BlipJab

Terms of Use

Last updated:

BlipJab lets you record a short sound (a “blip”) and send it to friends and groups you connect with. By creating an account or using BlipJab you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree, please do not use the app.

1. Who can use BlipJab

You must be at least 13 years old (or the minimum age of digital consent in your country) to use BlipJab. If you are under 18, you should have a parent or guardian’s permission. BlipJab is intended for personal, non-commercial use.

2. Your account

BlipJab needs an account, and you can create one three ways: Sign in with Apple, Sign in with Google, or an email address — you type it in, we email you a 6-digit code, and entering that code signs you in. There is no password in any of the three. Whichever you choose, the email address behind it is what makes the account portable — it is how you get your invite code, friends, groups, purchases, unlocks, colour theme and the record of which blips you have already heard back on a new phone or after a reinstall, so keep access to it. One address is one account; signing in with a different one gives you a different account, and the app will offer to move an existing device account onto the identity you use the first time you sign in. Do not share sign-in codes — anyone who has a code can reach your account. You are responsible for what happens under your account.

3. Be kind — community rules

BlipJab is for friendly moments between people who know each other. There is no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive behaviour. You agree not to use BlipJab to record, send, or share anything that is:

Only send blips to people you actually know and who want to hear from you.

These rules cover everything you put into the app, not only the audio: the display name you choose (it is shown to everyone you connect with, so it must not be obscene, hateful, or used to impersonate someone — and we may clear a name that breaks them), the profile photo you upload (see section 4a), the name you give a group you own, the short note you can attach when you gift credits, and any blip you publish as a shareable link under section 5.

4. Your content and responsibility

You are solely responsible for every blip you record and send. You keep ownership of your recordings. By sending a blip, you give BlipJab the limited permission needed to store and deliver that blip to the friend or group you chose. Your recording is held in private storage, and playback is issued only to the people you sent it to — a short-lived link generated for that person or that group’s members, not a public web address. Blips are ephemeral on our servers: only the latest blip you sent to each friend or group is kept, and the file it replaces is deleted. THE ONE EXCEPTION is a blip kept on a Mixtape, which is permanent — section 4b explains it in full, including how to take your own blips off. Two other things to be aware of. The Blip Archive keeps a copy of blips on the device that sent or received them, so a person you blipped may still be able to play it on their own phone after it has left our servers. And because the latest blip does stay on our servers until you replace it, signing in on a new phone can restore those most recent blips into your Archive there. Treat a blip the way you would treat anything else you hand to someone.

4a. Your profile photo

A photo is optional and there is one per account. If you set one it is shown beside your name to other people using BlipJab — your friends and the groups you are in, and also on the screens where you appear next to somebody you have not connected with: the nearby list in Local Jab, an incoming jab, and a contact match. It is not published to the web, it is not on your invite-code page, and it disappears from every screen the moment you remove it in Settings. If you would rather not be seen at all, do not set a photo. Three rules on top of section 3, because a photo is a picture of a person rather than a blip: upload only an image you have the right to use; do not upload a recognisable photo of somebody else without their permission, and never one of a child who is not you; and nothing sexual, violent or graphic. Anyone who can see your photo can report it — from the ⋮ menu on your card, or from the flag button on a Local Jab row — and we may remove a photo that breaks these rules without removing the rest of your account. If we do, nothing else about your account changes — it simply goes back to showing your initial.

4b. Mixtapes

Each pair of friends shares one “Mixtape”, and either of you can spend credits to keep a blip on it. Every group you are in has one too, and it works differently in one important way: any one member can keep a group blip, and everybody who was in that group when the blip was sent can then play it back, for as long as they stay in the group. Only one member has to pay, and it is the same blip for all of them rather than a copy each. That audience is frozen when it is kept: somebody who joins the group later never gets access to it, and somebody who leaves the group loses access to it — except the person who made the blip and the person who paid, who keep it either way. Either way, this is the one thing in BlipJab that is not ephemeral. A blip on a Mixtape is not covered by the latest-only cleanup in section 4: we keep it on our servers indefinitely, it comes back on a new phone, and it stays after the blip it came from is long gone. Read that before you use it, because of who decides: somebody can keep a blip you sent without asking you first, and on a group blip that one person’s decision is what makes it permanent for the whole group. You are told when it happens, on a friend Mixtape and on a group one. What protects you is the other half of the rule — whoever made a blip can always take it off, at any time, from the Mixtape screen, and doing so deletes the audio for everyone who could hear it. Whoever paid can remove it too, and credits are never refunded for a removal. Nobody else can: being able to hear a kept blip never gives you the power to delete somebody else’s recording or somebody else’s purchase. The person who made a blip and the person who paid to keep it can also give it a short name of up to 60 characters, which belongs to the Mixtape rather than to whoever typed it — either of them can change it or clear it at any time, everyone on that Mixtape can read it, and it is deleted with the blip. A kept blip is never published: there is no link to it, it is not shown to anyone outside the people described above, and blocking cuts it — if you and the person who made a blip have blocked each other, neither of you can play it. Deleting your account removes every blip you made from every Mixtape it was on, even the ones somebody else paid for — your recordings are yours, and that outranks their purchase. Everything in section 3 applies to what ends up on a Mixtape, and it can be reported from the sender’s card or row.

