Welcome to Zado. These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and the operator of Zado ("Zado", "we", "us", "our"). By creating an account or using the Zado application and related services (the "Service"), you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
1. Eligibility
- You must be at least 16 years old to use the Service.
- You must provide a valid mobile phone number you control for verification.
- You must not be barred from using the Service under applicable law, and must not have been previously removed for violating these Terms.
2. What Zado Is
Zado is a messaging application focused on cross-language communication. Core features include:
- One-to-one and group text, photo, video, voice and document messaging.
- AI translation of messages into your language, processed by OpenAI when you enable translation.
- Voice-message transcription & translation, processed by OpenAI.
- Video calls, delivered through Agora.
- Live call captions (real-time translated subtitles), processed by Google Cloud Speech-to-Text and OpenAI when you enable captions.
- Live voice-call translation — your call is spoken in the listener's language (speech synthesis by Cartesia and ElevenLabs), optionally with a personal translation voice you create from an in-app recording.
- Finding contacts by username without sharing your phone number.
3. Accounts & Phone Verification
- You verify your account via an SMS one-time code sent through Twilio Verify.
- You are responsible for activity on your account and for keeping your device secure.
- Choose a username that complies with our policy; reserved, impersonating, offensive or unlawful usernames are not permitted and may be reclaimed or removed.
4. Message Retention (Important)
| Content type | Server retention |
|---|---|
| Text messages | Deleted from our servers shortly after delivery (typically within a few minutes). |
| Media (photos, videos, documents, voice) | Kept on our servers for up to 7 days after upload, then automatically deleted. |
| Undelivered content | May remain until delivered or until the retention period expires. |
Because content is removed from our servers on the schedule above, recovery after deletion is generally not possible. Content kept locally on your device is governed by your device/OS security.
5. Your Content & License
You keep ownership of the content you create. To operate the Service, you grant us a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, transmit, display and process your content solely to provide the features you use — including transmitting it to recipients, generating thumbnails, and sending it to translation/caption processors when you enable those features. This license ends when your content is deleted from our servers, except where retention is required by law.
6. Acceptable Use
You agree not to use Zado to:
- Break any law or infringe others' rights (including IP and privacy).
- Send spam or malware, or engage in fraud, phishing or scams.
- Harass, threaten, bully, or share content that sexually exploits or endangers minors.
- Share hate speech, incitement to violence, or unlawful, obscene or non-consensual content.
- Impersonate others, scrape the Service, or attempt to bypass security, rate limits or abuse protections.
We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.
7. Third-Party Services
Zado relies on the following providers, each with their own terms and privacy practices:
- Google / Firebase — authentication, database, storage, messaging, analytics, crash reporting, and Cloud Speech-to-Text (captions).
- OpenAI — message translation and voice/caption processing.
- Twilio — SMS one-time codes.
- Agora — real-time video/voice calling.
- Cartesia — speech synthesis for call translation and optional translation voices.
- ElevenLabs — second speech-synthesis provider (fallback for translated speech); also receives your voice recording and stores a personal translation voice when you create one.
See our Privacy Policy for what data is shared and where it is processed.
8. Reporting & Moderation
You can report users or content from within the app (e.g., long-press a message → Report) and block users. We have zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive behavior. We do not pre-screen private messages, but when a valid report is received, we remove the offending content and suspend or terminate the responsible account — typically within 24 hours.
9. Intellectual Property
The Zado name, logo, and app design are our property. Except for your own content, you may not copy, modify, distribute or reverse-engineer the Service without permission.
10. Disclaimers
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, to the fullest extent permitted by law. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure, or that messages will always be delivered. Translation and caption outputs are machine-generated and may be inaccurate. Voice-translation audio is likewise machine-generated and may contain errors or interruptions; an optional translation voice is an AI approximation, and resemblance to your natural voice is not guaranteed.
11. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Zado and its operator will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for loss of data, profits or goodwill, arising from your use of (or inability to use) the Service. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or USD 50. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these may not apply to you.
12. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Zado and its operator from claims, damages and expenses arising from your content or your violation of these Terms or applicable law.
13. Termination
You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time from within the app. We may suspend or terminate access if you violate these Terms or the law, or to protect the Service or other users.
14. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. We will update the "Last updated" date and, for material changes, provide reasonable notice (e.g., in-app). Continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.
15. Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Türkiye, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Mandatory consumer-protection and data-protection rights available to you in your country of residence are not affected.
16. Contact
Questions about these Terms: support@zadomessenger.com
By using Zado, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy.