Terms of Service

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY. THEY ARE A BINDING AGREEMENT. SECTION 12 CONTAINS AN ARBITRATION AGREEMENT AND A CLASS ACTION WAIVER THAT AFFECT HOW DISPUTES BETWEEN US ARE RESOLVED, WITH A RIGHT TO OPT OUT. BY USING PLAYEMOJIS, YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THEM, DO NOT USE PLAYEMOJIS.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are the agreement between you and the company that operates PlayEmojis, identified under "Who operates PlayEmojis" at the foot of this page ("we", "us", "our"). They cover playemojis.com, the game at that address, our apps, and everything we offer through them (together, the "Service").

The Acceptable Use Policy, the Copyright & IP Policy and the Privacy Policy are part of these Terms and are incorporated into them by reference. If those documents and these Terms conflict, these Terms control.

1. Who may play

You must be at least 16 years old to use the Service — or older, if the law where you live sets a higher age for agreeing to terms like these or for consenting to the handling of your data. By using the Service you represent that you meet that age, and that you have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement. The Service is not directed at children, and children may not use it. If you are below the required age, do not use the Service.

2. Guests, accounts, and your responsibility for both

Playing as a guest. You do not need an account to play. The first time you do something that needs an identity — guessing, joining a room, playing the daily puzzle — we set a signed cookie on your device holding a random player id. That id carries your nickname, stats and streak. It is not tied to your name or email. If the cookie is cleared or lost, that history becomes permanently unreachable: nothing links it to you, and we have no obligation to recover, reconstruct or preserve it, and no liability for its loss.

Accounts. Creating an account requires a valid email address (or a supported sign-in provider). You agree to provide accurate information and keep it current. Accounts are personal: one account per person, no sharing, selling, renting or transferring accounts or credentials. You are responsible for everything done with your account and with the player id on your device, whether or not you authorized it, until you tell us the account is compromised. Creating an account to evade a restriction placed on another account or player is prohibited.

Third-party sign-in. If you sign in through a third-party provider (such as Google), your use of that provider is governed by its own terms, and we are not responsible for it.

Game state. Scores, streaks, stats, entitlement records and room history are operational data of a game, not stored property. We do not promise they will be preserved, and Section 8 applies to their loss or corruption.

3. Your content

What it is. Party rooms let players write their own puzzles: emojis, an answer, optional hints. You also type guesses, a nickname, room names, and reports. All of that is "Your Content".

You own it; you license it to us. You keep ownership of Your Content. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid license to host, store, reproduce, adapt (for technical and formatting purposes), translate, transmit, distribute, publicly display and publicly perform Your Content, and to create and display aggregations and excerpts of it (for instance, showing a round's most-repeated wrong answer at the reveal) — in each case to operate, secure, moderate, improve and promote the Service. This license may be exercised through our service providers and passes to a successor if the business changes hands. It lasts while we host Your Content, and survives for as long as reasonably needed for backups to rotate, for moderation and enforcement records, and for legal compliance and the defense of claims. For puzzles that are submitted to or selected for the public puzzle library, the license is perpetual and irrevocable, so the library can keep operating after you leave. To the maximum extent permitted by law, you waive, and agree not to assert, moral rights and similar rights in Your Content against the uses this section allows. We do not sell Your Content.

Your responsibility. You are solely responsible for Your Content. By submitting it you represent and warrant that you have all rights needed to submit it and to grant the license above, and that it complies with these Terms and the Acceptable Use Policy. We rely entirely on those representations; we do not and cannot verify them.

Rooms are shared spaces, not confidential ones. A party room's link is the invitation: anyone with the link or code can see what is written in the room. You have no expectation of privacy or confidentiality in content you put into a room, and we owe no duty of confidentiality over it.

No storage promise. We have no obligation to store, back up or return Your Content, and we may remove or delete it at any time as described in Sections 4 and 11.

Feedback. If you send us suggestions, ideas or feedback, we may use them freely, without restriction, payment, attribution or confidentiality obligations, and you assign to us — or, where an assignment is not effective, exclusively and irrevocably license to us — all rights needed to do so.

4. Rules of play, moderation, and reporting

The rules. The Acceptable Use Policy sets out what you may not write or do anywhere in the Service. It is part of these Terms and applies to every player, in every room, signed in or not.

Safe Mode and filters. Some surfaces run automated filters (nicknames and room names always; puzzle text where Safe Mode is on). Filters are automated, best-effort tools: we do not warrant that they will catch any particular content, and we are not liable for what they miss or for legitimate content they block. Turning Safe Mode off in a private room changes what we filter automatically; it does not change what the Acceptable Use Policy allows.