5. Sharing a blip as a link

Alongside sending a blip to a friend, you can turn a recording into a link that opens in any web browser. This works differently from everything else in the app, and you should know exactly how before you use it. The link is the key: anyone who has it can play that blip, with no account, no app, and no approval from you — so if it is forwarded, whoever receives it can hear it too. The page also shows your invite code and your display name, if you set one, so a listener can add you back. Publishing a link makes a second copy of the audio, separate from any blip you send, and that copy is not covered by the latest-only cleanup in section 4. A link stops working 7 days after you make it and the copy is then deleted. There is no button to recall a link early; deleting your account removes every link you made. An account holds up to 50 live links at once, and making a new one past that retires your oldest link early — so making a link always works, but a very old one can stop playing before its 7 days are up. Everything in section 3 applies to what you publish this way, and it applies more strictly: a stranger cannot block you, so only share a blip with people you intend to reach.

6. Groups

A group is a shared code (5 characters) rather than an invite list: anyone who has the code can join, so only share it with people you want in there. A blip you send to a group can be played by every member, and members can see who has already heard it. The person who started a group can rename it. You can leave a group at any time; if the owner leaves, the group passes to another member, and when the last member leaves the group and its blips are deleted. Blocking someone also hides them inside groups you both belong to.

6a. Local Jab

Local Jab is optional and off until you switch it on. Turning it on does two things at once: it lets you see other people nearby who have also turned it on, and it lists you for them. There is no way to have one without the other.

The only thing you can send someone you are not already friends with is a jab: one of twenty-one preset noises, chosen from a list. A jab carries no recording, no text, no picture and no link, so nothing you write or record can reach a stranger. You can jab at most ten different people a day; jabbing somebody you have already jabbed does not count against that, and neither does answering somebody who jabbed you. You may jab the same person more than once, but only the latest jab is delivered and only the first one in any twenty-four hours can notify them. If somebody mutes or blocks you, your jabs stop reaching them. Nothing else passes between you until you have both jabbed each other, at which point you are friends and everything in these Terms applies as it does to any other friend — including blocking, reporting and muting. When a jab is answered, both accounts may receive a small number of credits; that reward is capped and we may withhold it where we believe accounts are being created or matched to farm it.

Interests are optional. You may pick up to eight tags from a fixed list we provide; there is no free-text field, so nothing you write can be shown to a stranger. Tags you pick are visible to people nearby while Local Jab is on, and are used to order your list so people who share one appear first. You can change or remove them at any time.

If you allow it, we may notify you that somebody nearby jabbed you. Any one person can cause at most one such notification, ever, and you can switch these off without affecting any other alert.

Your location is handled as described in the Privacy Policy: your device sends an area roughly 4.8 miles across and your town name, never your coordinates. Someone you jab is shown a rounded distance from the moment you sent it, and nobody is ever shown a direction or a position. Switching Local Jab off deletes that area. Do not use Local Jab to harass, follow, solicit, advertise to, or attempt to identify or locate anybody. Doing so is a violation of these Terms and of the community rules above, and we may remove the feature or the account.

7. Reporting abuse

Every friend card and every group member in the app has a report control — the ⋮ menu on a friend’s card, a flag button on a group member. Tap it to report the person or the blip they sent, choose a reason, and add any detail you want us to see. The same ⋮ menu carries a separate “Report their photo” entry when that friend is using one, so a complaint about a picture reaches us as a complaint about a picture. A note attached to a gift of credits can be reported the same way, from Gift history. If you received a shared blip link and have nothing to report it from because you do not have the app, email us instead and include the link. Reports reach us immediately and a human reviews every one within 24 hours. Content that breaks the community rules is removed, and the account behind it can be suspended or permanently banned. You can also email support@blipjab.com.

8. Blocking

You can block anyone, on its own or as part of a report. A blocked person cannot send you blips, cannot add you with your invite code, cannot notify your phone, and anything they already sent is hidden — including inside groups you share. Blocking is reversible in Settings → Blocked people. Muting is a separate, quieter setting: a muted friend stays in your list but never buzzes you.

9. Enforcement

We may suspend or permanently remove access for anyone who violates these Terms or the community rules, with or without notice. We are not obligated to monitor content, but we may review and remove content and take action to keep the community safe.

10. Deleting your account

You can delete your account and its data at any time from Settings → Delete my account & data. This removes your account, invite code, display name, profile photo, blips, any blip links you published, your Local Jab area and jabs, your friendships, group memberships, any groups you own, your credit balance and unlocks, your saved colour theme, and the record of which blips you had heard. It also wipes what BlipJab stored on the device you delete from, including the Blip Archive. It cannot be undone, and deleting does not cancel a subscription or refund a purchase — those are handled by Apple or Google. Two honest limits: copies of blips already delivered may remain in the Blip Archive on the devices you sent them to, and the email login itself is not deleted — signing in with that address again works and gives you a brand-new, empty account with a new invite code and no friends or history. If you would rather have a copy of your data than lose it, ask before you delete: the Privacy Policy explains how, and it is free.

11. Purchases

BlipJab is free to use, and recording and sending blips is always free. If we offer optional paid features (such as Blip+, credits, add-on packs, or unlocks), any purchase is processed entirely through the Apple App Store or Google Play using their in-app purchase systems — BlipJab never sees or stores your card or payment details. Prices are shown before you buy. Purchases of digital items are generally non-refundable except as required by law or by the store’s policies; refund requests are handled by Apple or Google. Credits are a virtual in-app item: they have no cash value, cannot be exchanged for money, and are not transferable outside the app apart from gifting them to another BlipJab user. Credits can also be earned without paying — inviting a friend who joins and adds you with your code pays both of you, and a Local Jab that gets answered pays both sides a smaller amount — and earned credits are the same virtual item, with no cash value. Your credit balance and your unlocks are recorded against your account so they follow your email to a new device. Some unlocks are deliberately temporary — an effect, sound or colour theme you open with credits lasts 24 hours, and a group boost lasts 14 days — and the length is always shown before you spend. Subscriptions, if offered, renew automatically until cancelled in your App Store or Google Play account settings. Nothing is charged unless you explicitly confirm a purchase.

12. Permissions

Microphone access is used only to record a blip you choose to send. Photo library access is used only when you pick a profile photo, and only the single picture you choose leaves your device. Location access is used only by Local Jab, only while you have it switched on, and only at the coarse accuracy described above — your coordinates are never sent. Notifications, contacts, and other permissions are optional and can be turned off in your device settings at any time. BlipJab works without them.

13. Content we generate

Parts of the app are written by software rather than by us: the “holiday of the day” on the home screen, and the animation that goes with it, are produced automatically once a day for everybody by an AI service. It is meant to be light-hearted, it is not advice or a statement of fact, and it can occasionally be wrong or dull. Nothing about you is sent to produce it. If a day’s text is offensive, tell us and we will remove it.

14. Acceptable use of the service

Do not attempt to break, overload, reverse-engineer, or gain unauthorized access to BlipJab or its systems, do not guess or harvest other people’s invite codes, group codes or blip-link tokens, and do not use the service to violate anyone’s rights or any law.

15. Disclaimers

BlipJab is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind. We do not guarantee that blips will always be delivered, that the service will be uninterrupted, that archived blips will be retained, that a shared link will stay playable for its full term, or that content sent by other users will be appropriate.

16. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, BlipJab and its creators are not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, or for how you or other users use the app or the content they send. Our total liability is limited to the amount you paid us (if any) in the 12 months before the claim.

17. Changes and termination

We may update these Terms from time to time; when the change is material we will ask you to accept it again in the app, and continued use after an update means you accept the changes. You may stop using BlipJab at any time. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the service.

18. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email support@blipjab.com.