effective date: april 2026 · last updated: april 2026
this document is the master english version. translations to other languages are provided for convenience; the english version prevails in case of conflict.
these terms of use (the "terms") govern your access to and use of the mono application and the monochat.app website (collectively, the "service"). by installing, opening, or using mono in any form, you agree to be bound by these terms and by our privacy policy.
if you do not agree, do not use the service. continued use after any update of these terms constitutes acceptance of the updated version.
the service is operated by:
references to "mono", "we", "our", or "us" refer to the operator identified above.
to use the service, you must be at least 18 years old. by using mono, you represent and warrant that:
if we discover that a user is under 18 or otherwise ineligible, we may terminate access and destroy associated data within 7 business days of verifiable notice.
mono does not require registration. you do not create a username, provide a name, email, or phone number. instead, anonymous identifiers are generated automatically on your device and rotate periodically.
because there is no account, there is no password reset, no account recovery, and no mechanism to transfer your presence between devices. if you uninstall the app or reset your device, your identifier and active conversations may be lost. you are solely responsible for the custody of your device and the ephemeral keys it holds.
subject to these terms, we grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to install and use mono on devices you own or control, for lawful personal purposes.
the license does not grant you any right to:
mono operates as a neutral, end-to-end-encrypted communication channel. we do not monitor, moderate, edit, curate, endorse, recommend, or otherwise participate in the conversations transmitted through the service. we are architecturally unable to read message content. consistent with the principle of mere conduit recognized under section 230 of the u.s. communications decency act, articles 12 to 14 of the e-commerce directive (2000/31/ec) in the european union, the digital services act (regulation (eu) 2022/2065) for intermediary service providers, and analogous safe-harbor provisions in other jurisdictions, you — the user — are the sole author and party responsible for any content you create, send, request, view, store, or act upon through mono.
"your content" means the messages, images, videos, files, reactions, and any other material you send or receive through mono.
your content belongs to you. by sending content through mono, you grant us only the minimum, technical, and revocable license necessary to transmit the encrypted payload to your conversation partner and to delete it upon expiration or at your request. because the payload is end-to-end encrypted, we do not and cannot read, modify, store in cleartext, mine, train models on, or reuse it for any purpose.
you are solely responsible for your content and for every consequence of sharing, requesting, or acting upon it. you represent and warrant that you have all rights, permissions, and consents necessary for any content you send, including the consent of every identifiable person who appears in or is referenced by that content. you accept that the operator has no editorial control, no advance knowledge, and no realistic ability to prevent or remediate misuse of the service.
the following conduct is strictly forbidden. you may not use mono — directly, indirectly, jointly, or by aiding or instructing another person — to create, send, transmit, request, solicit, store, distribute, or act upon any of the following content or activities:
you also may not use mono in any way that violates applicable law or regulation in your jurisdiction, in your conversation partner's jurisdiction, in colombia (where the operator is established), or in the jurisdictions where the underlying infrastructure providers operate.
mono has zero tolerance for content that sexualizes, exploits, or endangers minors, for non-consensual intimate imagery, for terrorism and mass-violence planning, and for trafficking in persons. any verifiable signal of such conduct will result in the permanent termination of the associated identifiers, the destruction of associated data, and — to the extent permitted by applicable law and technically feasible given the end-to-end encrypted nature of the service — referral to competent law-enforcement authorities, including specialized units such as the u.s. national center for missing and exploited children (ncmec), the icmec international hotline network, and the colombian fiscalía general de la nación.
the inability of the operator to monitor end-to-end-encrypted content does not in any way diminish, transfer, or waive your sole and exclusive responsibility for your content and conduct. you may not invoke the operator's lack of visibility as a justification, defense, or mitigating factor for your own violations of these terms or of applicable law.
if you encounter abusive content, a user violating these terms, or illegal activity, you can take the following actions:
we aim to acknowledge verifiable reports within 7 business days and to act on validated violations within a reasonable period thereafter, taking into account the severity of the violation and the information available to us.
our enforcement capabilities. due to end-to-end encryption, we cannot review message content. we enforce these terms through metadata signals, user reports, automated anti-abuse mechanisms, and by terminating anonymous identifiers and anti-abuse signals associated with verified abuse. enforcement may extend to any session-level identifier reasonably linked to the offending conduct.
mono uses industry-standard end-to-end encryption provided by the operating system's native cryptography library. your private keys are generated on your device and are stored in dedicated secure-enclave hardware where available, or otherwise in the system keychain.
under normal operation of the service, this means that we do not possess the cryptographic keys required to read your messages. however:
you acknowledge these realities and use mono accordingly.
mono is not a crisis intervention service, an emergency service, a counseling service, or a substitute for any of them. the operator is unable to detect, intervene in, mediate, or summon help in response to any conversation that takes place on the service.
if you, your conversation partner, or any third party are in distress, experiencing thoughts of self-harm or suicide, facing domestic abuse, are the victim of a crime, or are facing any life-threatening or urgent situation, please contact emergency services or a qualified crisis helpline in your country immediately. examples of widely-available resources include: united states — 988 suicide & crisis lifeline; european union — 112; united kingdom — samaritans (116 123); colombia — línea 106 (bogotá), línea 123, or línea de la vida; international directory — findahelpline.com.
the operator does not assume any duty of care to detect, prevent, mitigate, or respond to any crisis communicated through the service.
mono uses only standard operating-system cryptography libraries. under u.s. export administration regulations, the app qualifies for the mass-market exemption.
