Welcome to FancyNotes. These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and Big Dog Software Development, a sole trader based in the United Kingdom ("we", "us", "our"), governing your use of the FancyNotes apps (Android, iOS, Windows, macOS), our website at fancynotes.co, and our guest web collaboration pages (together, the "Service").
By creating an account or otherwise using FancyNotes, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the Service.
These Terms should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains what data we collect and how we use it.
1. Acceptance and eligibility
You must be at least 13 years old to use FancyNotes. By using the Service, you confirm that you meet this age requirement, and — if your local law requires a higher age for you to consent to a service like this on your own behalf (for example, 16 in some jurisdictions) — that you have the necessary parental or guardian consent, or are using the Service under appropriate supervision.
If you're using FancyNotes on behalf of a household, team, or other group, you're responsible for making sure everyone you invite is also eligible to use the Service.
2. What FancyNotes is
FancyNotes is a cross-platform note-taking and group-sharing app for teams, households, and close-knit groups — a private shared space for notes, photos, calendars, and lists. It's built and run by a very small team, and we care a lot about it. It isn't a large enterprise SaaS platform, and these Terms reflect that.
3. Your account and security responsibilities
- You need an account to use most of FancyNotes. You can create one with an email and password, or by signing in with Google or Apple.
- You're responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential, and for all activity that happens under your account.
- Please use a strong, unique password, and tell us right away at support@fancynotes.co if you think your account has been compromised.
- You're responsible for making sure the information you provide (email, display name, etc.) is accurate and kept up to date.
4. Your content and ownership
Your content is yours. Notes, photos, sketches, voice recordings, handwriting, chat messages, calendar events, and anything else you create or upload to FancyNotes ("Your Content") belongs to you. We are not claiming any ownership over it, now or ever.
What we need from you is a limited licence to actually run the Service: by using FancyNotes, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, sync, back up, transmit, and display Your Content — solely for the purpose of providing the Service to you and to the collaborators you choose to share it with. This licence:
- exists only so we can technically operate the app you're using — sync it across your devices, back it up, show it to people you share it with, and let you search it
- does not let us use Your Content for any other purpose (no advertising, no training third-party models, no publishing it anywhere)
- ends when you delete the content or your account (subject to the backup-rotation window described in our Privacy Policy)
You're solely responsible for Your Content — including making sure you have the right to upload and share it, and that it doesn't infringe anyone else's rights.
5. Acceptable use
We have zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive behaviour. FancyNotes is a private, shared space, and everyone using it deserves to feel safe. Content that is unlawful, harassing, hateful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, sexually exploitative of minors, or otherwise abusive towards other people is not permitted anywhere on the Service — and neither is abusive, harassing, threatening, or predatory conduct towards other users.
To keep FancyNotes a safe, pleasant space, you must not:
- upload, share, or send content that is unlawful, harassing, hateful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, or abusive towards other people
- harass, bully, threaten, impersonate, or otherwise abuse other users
- use the Service to infringe anyone's intellectual property or privacy rights
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service, other users' accounts or content, or our underlying infrastructure
- interfere with, disrupt, overload, or attack the Service (including its servers, sync infrastructure, or push-notification systems)
- use the Service for any illegal purpose, or to violate any applicable law or regulation
- reverse-engineer, scrape, or attempt to extract the Service's source code except where applicable law expressly permits it
Reporting and blocking. If you come across content or behaviour that breaks these rules, you can report it from within the app — reporting is available on chat messages, direct messages, shared notes, and guest-shared content — and you can block any user to stop them from messaging you and to hide their content and activity from your view. We review reported content and act on violations as quickly as we reasonably can. In response we may remove content, revoke sharing access, revoke guest links, remove members from groups, and suspend or terminate the accounts of users who break these rules. We may take this action at our discretion whenever we reasonably believe these rules have been broken.
6. Sharing and guest links
FancyNotes is designed around sharing, so here's what you're agreeing to when you use it:
- If you share a note or event with another user or a group, everyone with access can view it (and, depending on the permission level you grant, edit or re-share it). You control who you share with and at what permission level, and you can revoke access at any time.
- Guest share links let anyone with the link view — and, if you enable it, edit — a note without creating an account, for the link's chosen lifetime (7 or 30 days). You are responsible for who you send a guest link to, since anyone holding it can access the shared note until it expires or you revoke it.
- Please only share content you have the right to share, and be mindful that people you share with can see it for as long as the share is active.
7. Third-party sign-in and push services
FancyNotes integrates a small number of third-party services to work properly:
- Google Sign-In and Sign in with Apple let you create and access your account without a separate password.
- Google Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification service deliver push notifications to your device.
- Google's and Apple's speech-recognition services may be used if you choose to use voice-to-text transcription (your spoken audio is sent to the relevant provider to be transcribed — see the Privacy Policy for details).
Your use of these features is also subject to Google's and Apple's own respective terms of service, which we don't control and aren't responsible for. See our Privacy Policy for what data each of these services receives.
8. Service provided "as is"
FancyNotes is a small, self-hosted, best-effort service. We work hard to keep it reliable, but we can't promise perfection. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory — including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or entirely secure.
We recommend using the in-app Backup & Restore feature to keep your own copy of important content, just as you would with any service.
9. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Big Dog Software Development shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of data, profits, or business opportunities, arising out of or related to your use of (or inability to use) the Service.
Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded under the law that applies to you — for example, under UK law, we do not exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
10. Suspension and termination
We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service if you materially breach these Terms (for example, by violating §5, Acceptable use), where required by law, or where necessary to protect the security or integrity of the Service or other users. Where reasonably practicable, we'll try to give you notice first.
You can stop using the Service, or delete your account, at any time — see §11 below.
11. How to delete your account
You're always free to leave. To permanently delete your FancyNotes account and content:
- Open the app and go to You → Privacy & Security → Delete Account
- Confirm — this is permanent and cannot be undone
Or email support@fancynotes.co and we'll take care of it for you. See our Privacy Policy for how deletion interacts with backups.
12. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time, for example as the Service evolves. If we make a material change, we'll update the effective date above and, where appropriate, let you know in the app. Continuing to use FancyNotes after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.
These Terms are also published at https://fancynotes.co/terms.
13. Governing law
These Terms, and any dispute arising out of or in connection with them or the Service, are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any such dispute, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection rights you may have under the law of the country where you live.
14. Contact us
Questions about these Terms:
Big Dog Software Development
Email: support@fancynotes.co
Website: fancynotes.co
See also our Privacy Policy.