Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated: October 1, 2026.

IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS OR THINKING ABOUT HARMING YOURSELF, CALL OR TEXT 988 (SUICIDE AND CRISIS LIFELINE, U.S.). IF ANYONE IS IN IMMEDIATE DANGER, CALL 911. THE HEM IS NOT AN EMERGENCY SERVICE.

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY. SECTION 18 CONTAINS A BINDING ARBITRATION AGREEMENT AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER. UNLESS YOU OPT OUT WITHIN 30 DAYS UNDER SECTION 18.8, YOU AND THE HEM WILL RESOLVE DISPUTES THROUGH INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION, NOT IN COURT OR IN A CLASS ACTION.

Important. The Hem is a Christian prayer app that uses artificial intelligence. Do not use the Hem as a substitute for a doctor, counselor, therapist, or pastoral care.

Our promises

  • We do not sell your personal information.
  • The Hem carries no ads, and we never use your prayers for advertising.
  • We do not use your prayers or your voice to train AI models.
  • Your cloned voice is used only for your prayers, and you can delete it anytime.
  • You can delete your account and your data, in the app or by email.
  • Scripture stays as written. AI never writes or alters Bible verses.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we keep these promises.

1. Agreement to these Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and HemApp OpCo LLC, a New York limited liability company ("The Hem," "we," "us," or "our"). They govern the Hem app, our website at touchthehem.com, including the waitlist, and related services (the "Services").

By creating an account, tapping "Agree" or a similar button, or using the Services, you agree to these Terms and acknowledge our Privacy Policy (https://touchthehem.com/privacy). If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

Feature-specific terms we present, such as the Voice Consent, form part of these Terms and control for that feature.

2. Eligibility

  • Age 18 and up. You must be at least 18 to use the Services, including guest access. By continuing, you confirm that you are 18 or older.
  • Age signals. Where an app store provides age or parental-consent information, we use it to confirm eligibility. If we learn that a user is under 18, we will close the account and delete its data.
  • Location. The Hem is currently offered in the United States.

3. About the Hem

You tell the Hem, by voice or text, what you want to pray about. The Hem uses AI to write a personal prayer, which a voice you choose reads aloud. Features may include preset voices, an optional copy of your own voice ("Voice Cloning"), and reminders. Features may change over time.

AI writes each prayer, and a preset voice speaks it, including any voice you clone. No person listens to your prayers.

The Services are for personal prayer only. Do not use the Hem as a substitute for professional care or counsel from a healthcare provider, counselor, or pastor. The Hem is not medical, psychological, legal, financial, or other professional advice, and not a crisis service. Using the Hem does not create a clinical, counseling, or pastoral relationship. Never delay seeking professional help because of something you heard in the Hem.

When automated systems detect a possible risk of harm, the Hem may show crisis resources instead of a prayer. They may not detect every situation. The Hem does not contact emergency services, your family, or anyone else for you.

The Hem is rooted in Biblical Scripture and centered on Jesus Christ.

  • Scripture. The Hem quotes the Berean Standard Bible (BSB) by default, and the King James Version (KJV) if you choose it in Settings. Both are public domain in the United States. The Hem draws on Biblical passages we review, and the AI does not write or alter Scripture.
  • Posture in prayer. The Hem helps you bring what you are carrying before God. Believers approach prayer with reverence and hope, entrusting our requests to His wisdom and care. Generated prayers do not offer prophecy, speak on God’s behalf, or make promises about how or when He will answer.
  • Independent. Unless we say otherwise, no church or religious body operates or endorses the Hem, and prayers do not represent any body's official doctrine.
  • Supporting your prayer life. The Hem encourages you to turn toward God in prayer. It is intended to complement personal prayer and Scripture reading, and does not take the place of pastoral care or fellowship with others and within the Church.

The Hem is built for prayer only. It may decline or redirect requests outside that purpose, including requests for advice, predictions, or prayers meant to harm someone.

4. AI-generated content

AI systems, including third-party systems, generate the prayers, audio, word timings, and other output of the Services ("Output"). You understand that:

  • Output may be inaccurate, theologically imperfect, or not what you intended.
  • No person reviews Output before you receive it.
  • Output may resemble output for other users.
  • Do not rely on Output as a sole source of truth or as a substitute for pastoral, medical, or other professional advice. Review it with your own judgment.
  • The voices you hear, including Cloned Voices, are generated using AI.

Reporting content. Report harmful or inappropriate Output in the app or at support@touchthehem.com.

5. Your account

  • You are responsible for your login details and all activity under your account. Tell us at support@touchthehem.com if you suspect unauthorized use.
  • Guest access is a limited trial we may change or withdraw.
  • Accounts are personal. You may not sell, transfer, or share your account.

6. Your content

You keep all rights you have in the words you submit for prayer (“Prayer Input”), the voice recordings you provide, and your voice and likeness (together, “Your Content”). To the extent we have any rights in Output generated for you, we assign them to you, subject to Section 4 and third-party rights.

To generate your prayers and provide the app’s features, we need your permission to process the content you share with us. You grant us a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store, process, transcribe, and adapt Your Content and Output generated for you, and to share them with our service providers (including AI providers), solely to provide and secure the Services and comply with law, as described in our Privacy Policy.

This license ends when we delete Your Content, subject to the backup schedule in the Privacy Policy.

We do not use Your Content or Output generated for you to train or improve AI models, whether ours or a third party’s. The one exception: if you choose Voice Cloning, we use the voice samples you submit to create your personal voice model, which only you can use.

You represent that you have the rights to submit Your Content and that it violates no law or anyone's rights. Take care with other people's private information.

The Hem accesses your microphone only when you start a recording for Prayer Input or voice setup, and only while the recording indicator is displayed. You can type your Prayer Input instead.

We may use suggestions you send about the app to improve the Services. Submitting feedback does not give us additional permission to use Your Content or Output generated for you. We will not publish your story or testimony, with or without your name, without your separate, express permission.

7. Voices and Voice Cloning

Preset voices are AI generated voices licensed to us, not the voices of identifiable real people. You may use them only within the Services and may not extract or reuse them.

Voice Cloning creates an AI model of a voice from recordings you submit (a "Cloned Voice"). Because a voice is personal and legally protected, you agree that:

  • (a) You are at least 18 years old.
  • (b) You will submit only recordings of your own voice, not anyone else's, including a family member, a deceased person, a public figure, or a minor.
  • (c) You will complete our consent process truthfully, including the recorded spoken consent statement, and will not use recordings, synthetic audio, or other means to get around it.
  • (d) You will use your Cloned Voice only to generate prayers within the Hem for your personal, non-commercial use, including ministry use under Section 11. You receive no access to the Cloned Voice model.
  • (e) You will not use any Cloned Voice or Output to impersonate anyone, deceive anyone about whether audio is AI-generated, commit fraud, bypass voice-based security, or harass, defame, or harm anyone.

We create a Cloned Voice only after you sign a separate Voice Consent. If you decline, the rest of the Hem works as usual. You can delete your Cloned Voice anytime in Settings. We may remove any Cloned Voice without notice if we believe it breaks these rules or the law. If you believe your voice was cloned without permission, contact support@touchthehem.com and we will investigate promptly.

The Voice Consent and our Privacy Policy explain how we collect, keep, and destroy voice data.

8. Acceptable use

You agree not to, and not to help anyone else to:

  • use the Services unlawfully, or request content that is sexual, hateful, violent, harassing, or calls for harm or curses against anyone;
  • impersonate anyone or misrepresent your affiliation;
  • present a prayer from the Hem as written by a person, as the words of a human minister, as prophecy, or as a message from God;
  • submit other people's sensitive personal information without a lawful basis;
  • use the Services or Output to create misinformation, scams, spam, or deceptive "deepfake" audio;
  • reverse engineer, scrape, copy, or extract the source code, models, prompts, voices, or data of the Services, except where the law expressly allows;
  • attack, overload, or interfere with the Services or their security, or access them by automated means without our written permission;
  • bypass usage limits, age limits, safety systems, content filters, or payment requirements, including through "jailbreak" prompts;
  • use the Services or Output to develop or train competing AI models or products; or
  • resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Services or Output without our written consent, apart from the ministry use that Section 11 allows.

We may investigate violations, suspend access, and report illegal activity.

9. Subscriptions, purchases, and free trials

Some features may require payment ("Paid Services"). You must be at least 18 to buy one.

  • Billing. Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play) processes in-app purchases under their terms. We do not receive or store your payment card details.
  • Automatic renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period at the price shown when you subscribed, unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends. The app store charges your account within 24 hours before renewal.
  • Free trials. A trial converts automatically to a paid subscription at the regular price unless you cancel before it ends. We show the trial length and price before you start.
  • How to cancel. Cancel anytime in your app store settings (iPhone: Settings > [your name] > Subscriptions; Android: Google Play > Payments and subscriptions > Subscriptions). Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period. Deleting the app or your account does not cancel your subscription.
  • Refunds. Apple or Google handles refunds. Except where the law requires otherwise, payments are non-refundable.
  • Price changes and reminders. We give at least 30 days' notice of price changes and send renewal or trial-end reminders where the law requires.

State auto-renewal notice. Consistent with New York General Business Law section 527-a, the California Automatic Renewal Law, and similar laws, by subscribing you authorize recurring charges at the disclosed frequency and price until you cancel online through your app store.

10. Notifications and communications

If you allow it, we send push notifications such as prayer reminders, which you can turn off anytime. You agree we may send service communications electronically, and that these satisfy any writing requirement.

11. Our intellectual property

  • Ownership. We or our licensors own the Services, including the software, design, preset voices, prompts, and models.
  • Your license. We grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the app on devices you own or control for your own non-commercial use. We reserve all rights not expressly granted.
  • Prayer sharing (future release). Except for ministry use below, the current version of the Hem does not let you send, forward, or play your prayers for other people. We plan to offer sharing in a future release and will present the terms that apply before you use it. Until then, Output is for your personal use.
  • Ministry use. A pastor, group leader, or ministry volunteer may play a prayer they personally generated through the Hem aloud in a gathering, as long as no one pays to hear it, no one records or rebroadcasts it, and the group knows AI made it.
  • Our marks. The Hem, the Hem logo, and our voice names are our trademarks. Do not use them without written permission.
  • Copyright complaints. Send DMCA notices (17 U.S.C. section 512(c)(3)) to legal@touchthehem.com.

12. Third-party services

The Services rely on third parties, including app stores, sign-in, speech recognition, and AI and voice providers. Their terms may apply, and we are not responsible for services we do not control.

13. Apple App Store and Google Play terms

If you downloaded the app from the Apple App Store, you and we acknowledge that:

  • (a) these Terms are between you and us only, not Apple, and we, not Apple, are solely responsible for the app and its content;
  • (b) your license is limited to use on Apple-branded products you own or control, as the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions permit;
  • (c) Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app;
  • (d) if the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price (if any); to the maximum extent the law permits, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the app;
  • (e) we, not Apple, are responsible for any claims by you or a third party relating to the app, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, and consumer protection or privacy claims;
  • (f) we, not Apple, are responsible for investigating, defending, settling, and discharging any third-party claim that the app infringes intellectual property rights;
  • (g) you are not in a U.S.-embargoed country or on any U.S. Government restricted-party list;
  • (h) you must comply with applicable third-party terms when using the app; and
  • (i) Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

If you download the app from Google Play when available, the Google Play Terms of Service also apply and prevail for your use of Google Play.

14. Suspension, termination, and account deletion

You may stop using the Services at any time and delete your account in the app (Settings > Account > Delete account) or by emailing support@touchthehem.com. Section 13 of our Privacy Policy explains what happens to your data.

We may suspend or end your access, with or without notice, if you breach these Terms, if the law requires it, if your use creates risk for us or others, or if we discontinue the Services. If we discontinue a Paid Service for reasons other than your breach, you may be entitled to a refund under the app store's policy or the law.

Sections 4, 6.2 (until we delete Your Content), 6.5, 8, 11, and 15 through 21 survive termination.

15. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICES AND ALL OUTPUT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ACCURACY. AI-GENERATED OUTPUT MAY NOT ALWAYS BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELEVANT, USEFUL, OR ERROR FREE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, THAT OUTPUT WILL BE ACCURATE OR CONSISTENT WITH ANY RELIGIOUS TRADITION, THAT OUR SAFETY SYSTEMS WILL DETECT EVERY RISK, THAT PRAYER WILL PRODUCE ANY PARTICULAR RESULT, OR THAT THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR SPIRITUAL, EMOTIONAL, OR OTHER NEEDS.

Some of these exclusions may not apply where you live.

16. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE HEM AND ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL, OR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICES, ANY OUTPUT, OR THESE TERMS, UNDER ANY LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATED TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) US $100.

These limitations do not apply to liability the law does not allow us to limit, such as for death or personal injury caused by our gross negligence or willful misconduct, or for fraud, or to non-waivable consumer protection or privacy rights.

17. Indemnification

To the extent the law permits, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Hem and its affiliates and personnel from claims, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from: (a) your breach of these Terms; (b) Your Content, including any claim that a voice you submitted was used without its owner's consent; or (c) your misuse of the Services or Output. We will notify you of any such claim and may control its defense at our expense.

18. Dispute resolution: arbitration and class action waiver

Each party agrees first to try to resolve a dispute informally. Send a written notice describing the dispute and the relief you want to legal@touchthehem.com (we will use your account email). If it is not resolved within 60 days, either party may start arbitration. Limitation periods pause meanwhile.

Except as Sections 18.4 and 18.8 provide, you and we agree to resolve any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services, including their formation, scope, validity, and enforceability (a "Dispute"), by binding individual arbitration, not in court. The Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. section 1 et seq.) governs this agreement.

The American Arbitration Association ("AAA") will administer the arbitration under its Consumer Arbitration Rules before a single arbitrator. Hearings may take place by video, telephone, written submissions, or in person in your county. The AAA rules govern fees, and where they require it we will pay fees beyond your share. The arbitrator may award individual relief only, as a court could.

Either party may (a) bring a qualifying individual claim in small claims court; and (b) seek an injunction in court to stop actual or threatened infringement or misuse of intellectual property or the Services.

YOU AND WE EACH AGREE TO RESOLVE DISPUTES ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. YOU AND WE EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL.

If a court finds this waiver unenforceable for any claim, that claim alone will be severed and decided in court after all individual claims are arbitrated.

If coordinated counsel files 25 or more similar demands, the AAA Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules apply and demands may proceed in batches.

A material change to this Section 18 will not apply to a Dispute already noticed.

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing hello@touchthehem.com within 30 days after you first accept these Terms, with the subject "Arbitration Opt-Out." Include your name and account email, and state that you are opting out. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms.

19. Governing law and venue

New York law and applicable U.S. federal law govern these Terms, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Subject to Section 18, the exclusive venue is the state or federal courts in Kings County, New York. Nothing here removes mandatory consumer rights where you live.

20. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. For material changes, we will notify you in the app or by email at least 30 days before they take effect, unless a change is legally required or urgent for safety. Continued use means you accept the changes.

21. General

  • Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and any feature-specific terms are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Services.
  • Severability and waiver. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Not enforcing a provision is not a waiver.
  • Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, provided your rights are not reduced. Your voice data keeps its protections after any transfer.
  • Force majeure. We are not liable for failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including third-party outages.
  • No third-party beneficiaries. Except as Section 13 states, these Terms create no rights for anyone else.
  • California users. Under California Civil Code section 1789.3, you may contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or (800) 952-5210.
  • New Jersey users. Nothing in these Terms limits your rights under the New Jersey Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act, and Sections 15 and 16 apply only to the extent New Jersey law allows.

22. Contact us

HemApp OpCo LLC (New York limited liability company)

45 Main Street, Suite 238, Brooklyn, NY 11201, United States

Email (support, privacy, and legal notices): legal@touchthehem.com