Our role. For content that players write, we act as a hosting service: we store and transmit it at the direction of the player who wrote it. We do not pre-review player content and we have no obligation — and assume none — to monitor it or to seek out violations. Any voluntary moderation, filtering or investigation we choose to do does not create a duty to do it again, does not make us the author or endorser of any player content, and does not reduce any immunity, safe harbor or liability protection available to us under any law.

Enforcement. We may refuse, remove, restrict or de-index content, close rooms, and suspend, restrict or ban players and accounts, at our reasonable discretion, where we believe these Terms, the Acceptable Use Policy or the law has been broken, or where we reasonably consider it necessary to protect the Service, its players or third parties. Our decision not to act in one case is not approval and does not limit our right to act in another. To the maximum extent permitted by law, no enforcement action we take or decline to take gives rise to any liability to you or to anyone else.

Reporting content. Every revealed answer carries a 🚩 button that files a report into our moderation queue. To report content you believe is illegal, use the Report illegal content form — no account needed. A useful report explains why the content is unlawful, points at exactly where it is, and includes your name and email (except where the law lets you omit them) and a good-faith statement that the report is accurate. We handle sufficiently precise and substantiated reports diligently, objectively and without arbitrariness, and where a report gives us actual knowledge of illegal content we act expeditiously to remove or disable access to it. We do not commit to any fixed response time, and neither this section nor any handling practice creates a service level or any duty owed to a reporter. Knowingly submitting false or abusive reports is itself a violation of these Terms and may lead to suspension of reporting privileges or of your account.

Statements of reasons and appeals. Where we restrict your content or your access, we will tell you what we decided and why, where and as the law requires — we may not, or may delay, where notice would frustrate an investigation or where the law permits or requires silence. If you think we got it wrong, you can appeal free of charge for six months after the decision, using the link in the decision notice or by writing to the legal address at the foot of this page. A human reviews appeals. Our appeal decision is final to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Other players. Players are responsible for what they write; we are not. You understand that you may encounter content written by other players that is inaccurate, offensive or otherwise objectionable — especially in rooms that have turned Safe Mode off — and, to the maximum extent permitted by law, you accept that risk and agree that we are not liable for any player's content or conduct, online or offline.

5. Paid features and virtual items

Not on sale yet. Paid features (such as a Host Pass or puzzle deck packs) are not currently on sale. This section applies if and when they are.

Licenses, not property. Anything you buy or receive in the game — passes, decks, badges, and any other digital item or entitlement — is a limited, personal, non-transferable license to use a feature of the Service, not property. Entitlements have no monetary value, cannot be sold, traded, exchanged or redeemed for money, and exist only inside the Service.

What "yours" means. A purchased entitlement stays usable for as long as the Service offers the feature and your account remains in good standing. We will not revoke an entitlement you paid for except where your account is terminated for cause (such as fraud, chargeback abuse, or a serious breach of these Terms), to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Prices, taxes, changes. The price shown at checkout is what you pay, plus any applicable taxes. We may change prices and what is offered at any time; changes apply prospectively and never to a purchase you have already made.

Payment processing. Payments are processed by a third-party payment processor (currently Stripe), under its own terms. We never receive your full card details.

Changing your mind. Where the law where you live gives you a right to withdraw from a purchase, the checkout will tell you how it applies. For digital content delivered immediately, you may be asked to expressly consent to immediate delivery and acknowledge that this ends the withdrawal right, where the law provides for that mechanism. Your mandatory statutory rights are not affected by this section.

Refunds. Except as stated in these Terms or required by law, purchases are final and non-refundable. If we permanently discontinue the Service in its entirety, or terminate your account other than for cause, we will refund what you paid us for entitlements in the twelve months before that event, and that refund is your sole and exclusive remedy for the discontinuation or termination. Retiring, renaming or changing individual features, decks or puzzles is not a discontinuation.

Chargebacks. If you think a charge is wrong, contact us first — most billing problems are quickly fixed. We may suspend or terminate accounts that initiate unfounded chargebacks, to the maximum extent permitted by law.

6. Our intellectual property

The Service is ours. The PlayEmojis name and logo, the site, the apps, the software, the game design, and the puzzles we author or commission are owned by us or our licensors and protected by intellectual-property laws. These Terms give you only a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service as it is offered. No other rights are granted.

The puzzle library and our data. You may not copy the puzzle library wholesale, scrape, crawl or bulk-extract any part of the Service, or circumvent technical measures that protect it. We expressly reserve all text-and-data-mining rights in the Service and its contents, in contractual and machine-readable form, and you may not use the Service or anything obtained from it to train, fine-tune, distill or otherwise develop any machine-learning or artificial-intelligence model, or to build datasets for one, without our prior written permission. You may not reverse engineer the Service except where the law gives you that right in a way that cannot be excluded.

