Terms of Service.

“Murmur”, “we” and “us” mean Murmur Labs LLC, the company that makes the Murmur apps and runs the Murmur servers. “You” means the person who uses Murmur.

Murmur Labs LLC, 30 N Gould St, STE R, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States (murmurlabs.llc).

These terms cover the Murmur apps for iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac, our servers, and the service they provide together. Three other documents come with them and are part of the same agreement:

• Our rules, the Acceptable Use Policy, on what you can’t do with Murmur, how reports work, and how to appeal.
• Our Child Safety Standards.
• Our Privacy Policy, on what we keep about you, why, and for how long.

The app shows you these documents when you create your account, and you accept them by creating it. Our server keeps the version of the terms you accepted, with your account.

• You must be 16 or older. By creating an account, you confirm that you are. We never ask for your date of birth.
• If we learn that someone under 16 is using Murmur, we close the account. A parent or guardian who thinks their child has one can write to safety@murmur.free, and our team looks into it.
• You can’t use Murmur if a law that applies to you forbids it, for example a sanctions law.

• What Murmur does. You can write to people one on one and in groups of up to 1,000 members, send voice messages, and share photos and documents. Everything is end-to-end encrypted on your devices, so our servers pass it along, sealed, without a key to open it. There are no voice or video calls, and no audio or video files other than voice messages.
• Your devices. You can use one account on up to 5 devices, and a computer can work on its own, without a phone. A device that stays offline for 90 days is removed, after a notice at day 75. Your last device never is.
• Where to get it. Murmur comes only from murmur.free and the official app stores, which are the App Store and Google Play. Anything else is not us.
• Updates. The Windows and Mac apps you download from our site update themselves, and the app explains this and asks for your agreement when you install it. Each update must be signed by 2 of our 3 release keys, held by 3 different people. App store versions are updated by the store.
• No remote code. We can’t change the app’s code remotely. The few settings we can switch from our side can only make the apps more careful, never weaken encryption.
• Limits that protect everyone. Without phone numbers, new accounts are cheap to make, so Murmur has limits. For example, a new account can start only a few new chats a day at first. When Murmur is under attack, we can turn on temporary protections, like slowing down new sign-ups. They switch off on their own, and the app says what is going on.
• What our servers see. To deliver your messages, our servers still handle a few details, like when a sealed message arrives. Our public table lists every one of them, and our Privacy Policy explains them.

Your account is a username and a password. No phone number, no email, no real name.

• Your password proves it’s you when you sign in. It never leaves your device, so we never see it, not even when you create it, and it never unlocks your messages.
• Your Recovery Key is the spare key to your account, made of 48 characters and created on your device. Save it from Settings › Security Center and keep it somewhere safe, like a password manager or a sheet of paper. We keep no copy.
• Your devices hold your keys and your messages. Keep them locked and up to date.

You are responsible for keeping your password, your Recovery Key and your devices safe, and for what is done from your account, unless it happened because of our fault.

• A username is a name of 5 to 20 lowercase letters, numbers and _, starting with a letter, then a dot and two digits that Murmur adds, like alibaba.46. Up to 99 people can share a name; a username is yours alone, and it can’t be changed. Your display name is separate.
• Some names are reserved. These are names that contain the Murmur name, words used by our support, and names that end in “bot”, which are kept for automated members. A name too close to a reserved or banned name is refused.
• Don’t take a username to pretend to be someone else, or to hold it for resale. There is no username market, so you can’t buy, sell or transfer a username or an account.
• We can remove a username that impersonates someone, misleads people, or breaks our rules or the law. You can appeal.
• When you delete your account, your username waits 90 days, unlinked from you, before Murmur can give it to someone else. A banned username stays locked for 365 days.

• It stays yours. What you write and share on Murmur belongs to you, or to whoever owns it. We claim no rights to it.
• We can’t read it. Your messages, voice messages, photos, files, profile, contacts, most of your settings and group names are sealed on your devices before they reach us.
• The permission you give us. So that Murmur works, you allow us to store, copy and transmit your sealed data, meaning your messages and files, your profile, your account state, and your encrypted backup if you turn one on. We do it only to deliver your messages to the people you choose and to your own devices, and to keep the service running, for example in our encrypted server backups. This permission is free and worldwide. It ends when the data leaves our servers. A message is deleted once it’s delivered or, in large groups, when its 30 days end (30 days at most in every case; a scheduled message first waits for its time, a year at most), a file after 30 days unless it’s pinned, and our server backups roll over within 14 days.
• Nothing else. We can’t read your content, so we can’t use it for ads, profiles or anything else. The messages you choose to report are used only to review the report, act on it and meet our legal duties, and they never go into an AI tool.
• You’re responsible for what you send. Only share what you have the right to share, and follow our rules.
• Your messages are signed. Your device signs your messages, so the people who receive them can prove they came from you. You can’t deny having written them.
• Others keep what you sent them. The people you write to can take screenshots or forward what you said. Disappearing messages and view-once photos are a courtesy, not a guarantee.
• Imported chats. You can import your own Telegram chats, on a computer. The archive is private, so only you can see it, on your own devices. Import only chats you have the right to keep, for your personal use.

Our Acceptable Use Policy says what isn’t allowed, how reports work and what we do about them. In short, never use Murmur to harm children, threaten or harass people, share intimate images without consent, support terrorism, spam or scam people, pretend to be someone else, sell illegal goods, spread malware or attack Murmur.

We have zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation. For other breaks of the rules, we act according to how serious they are, as our Acceptable Use Policy explains.

The rules apply to everyone, group owners and admins included, whatever app you use to connect to our servers. Looking for security flaws in good faith is welcome when you follow our disclosure policy.

• Admins run their groups. A group’s owner and admins set its rules, which members accept before joining, decide what members may do, and moderate it. The owner decides which rights each admin has. A group’s rules can be stricter than ours, never looser.
• Admins are members. They read the group like everyone else. They also see the answers to join questions and the reports members send them.
• Admins decide who gets in. They choose who can add members or share a link, and whether newcomers need approval. Without approval, anyone with a group’s invite link can join, so the app warns before you share one, saying “Anyone with this link can join and read new messages.” Groups above 200 members ask for approval by default.
• Automated members. Admins can add a simple automated member that runs from their own computer. It has its own account, a name that ends in “bot”, and a permanent label that tells members it reads the group. It follows the same rules and limits as everyone, and the admins who run it are responsible for it.
• What we can and can’t do in a group. Our servers don’t know who is in a group or who holds which role. When someone breaks the rules in a group, Murmur acts on their account. Removing someone from a group, or deleting a message there, is up to the group’s admins.

• Block. You can block anyone. Blocking happens on your device, and our servers keep no list of who you blocked.
• Report. You can report a message, a person or a group from the app. Our team sees only the messages you choose to send, never your other messages, and the account data we already hold, to act on the report.
• What we can do. If someone breaks the rules, we can warn them, limit what their account can do, suspend it or close it. Some limits apply automatically, based on details about the account, such as how new it is, how many new chats it starts and reports we upheld against it, and never on what people write.
• We tell you why. If we act on your account, the app tells you what we did, which rule it was about, and how to appeal, unless the law or someone’s safety forbids it. For example, we never alert someone reported for child sexual abuse.
• Appeal. You can appeal within 7 days, and a person on our team reviews it. When a decision was made automatically, you can also ask what information was used and the main reasons for it, and have wrong information corrected. And at any time, you can ask a person on our team to review an automatic decision by writing to privacy@murmur.free.

The details of how reporting works, what we can do and appeals are in our rules.

• Messaging is free. Security, privacy, group size, basic moderation and accessibility settings never cost extra. No ads, ever.
• What you can buy. An optional supporter item gives you a supporter badge and a few cosmetic touches, and a community can choose a plan with more room for its files. You can also simply support us.
• How you buy. You buy in the app, through the app store you got Murmur from. The store handles the payment, and its terms cover billing, renewals, cancellation and refunds. You see the price before you buy.
• Plans. A plan renews until you cancel it in your app store’s settings. Deleting your Murmur account doesn’t cancel it.
• Support isn’t a donation. Supporting us is a purchase, not a charitable donation, and it doesn’t come with a tax receipt.
• Your payment stays with the store. We never see your payment identity. Our server sees only a “supporter” flag on your account, or a “community plan” flag on a group, while the benefit lasts.
• Your rights. Nothing here limits your rights under the consumer protection law where you live.

• The code that seals your messages, meaning the encryption, the protocol and the server, is published at murmur.free/source, under open-source licenses. Anyone can read it and check how your messages are protected. The rest of the app, its screens, isn’t published.
• These licenses sit next to these terms. They give you rights to the published code, to read it, change it and share it. Nothing in these terms takes those rights away. These terms cover the Murmur service, meaning our servers, your account and how you use them.
• The app comes with the list of open-source software it uses, and their licenses.

The Murmur name and logo aren’t part of the open-source licenses. A copy of the code has to change its name. Nobody may present a copy as Murmur, or use our name or logo for an app in an app store.

If you got Murmur from the App Store or Google Play, that store’s terms also apply to the download and to purchases. These terms are between you and Murmur only, and the store isn’t responsible for Murmur, for what it does, or for its support.

