Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated October 14, 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Tailmates. By creating an account or using the app, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use Tailmates.

1. The service

Tailmates is a social dog-walking game with an optional canine longevity feature. The core app is free. Certain features, notably a lab verified longevity score, involve veterinary services purchased separately and delivered by licensed veterinarians.

2. Eligibility & accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and capable of forming a binding contract. You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your credentials secure. Provide accurate information and keep it current.

3. Acceptable use

• Do not falsify activity. Walks must be real. We use server-side recomputation and anti-cheat checks; automotive, spoofed, or teleported “walks” earn no XP and may be flagged.
• Do not harass other users, post unlawful content, or abuse social features.
• Do not attempt to reverse-engineer, disrupt, or gain unauthorized access to the service.
• Walk responsibly. Mind traffic, weather, leash laws, and your dog’s limits.

Audio chat recording

Hosts with Tailmates+ or Tailmates Silver control starting, pausing, resuming, and stopping audio recordings in Voice. Starting a walk or opening a walk page does not itself authorize recording your voice.

Only speakers are recorded, and only after they tap OK. When a host records, you see a recording notice before your voice can be recorded, and nothing you say is recorded before you tap OK on it. Tapping OK is your agreement to be recorded and to let the host keep a copy. If you would rather not be recorded, tap Not now or Leave, whichever the notice shows. Listeners are never recorded. Where the app marks a live walk as recorded, it says “Recorded (speakers only)”.

Podcast episodes. The host may publish a recording as a podcast episode, in Tailmates and on podcast apps such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Speakers are not asked a second time before an episode goes live. If the group’s show publishes automatically, the notice says so, and the episode goes live after a short hold unless a host holds it. Every speaker in a published episode is notified when it goes live, unless they have blocked the host or the host has blocked them, and any speaker can ask to be taken out of it.

A visible recording indicator appears in Voice while recording is confirmed active. Leaving the stage or leaving Voice stops your voice being recorded from then on, and so does Stop including my voice where the app offers it. That does not erase audio already recorded, copies the host has already saved, or an episode already published. Hosts must respect participants’ choices, comply with applicable recording and privacy laws, and get any permission the law requires beyond the in-app notice before using a recording outside Tailmates. A host who publishes an episode confirms they had the right to record everyone who can be heard in it. These Terms do not replace the in-app recording notice.

Recording is part of Tailmates+ and Tailmates Silver. Tapping Start recording is your agreement to these recording terms, and a recording can run up to 5 hours. The host keeps the recording and can play it, save or share a copy, rename it, or delete it at any time. The other people on the recording can’t save or share it; when speaker playback reaches their app, they can play it back in Tailmates while the host’s copy is available. If your plan ends, you can still play and save the recordings you hosted for 30 days from the day it ended, but you can’t start or resume a recording. After 30 days your recordings are kept but locked until you subscribe again. A refund or a revoked purchase ends that access right away. A complimentary plan works the same way when it ends.

If you delete your account, we delete the recordings you hosted. Recordings another host made with you in Voice stay with that host, and your voice stays in them. We delete your name, profile, and account. Those recordings keep an internal identifier that has no name, email, or profile behind it. Our Privacy Policy says what a recording keeps and where.

3A. Podcasts

Your show. A host can run a podcast for a group: a show name, a description, artwork, and episodes. An episode can come from a recording you hosted in Voice, from audio you upload in the studio, or both. You choose who hears each episode: Tailmates members, the members of one of your groups, or anyone.

Publishing needs a plan. Publishing a new episode needs a current Tailmates+ or Tailmates Silver plan, like recording. If your plan ends, your published episodes stay up and you can still edit, unpublish, or delete them. You can’t publish new ones until you subscribe again.

What you promise. Before you publish, you confirm that:

• Everyone who can be heard agreed to be recorded, and you had the right to record them (section 3, Audio chat recording).
• You own everything else in the episode, or have written permission to use it in a podcast: music, sound, intros, artwork, and anything you upload. Music playing in the background on a walk counts. A cafe’s speaker or a car radio is someone else’s recording.
• The episode and its title, description, and artwork follow our Community rules.
• Nothing in it gives away where someone lives or walks. No addresses, no meeting points, no full names of people who are not the host.

What you let us do. You keep ownership of your show and your episodes. You give Tailmates a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, and process them, and to play, show, and distribute them through Tailmates and through your show’s feed, for as long as they are published and for the time it takes us to remove our copies after that. Processing means what makes an episode ready: trimming and cuts you choose, loudness levelling, a file podcast apps accept, chapters, artwork sized for podcast apps, a transcript when you turn transcripts on, and a link card when someone shares the episode. We don’t sell your episodes, and we don’t use them to train AI models.

Public feeds. An episode you publish for anyone goes on your show’s public page and in its public RSS feed. Podcast apps such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify read that feed and can list, copy, and serve it under their own terms. When you unpublish or delete an episode, we take it off Tailmates and out of the feed, and we delete our public copy. Podcast apps drop it the next time they read the feed. Copies that apps or listeners already downloaded can’t be recalled.

Member and group feeds. An episode for members or for one group plays only for people who are signed in and allowed to hear it. A member can add a private feed to a podcast app. That feed link is personal: don’t share it. We can turn off a private feed link at any time, and it stops working when its owner leaves the group or loses access.

Transcripts. If you turn transcripts on for your show, we make each one with speech-to-text on our own computers, then take out places, contact details, codes, and surnames. You read it and approve it before anyone else sees it. Transcripts can still be wrong. Turning transcripts off deletes your show’s transcripts.

Listens. Play counts and listening positions help your show and let listeners pick up where they left off. Counts are approximate.

When we act. We don’t review every episode before it goes live, and we don’t have to. We can hold, edit the listing of, or take down an episode, a show, or a feed that breaks these Terms or the Community rules, that we receive a valid legal notice about, or that puts someone at risk. We can stop an account from publishing. When we take something down, we tell the host why, unless the law or someone’s safety says otherwise.

Reporting an episode. Use Report on the episode, or write to support@tailmates.io with the episode link. We review reports every day.

Copyright. We respond to notices of claimed copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you believe an episode, show, or artwork on Tailmates infringes your copyright, send our designated agent a written notice that includes: your physical or electronic signature; the work you say is infringed; the link to the material on Tailmates; your contact details; a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorized by the owner, its agent, or the law; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner.

We remove the material, tell the host, and send them a copy of the notice. If you are the host and believe we removed your material by mistake or because it was misidentified, you can send the agent a counter-notice: your signature; the material removed and where it was; a statement under penalty of perjury that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake or misidentification; your name, address, and phone number; and your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for your address (or, outside the US, any district where Tailmates may be found) and to accept service from the person who sent the notice. We may restore the material 10 to 14 business days after we receive a valid counter-notice, unless the sender tells us they have filed a court action.

Repeat infringers. We end the hosting of anyone who repeatedly infringes. Three valid notices that a host does not successfully counter, within any 12 months, end that account’s ability to publish, and may end the account.

Other people’s rights. Don’t use someone’s name, voice, or likeness to promote anything without their permission. An episode is not an ad for anything but your walks and your group.

3B. Care Pass

A Care Pass lets someone you choose see your dog’s care details and record care for the dates you set. It never transfers ownership. Any member of your dog can end it at any time.

• If you hold a Care Pass, use what you see only to care for that dog. Don’t share it, and don’t keep it after the pass ends, except vaccine records the owner let your business save.
• Businesses are responsible for their team’s use of Tailmates, for telling their team that care walks record location on their phones, and for the laws that apply to their business.
• Tailmates doesn’t employ, recommend, supervise or insure caregivers, isn’t a party to care arrangements, and doesn’t take bookings or payments for care. Questions about care are between the owner and the caregiver.
• Tailmates doesn’t run background checks on caregivers and doesn’t guarantee anyone’s insurance.
• Use Care only for clients you serve directly. Don’t invite clients you serve or first met through another pet care platform, and don’t use another platform’s messages to invite anyone to Tailmates.
• Each person on a business’s team uses their own Tailmates account. Don’t share a login, including at a front desk.
• Report photos are shared with the dog’s owners. Don’t photograph people in them.
• Never use Tailmates to follow or monitor anyone outside a care session.

