Snug — Terms of Use

Last updated: 12 November 2026 · Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Snug at snugchat.app (the “Service”, including the Snug apps for Android and iPhone) is provided by the Snug team (“we”, “us”). You can reach us by email at [email protected] or through the contact form.

2. Agreeing to these terms

By ticking “I agree” and joining a room, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms of Use and confirm you have read our Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the Service.

3. Who may use the Service

• You must be at least 16 years old. The Service is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly allow anyone under 16 to use it.
• You must be legally able to agree to these terms where you live, and not barred from using the Service under any applicable law.

4. What the Service is — and isn’t

• Snug lets people who have an invite link chat in rooms, send photos, videos and voice messages, share links (with an automatic preview), edit their own messages, react, start private 1-to-1 chats and make 1-to-1 video calls. There are no user accounts: you pick a display name when you join.
• Links and previews. When you share a link, Snug may show a preview made automatically from the linked website (its title, description and picture). Other websites are not run by us: we don’t check or endorse them and aren’t responsible for their content or for what happens when you visit them. Only open links from people you trust. Edited messages show an “edited” label; the earlier text isn’t kept.
• The Service is provided free of charge, for personal, non-commercial use.
• Encryption. Chats marked 🔒 Encrypted are end-to-end encrypted: messages, replies, photos, videos, voice messages and file names are encrypted on your device with a key that is only in the chat’s invite links and on members’ devices. We store them only in a form we cannot read. Older chats without the 🔒 mark are encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and their messages are stored encrypted on our server, but the server can technically read them while delivering them, and their photos and videos are stored as ordinary files (with location data removed). Video calls are always end-to-end encrypted.
• Invite links are keys. Anyone who has an encrypted chat’s invite link can join it and read it, so share links only with people you want in the chat. If you lose the link and your device’s data, the chat history cannot be recovered — by you or by us.
• Even in encrypted chats, the Service needs some information to work and we can see it: display names, profile photos, room names, who is in which room and when, reactions, and the type and size of shared files. See the Privacy Policy.
• Not for emergencies. Snug cannot be used to contact emergency services. In an emergency, call 112 or 999 (or your local emergency number).
• We may change, suspend or stop the Service (or any feature) at any time, for example for maintenance, security or because we decide to close it. We don’t guarantee that the Service will always be available, uninterrupted or error-free, or that content will be kept.

5. Your content

• You keep ownership of what you send (messages, photos, videos, voice messages, your display name and profile photo — “your content”).
• You give us a free, non-exclusive, worldwide licence to store, copy, process (for example to remove location data from photos) and transmit your content, only as needed to run the Service for you and the people in your rooms. This licence ends when your content is deleted from the Service, except for copies we must keep by law.
• You are responsible for your content. You confirm you have the right to share it and that sharing it is lawful. Don’t share other people’s personal information, photos or recordings without their permission.
• Anyone in a room can see, save, screenshot or forward what you share there. Once shared, we can’t control what other people do with it.

6. Rules — what you must not do

You must not use the Service to create, upload, share or link to anything that is illegal, or to do anything illegal. In particular, you must not:

• share any material that sexually exploits or endangers children. We have zero tolerance: such material is removed and reported to the Gardaí / police and to Hotline.ie;
• share intimate images or recordings of anyone without their consent, or threaten to;
• harass, bully, stalk, threaten, intimidate or abuse anyone, or encourage self-harm or suicide;
• incite violence or hatred against people because of a protected characteristic, or share terrorist content;
• defame people, impersonate anyone, or mislead people about who you are in order to harm or defraud them;
• share someone’s private information (“doxxing”);
• infringe anyone’s copyright, trademarks or other rights;
• send spam, scams, phishing, malware or anything designed to damage devices or data;
• buy, sell or promote illegal goods or services;
• try to break, overload, probe or get around the Service’s security, limits or access controls, access rooms or data you weren’t invited to, or use bots or scrapers on it;
• use the Service for commercial purposes (advertising, selling) without our written permission.

7. Moderation and enforcement

• We don’t monitor rooms in general, but we may review content when it is reported to us or when we have reason to believe it breaks the law or these terms. We cannot see the content of end-to-end encrypted chats, so for those we rely on reports that include the content (for example screenshots).
• If we find content or behaviour that is illegal or breaks these terms, we may remove the content, clear or close a room, revoke invite links, block access, or report it to the authorities — with or without notice, depending on what is appropriate and lawful.
• Where the EU Digital Services Act requires it, we will tell affected users what we did and why (unless we can’t, for example because there is no way to contact an anonymous user, or the law forbids it) and how to ask us to review the decision.

8. Reporting illegal content

If you believe something on Snug is illegal, tell us through the report form or by email to [email protected]. Please include:

• where it is (the room’s invite link or name, and roughly when it was posted);
• for 🔒 encrypted chats, a screenshot or copy of the content — we can’t see it ourselves (but never send us child sexual abuse material itself; describe where it is instead);
• why you believe it is illegal;
• your name and email address (not required if you are reporting child sexual abuse material);
• a statement that you believe in good faith that your report is accurate and complete.

We review reports promptly, carefully and objectively, and let you know what we decided. If you disagree with a decision we made about your content or your report, contact us and we will review it again. You can also contact Ireland’s Digital Services Coordinator, Coimisiún na Meán. For anything that puts someone in immediate danger, contact the Gardaí / police first.

Point of contact for authorities and users under the Digital Services Act: [email protected] or the contact form. We communicate in English.

9. Invite links and rooms

Whoever has a room’s invite link can join it. Only share links with people you trust. Personal invite links can be used a limited number of times; we can replace a room’s link or close a room at any time.

10. The apps and other services

• App stores: if you got Snug from Apple’s App Store or Google Play, these terms are between you and us, not Apple or Google. Apple and Google have no responsibility for the app, its support or any claims about it, and you must also follow the app store’s own terms. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms for the iPhone app and may enforce them.
• Notifications (optional) are delivered through your phone’s or browser’s push service (Google on Android, Apple on iPhone). Video calls use a public “STUN” server to connect devices. See the Privacy Policy for what these services can see.
• The Snug software is open source under the MIT License. That licence covers the code; these terms cover your use of this Service.

11. No warranties

The Service is provided free of charge, “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we make no promises or warranties about the Service — for example that it will be secure, available, error-free, or that content will be kept or delivered. We work hard to keep Snug secure, but no online service can be completely secure. Keep your own copies of anything important to you, and keep the invite links of your encrypted chats safe — without them, encrypted content can’t be recovered. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

12. Our liability to you

• We are not responsible for content that other users share, or for what other users do; that content is their responsibility. Where we act as a host of other people’s content, our liability is limited as provided by the EU Digital Services Act and other applicable law.
• To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, loss of data or content, loss of profit, or for any loss caused by things outside our reasonable control (such as outages, attacks or the actions of third-party services).
• To the extent the law allows, our total liability to you for all claims relating to the Service is limited to €100, which reflects that the Service is free.
• Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for gross negligence or wilful misconduct, or for anything else that cannot be limited or excluded under Irish or EU law.

13. If you break these terms

If you break these terms or the law while using the Service and that causes us loss (for example a claim brought against us by someone else because of content you shared), you are responsible for that loss to the extent the law allows.

14. Ending things

You can stop using Snug at any time — use Leave in each room and remove the app; see the Privacy Policy to have your data deleted. We may suspend or end your access at any time if you break these terms or the law, or if we close the Service. Sections 5 (licence, until content is deleted), 11–13 and 16 continue to apply afterwards.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when we add features or the law changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant, we’ll show a notice in the Service before it takes effect. If you keep using Snug after a change takes effect, the updated terms apply; if you don’t agree, please stop using the Service.

16. Law and disputes

• These terms are governed by the laws of Ireland, and the courts of Ireland have jurisdiction over any dispute.
• If you are a consumer living elsewhere in the EU, you also keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country, and you can bring proceedings in your own country’s courts.
• Please contact us first — most problems can be sorted out quickly.

17. Everything else

These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service. If a court finds part of them invalid, the rest still applies. If we don’t enforce a right straight away, we haven’t given it up. You may not transfer your rights under these terms; we may transfer ours to someone who takes over the Service, as long as your rights are not reduced.

18. Contact

The Snug team — [email protected] or the contact form.