References inside puzzles. Puzzle answers may name films, shows, songs, games, brands or public figures, because that is what a guessing game is about. Such references identify the subject of a puzzle; they do not imply — and you must not suggest — any affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement between us and anyone referenced.

About the word "emoji". Throughout the Service, "emoji" is used as the ordinary dictionary word for the standardized pictographic characters the game is about. PlayEmojis is not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by or licensed by any emoji brand licensor, any platform or font vendor whose emoji designs your device renders, or the Unicode Consortium. Emoji characters shown during play are rendered by your own device from its own fonts.

Streaming and videos. We welcome streamed and recorded gameplay under the standing permission on our streamer page, which is deliberately broad and includes monetization. That permission is a license we may change or withdraw prospectively at any time; content you already published under it stays covered.

7. Third-party services and app stores

The Service interacts with services we do not control — sign-in providers, payment processors, the platforms you stream to, and links players share. We are not responsible for third-party services, and your use of them is governed by their own terms. If you get our apps through an app store, the store's terms also apply to that copy; the store is not a party to these Terms and is not responsible for the Service, except that where the store's terms require it, the store and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms with the right to enforce them against you.

8. What we do not promise

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE". TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY THE LAW WHERE YOU LIVE, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY — INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE AVAILABLE, UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE OR SECURE; THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED; THAT GAME STATE, STREAKS, STATS OR CONTENT WILL BE PRESERVED; OR ANYTHING ABOUT CONTENT WRITTEN BY OTHER PLAYERS. We build the Service in the open and change it continuously: puzzles get retired, features get added, decks get renamed, and parts of the game may change or be discontinued at any time.

If the law where you live implies warranties that cannot be excluded, they apply, and our liability for breaching them is limited as Section 9 allows.

9. Limits on our liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY THE LAW WHERE YOU LIVE: (A) WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST DATA, LOST GOODWILL, LOST STREAKS OR GAME STATE, OR THE COST OF SUBSTITUTES — HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY; AND (B) OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS CONNECTED TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (USD $100). Multiple claims do not enlarge this limit. These limits reflect an allocation of risk that is an essential basis of the bargain between us: without them, a free-to-play game could not be offered on these terms.

What this section never limits. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence; for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; for intent or gross negligence where the law does not allow such liability to be limited; under mandatory product-liability law; or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. For any such liability, the exclusions and the cap in this section simply do not apply — and they remain fully effective for everything else. If you are a consumer, your mandatory statutory rights survive this section in full.

10. Indemnification and release

Indemnification. To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless us and our affiliates, and our and their officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, service providers, successors and assigns (the "Protected Parties") from and against any claims, demands, proceedings, damages, losses, liabilities, fines, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) Your Content; (b) your use of the Service; (c) your breach or alleged breach of these Terms or of any law; (d) your infringement or alleged infringement of anyone's rights; or (e) any dispute between you and another player or third party. We may, at our election, assume the exclusive control of the defense and settlement of any claim otherwise subject to your defense, with counsel of our choosing and at your expense, and you agree to cooperate. You may not settle any claim in a way that imposes any obligation or admission on a Protected Party, or that does not fully release it, without our prior written consent. This section survives the end of these Terms.

Release. Your disputes with other players are between you and them. To the maximum extent permitted by law, you release the Protected Parties from all claims, demands and damages of every kind, known or unknown, arising out of or connected with disputes between players, and you waive the protection of any statute or rule that would otherwise limit a release to claims known at the time it was given.

11. Ending things

You can leave at any time. Stop playing whenever you like. If you have an account, you can delete it from your settings.

We can end or suspend access. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, or any part of it, where you breach these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, where we reasonably believe it necessary to protect the Service, other players or third parties, where the law requires it, or — to the maximum extent permitted by the law where you live — at our discretion. Where the law where you live requires us to give you notice or reasons, we will.

What ends with it. On termination, your license to use the Service ends, we may delete Your Content and your data (subject to the Privacy Policy and to records we keep for moderation, legal and security purposes), and entitlements lapse as described in Section 5. Sections 3 (license and feedback), 4 (our role and enforcement), 5 (refunds), 6, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 14 survive.

12. Disputes, arbitration, and class action waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT REQUIRES INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION OF MOST DISPUTES FOR PLAYERS IN THE UNITED STATES, AND WAIVES CLASS ACTIONS AND JURY TRIALS. YOU CAN OPT OUT WITHIN 30 DAYS.

Talk to us first. Before starting any formal proceeding, you agree to write to the legal address at the foot of this page describing your dispute and what you want, and to try in good faith to resolve it informally with us for at least thirty (30) days. Most things are a mail away from being sorted. This step is a precondition to any arbitration or court claim, and all limitation periods are tolled while it runs.