you may not use, export, or re-export the service in violation of any applicable export, sanctions, or import law, including the u.s. export administration regulations, eu sanctions, or the laws of your country of residence.
mono relies on third-party infrastructure and distribution platforms, including google firebase (authentication, database, storage, analytics, app check, cloud functions), vercel (website hosting), and apple and google (app store distribution).
your use of these third-party services may also be subject to their respective terms. we are not responsible for third-party services beyond our reasonable control, including outages, policy changes, or data handling practices outside the scope of our data processing agreements with them.
mono is currently free of charge, with no advertising, no subscriptions, and no in-app purchases.
we reserve the right to introduce optional paid features, subscription tiers, or non-intrusive contextual advertising in the future. any such introduction will:
you may stop using mono at any time. you can also trigger a deep wipe from within the app to destroy your active conversation, or uninstall the app to remove local data.
we may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to the service at our discretion, in the event of:
termination may be effected by banning anonymous identifiers, device attestation signals, or key-space associated with the account. where reasonable and lawful, we will attempt to provide notice, but immediate action may be necessary in cases of serious abuse or legal risk.
to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, or uninterrupted operation.
we do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure against all threats. we do not guarantee that messages will be delivered, that content will not be lost in the event of device failure, or that specific availability levels will be met.
some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties; in those cases, the above exclusions apply only to the extent permitted by law.
to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall the operator be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenues, data, business opportunities, or goodwill, arising out of or in connection with your use or inability to use the service.
the operator's total aggregate liability arising from or related to these terms or the service shall not exceed one hundred united states dollars (usd 100), or the equivalent in colombian pesos.
the operator shall not be liable, directly or indirectly, jointly or severally, for any harm — including but not limited to physical injury, sexual assault, emotional distress, psychological trauma, self-harm, suicide, death, kidnapping, extortion, blackmail, financial loss, identity theft, defamation, harassment, doxxing, discrimination, hate-motivated harm, criminal acts, terrorism, mass violence, trafficking in persons, drug-related harm, weapons-related harm, or any planning, coordination, encouragement, instruction, facilitation, or execution of unlawful conduct — that any user, conversation partner, recipient, third party, family member, dependent, or community suffers as a result of, in connection with, or following any communication transmitted through mono. this exclusion applies whether the harm is caused by the user, by the user's conversation partner, by a third party, or by the joint conduct of multiple parties.
responsibility for such harm rests exclusively with the natural or legal person who authored, transmitted, requested, solicited, viewed, stored, distributed, or acted upon the relevant content or communication. nothing in mono's design, architecture, marketing, branding, public statements, or operation should be construed as endorsement, encouragement, recommendation, facilitation, normalization, or invitation of any specific use of the service.
the operator does not undertake any duty to monitor, detect, prevent, intervene in, mediate, or remediate user conduct, and the absence of monitoring shall not be construed as creating any such duty under any legal theory, including negligence, gross negligence, product liability, premises liability, or any analogous doctrine.
the operator shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of god, natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, government action, court orders, internet or telecommunications outages, infrastructure-provider outages, denial-of-service attacks, or pandemics.
mandatory law. nothing in this section excludes or limits liability for:
to the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the operator from any third-party claims, liabilities, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to:
this section does not apply where prohibited by applicable consumer protection law.
the service, including its name ("mono"), logo, visual design, source code, documentation, and website, is protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property rights held by the operator or its licensors.
except for the limited license in section 5, no right, title, or interest in the service is transferred to you. you may not remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary notices.
copyright complaints. if you believe that content transmitted through the service infringes your copyright, you may send a notice to contact@monochat.app containing: (i) identification of the copyrighted work, (ii) a reference sufficient to locate the allegedly infringing activity, (iii) your contact information, (iv) a statement of good-faith belief that the use is not authorized, and (v) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the rights holder. we respect intellectual property rights and will act on valid complaints to the extent technically feasible given the end-to-end encrypted nature of the service.
we may modify, suspend, or discontinue the service or any portion of it at any time, with or without notice, for operational, legal, or commercial reasons.
we may update these terms periodically. when we do, the "effective date" at the top will reflect the latest version. material changes will be announced via the app or website at least 30 days before taking effect. your continued use of the service after that date constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. if you do not agree, you must stop using the service.
these terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the republic of colombia, without regard to its conflict of laws rules.
any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to these terms, or the use of the service, shall be submitted to the competent courts of the city of medellín, antioquia, colombia.
consumer protection. nothing in this section shall be interpreted to deprive you of any right or protection mandatorily granted by the laws of the country where you habitually reside. in particular, if you are a consumer with habitual residence in colombia, the rules of the colombian estatuto del consumidor (ley 1480 de 2011) apply in full.
these terms, together with our privacy policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and the operator regarding the service, and supersede any prior agreements or understandings, whether written or oral, on the same subject matter.
if any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid by a competent authority, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.
our failure to enforce any right or provision of these terms shall not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision.
you may not assign or transfer these terms or any rights hereunder without our prior written consent. we may assign our rights and obligations under these terms to an affiliate or successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
if you obtained mono through the apple app store, you also agree to apple's licensed application end user license agreement. if you obtained mono through google play, you also agree to google's terms. where there is a conflict between the app store eula and these terms, the app store eula applies only to the relationship between you and the platform provider, and these terms apply to the relationship between you and the operator. apple inc. and google llc are third-party beneficiaries of these terms to the limited extent necessary to enforce the platform's requirements.
these terms were drafted in english. translations into other languages are provided for convenience. in case of any discrepancy between the english version and a translation, the english version prevails.
for questions, notices, or complaints about these terms: