Terms

Ember is a private place for the plans, photos, and stories you share with the people on your mantel. These terms apply when you use the app at app.embering.us. What we store, and who can see it, is on Privacy.

Your account

You need an email you control. We send a short-lived code or link to that inbox. Once you verify it, your mantel exists and you are signed in. You can add a passkey on a device after that. If someone already on a mantel invites you, you join that mantel after you verify your email.

What you add

Photos, video, voice notes, writing, and a song you attach stay yours. You let Ember store them, make the sizes the app needs, show them to the people on that mantel, and put them in an export. We don't sell your data, memories, or your usage for advertising. Ember does not train models on them.

If you ask Ember to draw a hearth, you let Ember send the places, the writing on those days, and any photos you pick as references to Google, so it can make that page.

Don't add anything you don't have the right to keep. Don't use Ember to harass anyone, send unsolicited mail, copy other people's memories, or break the law. Ember can remove something that breaks these terms.

Who can see what

Each mantel is private to its members and guests. A guest can look at the memories you let guests see. They cannot add a photo or change anything. Notes marked private stay with the person who wrote them. A photo or a line marked sensitive stays covered until the person looking reveals it on that device.

On a shared memory, Double Take answers stay hidden until both people have sealed theirs.

If you ask Ember for help, our support team may open a read-only masked view of your account. They cannot add, edit, delete, or export for you. Privacy describes this in full.

From Others

From Others lets people who were there add photos and video to one memory, without making an Ember account. They use a link or a short code you share. They are not members, and they do not see the rest of the mantel.

What they add lands on that memory. Anyone who can edit the memory can delete it, pause uploads, lock a phone, or close uploads. Uploads stay open for at most a day.

If you open someone else's link, you are adding to their memory, not starting your own. They can delete what you added, and it comes with their export. For 7 days after uploads close you can download what you added yourself. After you add something, Ember may offer a way to start a mantel of your own. That mantel is separate. It does not join theirs.

Ember Frame

Frame plays photos on a screen that has the link. That screen does not need an Ember account. Anyone who can see the screen can see those photos until you end the session.

Export

From Settings, members can download a zip of the memories they can currently see on that mantel. A large mantel may come as more than one zip. The zip is Markdown plus original media when we still have it. It is not a complete copy of Ember. Photos and video added through From Others are part of that memory and come with the zip. Guests cannot export.

If someone leaves a couple mantel, the remaining person keeps a read-only archive they can still export.

Leaving and deleting

You can leave a mantel or delete your account from Settings. Douse hides a memory for 30 days; you can bring it back in that window, or remove it for good sooner. After 30 days it is gone. Deleting an account has the same 30-day window, then we purge it. Shared memories on a mantel that still has someone on it stay with them. Privacy has the full list.

When we close an account

We can pause or close an account that breaks these terms, or if we have to stop the service. We will email the address on the account when we can. You can export until the account is gone, the same way Settings works today.

Early Supporter

Early Supporter is optional. It is $9.99 a month, in US dollars, including any tax, for one mantel, billed to the person who subscribes. It covers everyone on that mantel. It renews every month and charges you until you cancel. The price stays $9.99 while that subscription is active. The app shows what Early Supporter includes before you subscribe. What it includes can change.

Link, a Stripe service, sells Early Supporter for Ember as the merchant of record. The price includes any tax that applies, such as sales tax, VAT, or GST. Link works out that tax from your billing address and pays it. Outside the US, Checkout can show the price in your currency. That price uses Stripe's exchange rate and includes a conversion fee. You can pay in US dollars instead. If you pay in another currency, the amount can change at renewal as exchange rates move.

Before Checkout starts, you confirm that you understand Early Supporter renews every month and charges you until you cancel. Checkout will not charge you until you agree to these Terms. Checkout also shows Link's payment terms. Ember records the time of that renewal agreement with the subscription at Stripe.

You can cancel anytime from Settings, then Early Supporter, then Manage billing, or on the Link website. Canceling stops the next charge, and your memories stay as they are. Link handles refund requests and follows local consumer law, including cooling-off periods where they apply.

Ember emails the payer before the price goes up, or before Early Supporter loses a feature.

If you pay for Early Supporter and you leave while someone else stays, your subscription cancels at the end of the paid period. If you are the only person on the mantel, the subscription cancels immediately when the mantel is removed. If you are the last person on a group mantel, every subscription on it cancels at the end of the paid period, and the mantel is removed after 30 days. Removing the mantel cancels any subscription that is still open.

Deleting your account does not cancel Early Supporter during the 30 days you can restore it. When Ember then deletes the account, it cancels the subscriptions that account pays.

What Ember stores, which emails it sends, and when the billing records are deleted are on Privacy.

Availability

Ember is a small service. We don't promise uptime, and features can change. We will not strand your memories on purpose: export stays available, and we will email you if we have to shut down.

Contact

For questions about these terms, write to support@embering.us.