4. Gamification & virtual items

XP, levels, streaks, badges, leagues, the Coins, finds, buildings, and items in Tailmates Town, and similar items have no cash value, are non-transferable, and may be adjusted to preserve fair play or correct errors. The score of record is computed on our servers, not on your device. Tailmates Town is in beta, and its features and content may change as we build it.

5. Longevity features

The free Longevity Estimate is an educational wellness signal. It is not a diagnosis, prognosis, or veterinary advice. A lab verified longevity score is generated only after a licensed veterinarian reviews source lab results within an established veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR). Your use of these features is also governed by our Longevity & Medical Disclaimer, which is incorporated into these Terms.

Apple Health (HealthKit). Tailmates uses Health data to import, verify, and score walking workouts you choose to import. Scout may also use server-filtered totals derived from imported activity when Apple permission, your Scout Data Setting, and Tailmates’ server-side capability all allow it. Scout never receives precise routes, raw location samples, or raw Apple Health samples. We do not sell Health data, use it for advertising, or share it with third parties for marketing.

6. Scout assistant

Scout is an AI assistant inside Tailmates. These Terms cover your use of Scout. You do not need to accept anything separately to use it.

Scout processes your conversation to generate replies. When you send a message, our server sends that message, recent Scout conversation context, and the data categories you leave enabled to our model service providers. They return a reply on our instructions. Scout never receives precise routes, raw location samples, or raw Apple Health samples. Our Privacy Policy describes what we send and to whom.

Scout is an automated assistant, not a veterinarian. It is a wellness companion that educates and never diagnoses. Its replies are not veterinary advice and can be wrong or incomplete. Do not rely on Scout for a diagnosis, a treatment decision, medication amounts, or an emergency. Ask your veterinarian about your dog’s health, and seek care promptly for anything urgent.

Scout’s six saved data categories start enabled. You can turn each category off or back on in Scout Data Settings. Turning one off affects future Scout use and weekly check-ins, not the underlying Tailmates record.

7. Payments

If you purchase a blood panel or veterinary service, you authorize our payment processor to charge your selected method. Tailmates pays the practice that enters your dog’s blood results into Tailmates a flat fee for that data entry, on a published fee schedule. The fee is the same on every panel and is never a percentage of what you pay. The practice bills you its own fee for the blood draw, and for the appointment and lab work, directly at its own rates. You will never be required to pay to use the core walking and gamification features.

Paid groups and walks. A host can charge for a group membership, a walk pass, or a spot on a walk, at a price the host sets. On tailmates.io you pay that price by card through Stripe. In the Tailmates app, a purchase can go through the App Store or Google Play, where the price is higher to cover the store’s fee.

If you host and charge. Tailmates assesses a fee of 10% of the price you set, on every channel: the web, the iPhone app, and the Android app. In the App Store and Google Play, members pay a higher price, so after the store’s fee you net at least what the same sale pays you on the web. A yearly price, which only the App Store sells, and a price set before this fee took effect keep the fee they were set with, which is never more than 10% of the price. Card processing and Stripe Billing on anything that renews are on top of the 10% and come out of your payout. App store fees are separate from the 10%. To get paid, you set up a Stripe account and complete Stripe’s checks. Payouts go out weekly once you have $25 or more ready.

Buying on tailmates.io. A purchase that renews, like a membership, renews at the price shown until you cancel. Cancel online any time at tailmates.io/account or from the link in your receipt, and you keep access to the end of the period you paid for. If you pay without signing in, we use the email address you give Stripe only to send your receipt and the link that adds the purchase to your account. Payments are for walk access or community membership. They are not tax-deductible donations.