Arbitration. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that we cannot resolve informally shall be finally resolved by binding arbitration on an individual basis, administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules — or its Commercial Arbitration Rules where the consumer rules do not apply — before a single arbitrator, in English. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this section. The seat of the arbitration is the state named at the foot of this page; hearings are by videoconference by default, and any in-person hearing involving an individual claimant takes place in the county where that claimant lives or another agreed location. The arbitrator has exclusive authority to resolve all disputes about the scope and enforceability of this arbitration agreement — except that the validity and enforceability of the class action waiver below are reserved exclusively for a court. The arbitrator's award is final and binding and may be entered in any court with authority over the parties. The arbitrator has no authority to conduct a class, collective or representative proceeding, and no award may be rendered for anyone other than the individual claimant.

Coordinated filings. If twenty-five (25) or more similar arbitration demands are brought against us by claimants represented by the same or coordinated counsel, the AAA's Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules and their fee schedule then in effect apply as the parties' written agreement to them. All limitation periods and filing deadlines are tolled for a claim from the date it is queued or batched under those rules until it is administratively opened. Each demand must include an affirmation, signed by the claimant personally, that the claimant is a current or former user of the Service and that the facts of the demand are accurate to the claimant's knowledge.

Class action and jury waiver. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOU AND WE EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION, CLASS ARBITRATION, OR ANY OTHER REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. If this waiver is held unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim — and only that claim — proceeds in the courts named at the foot of this page instead of in arbitration.

Exceptions and opt-out. Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either party may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent authority to protect intellectual property or confidential information. You may opt out of arbitration and the class action waiver by writing to the legal address at the foot of this page within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms, stating your name, the account or player involved, and that you opt out; opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms.

Time limit on claims. To the maximum extent permitted by law, any claim connected to the Service must be brought within one (1) year after it arose or it is permanently barred. That year is tolled during the informal resolution step and any batching described above.

If you are a consumer. Nothing in this section deprives you of the protection of rules that cannot be set aside by agreement in the country where you live, or of any right the law there gives you to bring or defend proceedings in your local courts, or to use a local out-of-court complaint body. If you live in the European Union, the United Kingdom or another jurisdiction whose law does not permit pre-dispute consumer arbitration agreements, the arbitration agreement above does not bind you, and your local mandatory rules apply instead. Claims not subject to arbitration go to the courts named at the foot of this page, except where mandatory law gives you a different forum.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. For material changes we will give notice — in the product, or by email if we have your address — with a date the change takes effect, at least thirty (30) days after the notice, and changes apply prospectively only. Using the Service after that date means you accept the change; if you do not, stop using the Service (and delete your account, if you have one) before the date. Non-material changes, such as clarifications and corrections, may take effect when posted.

14. The usual clauses, done properly

Severability. Every section, paragraph and clause of these Terms is independently severable, and each applies to the maximum extent the law of each relevant jurisdiction permits. If any part is found unenforceable, it is to be reformed or narrowed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable — and the parties consent to a court or arbitrator doing exactly that — and the rest of these Terms stays in full effect. The one exception is stated in Section 12: the class action waiver is not severable from the agreement to arbitrate.

Nothing here beats mandatory law. Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy you have that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. Where such a right applies, these Terms apply to the maximum extent the law permits alongside it.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or anything under them. We may assign them freely, including to an affiliate or a successor to the business; where the law requires, we will notify you.

Force majeure. We are not responsible for any failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including outages of infrastructure or third-party providers, attacks on the Service, labor disputes, acts of government, epidemics and natural events.

Export and sanctions. You may not use the Service in violation of applicable export-control or sanctions laws, and you represent that you are not a person, or in a territory, with whom dealings are prohibited under those laws.

No third-party beneficiaries. These Terms are between you and us. They create no rights in anyone else, except for the Protected Parties under Section 10 and app stores under Section 7.

Notices. Legal notices to us go to the legal address at the foot of this page. We may give you notice in the product, or by email to your account address.

Entire agreement; no waiver; interpretation. These Terms, together with the documents they incorporate, are the entire agreement between us about the Service and replace any earlier understandings. If we do not enforce something straight away, we have not given up the right to enforce it later. "Including" means "including without limitation"; headings are for reading, not for interpretation. If we translate these Terms, the English version controls.

Who operates PlayEmojis

PlayEmojis is operated by Latent Software LLC, 30 N Gould St, Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA. That entity is the party you are contracting with, and the party responsible for the personal data described in our Privacy Policy.

Write to us at [email protected] for anything about the game, [email protected] for legal notices, and [email protected] for questions about your data.

These pages supplement the operator's general Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, which apply to all of its products and are incorporated here by reference. If they conflict with the PlayEmojis documents, the PlayEmojis documents control for PlayEmojis.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, USA, and disputes go to the state and federal courts of Sheridan County, Wyoming — subject to the consumer protections described in section 12.