or illegal activity;
infringes others' rights (including uploading commercial artwork or e-book content you have no rights to);
contains malware, spam, mass solicitation or link-farming;
impersonates any person or misrepresents affiliation;
attempts to collect other users' data.

We operate a zero-tolerance policy for objectionable content and abusive users. We may remove content and restrict, suspend or terminate accounts that break these rules, immediately in serious cases.

9. Moderation, reporting and blocking

Shelves, comments, profiles and reviews can all be reported, and every user can be blocked, in the App. Blocking hides you from each other and prevents comments on your shelves.
If you set your account to private, other users must ask to follow you and you decide whether to accept. You can remove a follower at any time. A private account limits who sees your shelves and reviews inside the App; it does not make content you already shared elsewhere private again.
We review reports and act on objectionable content promptly, typically within 24 hours, including removing content and ejecting the offending user where warranted.
Spine submissions are human-reviewed before they can be used as a book's spine on other users' shelves. Your own spine photo shows on your own shelves as soon as you add it — including in the picture of a shelf you publish — so it must follow Section 8 like any other content.
Automated word-filters may hold or hide obviously abusive comments.
If your content is removed or your account restricted and you believe we got it wrong, contact support@therealmshelf.app and we will review the decision. EU users: this address also serves as our point of contact under the Digital Services Act, and you may also flag illegal content there; we handle such notices without undue delay.

10. Book data, covers and third-party content

Book metadata (titles, authors, covers, page counts) comes from third-party sources including the Google Books API, Open Library and our own catalogue. Cover images are displayed to identify books and remain the property of their respective publishers and rights-holders; to show them reliably, we keep a cached copy of catalogue covers on our own servers. We do not guarantee metadata accuracy or availability. Book spines shown in the App are either stylised artwork generated by us for display purposes — which may not match the physical book — or photographs of the physical spine, taken by our team or submitted by users (Section 7.3).

If you are a rights-holder and believe content in the Service infringes your rights, email support@therealmshelf.app with details (identification of the work, the location in the App, your contact details and a statement of good-faith belief); we will investigate and, where appropriate, remove or disable access. This process is available to senders of notices under the US DMCA as well; our designated contact for such notices is the same address.

11. Affiliate links

"Get This Book" opens third-party retailers, currently their UK sites where one exists. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Links to other retailers (for example Bookshop.org) may become affiliate links in future. This never affects the price you pay. Retailers are independent of us; your purchases there are governed solely by their terms.

12. AI-assisted features

Some features use AI (generated spines and cover-colour analysis; the background remover). Outputs are generated automatically and may be imperfect or stylised. You may only use the background remover on images you have the right to use, and you may not use AI features to create content that violates Section 8. The image you choose for the background remover is sent to our servers and to an external provider to be processed, and the finished cut-out is stored on our servers. See the Privacy Policy for what data these features process.

13. Our intellectual property

The App, its design, code, artwork (including shelf frames, decor art, templates, stickers and generated-spine designs), the name The Realm and our logos are owned by us or our licensors and protected by intellectual-property laws. Using the Service gives you no ownership of any of it. You may share screenshots and exports of your own shelves and covers for personal, non-commercial purposes — we're delighted when you do.

14. Third-party services

The Service depends on third-party services (Apple, Google, Supabase, Resend, Cloudflare, RevenueCat, Sentry, Expo, Anthropic, Replicate, Open Library, retailers). Their availability is not within our control, and your use of features they power may also be subject to their terms. We are not responsible for third-party websites you reach through links in the App.

15. Apple App Store — additional terms

If you obtained the App from the Apple App Store, the following applies:

These Terms are between you and us only — not with Apple Inc. ("Apple"), and Apple is not responsible for the App or its content.
The licence in Section 5 is limited to use on Apple-branded products you own or control, per the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions (except that the App may be accessed by other accounts via Family Sharing, volume purchasing or Legacy Contacts).
Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the App.
If the App fails to conform to an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price of the App (if any); to the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses attributable to a failure to conform to a warranty are our responsibility.
We, not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claims by you or a third party relating to the App or your possession and use of it, including: product-liability claims; claims that the App fails to conform to legal or regulatory requirements; claims under consumer protection, privacy or similar legislation; and claims relating to the App's use of the HealthKit or HomeKit frameworks (which the App does not use).
If a third party claims the App infringes its intellectual-property rights, we, not Apple, are responsible for the investigation, defence, settlement and discharge of the claim to the extent required by these Terms.
You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
You must comply with applicable third-party terms of agreement when using the App (for example your wireless data agreement).
Questions, complaints or claims about the App should be directed to us, not to Apple — our name, address, telephone number and email are in Section 23.
Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

16. Google Play — additional terms

If you obtained the App from Google Play, your use is also subject to the Google Play Terms of Service, and Google is not a party to these Terms and not responsible for the App or these Terms' enforcement.

17. Termination

By you: stop using the App at any time; delete your account in Settings → Manage Account → Delete Account & All Data (this removes your server-side data — see the Privacy Policy). Remember to cancel any subscription in the store (Section 6.3).
By us: we may suspend or terminate your access if you materially or repeatedly breach these Terms, if we are required to by law, or if we discontinue the Service. Except in serious cases (Section 8) we will give you reasonable notice and, where the law requires, a chance to remedy. If we discontinue the Service entirely or terminate without cause while you have paid time remaining, we will direct you to the applicable store's refund process for the unused period, without limiting your statutory rights.
Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including 7.2's backup tail, 13, 15, 18–21) survive.

18. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the maximum extent permitted by law we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, and we do not warrant the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free or that content (including book metadata) is accurate.

If you are a consumer, this Section does not exclude or limit anything that cannot be excluded or limited under the law of your country — including, for UK and EU consumers, statutory rights that digital content and services be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality.

Back up what matters to you. Reading notes, personal covers and cover designs exist only on your device (see the Privacy Policy) and cannot be recovered by us if your device is lost, the App is deleted, you delete your account, or a different account signs in on that device (the App warns you and asks first).

19. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for: death or personal injury caused by our negligence; fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by applicable law.

Subject to that, we will not be liable for: loss of profits, business or goodwill; indirect or consequential loss; or losses that were not foreseeable to both parties when these Terms were formed. Our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amounts you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to liability and (b) £50.

Some jurisdictions (including some U.S. states) do not allow certain exclusions or limits; in those places these limits apply only to the extent permitted.

20. Your responsibility for your content

If you are not a consumer, you will indemnify us against claims arising from your User Content or your breach of these Terms. If you are a consumer, you are legally responsible for damage we suffer that is caused by your breach of these Terms or your unlawful content, per the applicable law of your country.

21. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. If you are a consumer, you additionally benefit from any mandatory protections of the law of the country where you live, and you may bring proceedings in your local courts where that law provides so; we may bring proceedings against you as a consumer only in the courts of your country of residence.

Before going to court, please contact us at support@therealmshelf.app — most issues can be solved quickly and amicably.

22. General

Changes to these Terms: we may update them as the Service or the law changes. For material changes we will give at least 14 days' notice in the App; if you do not agree, stop using the Service (and cancel any subscription) before the changes take effect. Continued use after the effective date means acceptance.
Severability: if part of these Terms is found invalid, the rest remains in force.
No waiver: not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it.
Assignment: you may not transfer your rights under these Terms; we may transfer ours as part of a business transfer, without reducing your rights.
Entire agreement: these Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us regarding the Service.
Translations: if these Terms are translated, the English version prevails to the extent permitted by law.

23. Contact

Allyoucanreserve Ltd
124 City Road, London, England, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom
Email: support@therealmshelf.app
Telephone: +44 7958 168164