To the service. We keep improving Murmur. We add features, and we can adjust the features and limits described in The service. When such a change alters what these terms say, it follows the rule below. Some things never change, because they are on our list of things we will never build, like ads, selling your data, or a spare copy of your keys on our side. If we ever stopped offering Murmur, we would tell you in the app well ahead, leave you time to export your data, and refund the unused part of any plan you paid for.

To these terms. The only parts of our agreement we can change are the features and limits described in The service, the rules in our Acceptable Use Policy and Child Safety Standards, how reports, enforcement and appeals work, the age and eligibility rules, the ways to reach us, and our Privacy Policy. Some things never change by notice. These are free messaging, end-to-end encryption, and the price of a plan you already paid for, until the end of the period you paid for.

When we change any of these parts, the app tells you at least 30 days before the change takes effect. The notice shows the new wording, the old wording and the day it takes effect, and says that you can refuse the change and close your account at no cost, up to 30 days after it takes effect. Earlier versions stay available. Ask us at hello@murmur.free and we’ll send the one you need.

• You can leave whenever you want. Delete your account in the app, from Settings › Account › Delete Account. Here is how. Only you can delete it. Deleting the app doesn’t delete your account.
• Take your data with you. On a computer, Export my data gives you all your data in a form you can import again. Without a computer, write to privacy@murmur.free for a copy of what our servers hold. Do it before you delete your account.
• If you stop using Murmur. You can choose to have your account deleted after 1, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months without use. The default is 12 months, and you’re warned first.
• If we close your account. We can suspend or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms or our rules, or when the law requires it. We tell you why and how to appeal, unless the law or someone’s safety forbids it.
• A plan you paid for. If we close your account without a serious breach on your part, or stop offering Murmur, while a plan you paid for is running, you get back the unused part, through your app store or from us.
• What’s erased. What we erase, and the little we must keep, is on the page Delete your Murmur account.
• What lasts. When your account ends, the parts of these terms that are meant to last, like those about responsibility, the law and the courts, still apply.

What we do. We build and run Murmur with care. Every chat is end-to-end encrypted. The code that seals your messages is published. Independent security firms reviewed Murmur’s design, audited its code and tried to break in, and every report is published. We publish what our servers can see, and we do what our Privacy Policy says.

What we can’t promise. No software is perfect, and no messenger can protect you from everything, for example from a device that’s infected or unlocked by someone else, from the person you write to sharing what you said, or from the traces your phone’s system keeps. Murmur may sometimes be unavailable, for maintenance or because of a problem. Because we hold no keys, we can’t bring back your messages if you lose all your devices and your Recovery Key. We aren’t responsible for what other people send you, or for services we don’t run, like the app stores and Apple’s or Google’s notifications, except where our own fault caused or worsened the harm.

Your rights as a consumer. Nothing in these terms takes away a right that the law where you live gives you as a consumer and doesn’t let anyone waive, including its legal warranties. Where that law protects you more than these terms do, it applies.

Limits. To the extent the law where you live allows it, Murmur is provided “as is”, without promises beyond those in these terms, and we’re not responsible for indirect losses, for losses we couldn’t reasonably foresee, or for events outside our reasonable control. This never limits our responsibility for death or injury, for fraud, for harm caused on purpose or through gross negligence, or for anything else the law doesn’t let us limit.

• These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, where Murmur Labs LLC is registered.
• A dispute goes before the courts of Wyoming. But if you’re a consumer, you can always go to the courts where you live, and the consumer protection rules where you live still apply when they protect you more.
• No forced arbitration, and no waiver of class actions, so you keep your right to go to court and to take part in a class action.
• If something goes wrong, you can write to us first at hello@murmur.free. We’d rather fix it together, but you never have to.

These terms, and the documents that are part of this agreement (the Acceptable Use Policy, the Child Safety Standards and the Privacy Policy), exist in English and in French, with the same content. Both versions are equally valid, and you can read either one before you accept them.

• If a court finds part of these terms invalid, the rest still applies.
• If we don’t enforce part of these terms right away, we keep the right to enforce it.
• You can’t transfer your account or these terms to someone else. We can transfer these terms only to a company that takes over Murmur and keeps the same commitments to your privacy and security.
• These terms, with our Acceptable Use Policy, Child Safety Standards and Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between you and us about the Murmur service. This doesn’t limit what the law says our public statements about Murmur, like our data table, commit us to.

We answer in English and in French.

Questions about Murmur

hello@murmur.free

Your privacy and your personal information

privacy@murmur.free

Safety, child safety and appeals without the app

safety@murmur.free

Security flaws

security@murmur.free

Legal and law enforcement requests

legal@murmur.free