Refunds

• If the host cancels a walk, your ticket is refunded in full, automatically.
• Canceling a purchase that renews stops the next renewal. It does not refund the period you already paid for.
• A host can refund a payment. A refund ends the membership, pass, or ticket right away.
• Card refunds can take 5 to 10 business days to show.
• Purchases made through the App Store or Google Play are refunded under Apple’s and Google’s own rules (section 8 explains how to ask).
• Questions about a payment? Write to support@tailmates.io.

8. Tailmates+ and Tailmates Silver subscriptions

Tailmates+ and Tailmates Silver are optional auto-renewing subscriptions. On Apple, they share one subscription group. On Google Play, they are separate products and the store manages upgrades or replacement between them. Silver is the higher tier and includes every Plus benefit; if receipts briefly overlap during a store transition, Silver controls the available membership benefits. The core app stays free: walks, points, streaks, leagues, the social feed, and your dog’s Longevity Estimate are never behind either membership.

What Plus includes, for as long as it is active: health trends over time, your dog’s charted body condition, double points on every walk, two extra streak passes a month, unlimited co-owners, and $10 off every bloodwork panel. What Silver adds: access to Scout, including a monthly Scout usage allowance, on top of all Plus benefits. Benefits continue through each paid billing period and stop when the applicable subscription lapses.

Plus plans and price. Plus monthly is a one-month term at $8.99 per month. Plus annual is a one-year term at $79.99 per year, or about $6.67 per month.

Silver plans and price. Silver monthly is a one-month term at $24.99 per month. Silver annual is a one-year term at $249.00 per year, or $20.75 per month. These are US list prices. Your local price and currency, set by the store, are shown on the purchase screen before you confirm.

Payment. Payment is charged to your Apple Account or your Google Play account at confirmation of purchase, not to Tailmates.

Automatic renewal. The subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period, at the price of the plan you selected. Renewals continue at the same term, month for month or year for year, until you cancel.

Managing and canceling. Tailmates cannot manage or cancel your subscription. Manage or cancel it in your Apple ID or Google Play account settings. On iPhone or iPad: Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions, then Tailmates. On Android: Google Play, then your profile, then Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions, then Tailmates. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period, and you keep the benefits until then. Deleting the app or your Tailmates account does not cancel the subscription.

Refunds. Apple or Google handles refund requests under its own policies. Tailmates cannot issue subscription refunds. Request an Apple refund at reportaproblem.apple.com. Request a Google Play refund through Google Play Help.

Price changes. Apple or Google will provide any notice and request any consent required by law or store policy before a changed price applies. You can cancel before the next renewal. Apple subscriptions are also governed by Apple’s standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement, which applies alongside these Terms. Need help? Start at our support page.

9. Veterinary partners

Veterinarians who partner with Tailmates do so under a separate partner agreement. Tailmates pays a partner practice a flat fee, on a published fee schedule, for entering a dog’s blood results into Tailmates (data entry). Payouts are never a percentage of anything, never referral compensation, and never a share of a product sale. The practice bills the owner its own fee for the blood draw, and for the appointment and lab. Partners are solely responsible for the veterinary medicine they practice and for compliance with the laws of their jurisdiction.

10. Intellectual property

Tailmates and its content, marks, and software are owned by us or our licensors. You retain ownership of content you create; you grant us a limited license to host and display it as needed to operate the features you use. Section 3A says what you let us do with the podcasts you host.

11. Disclaimers

The service is provided “as is” without warranties of any kind to the fullest extent permitted by law. Tailmates is not a veterinary provider and does not practice veterinary medicine. We do not warrant that the app will be uninterrupted or error-free.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Tailmates will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss arising from your use of, or inability to use, the service.

13. Termination

You may stop using Tailmates and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access for violations of these Terms or to protect the service and its users. We may also stop an account from publishing podcasts under section 3A, including for repeated copyright infringement.

14. Changes & governing law

We may update these Terms; continued use after changes constitutes acceptance. These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the state in which Tailmates is organized, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email hello@tailmates.io.

See also our Privacy Policy, Community rules, Copyright policy, Longevity & Medical Disclaimer, and Support.