Reply Terms of Service

Operator: Darak Studio Co., Ltd. · Contact: hello@darak.studio · Effective date: 2026-10-03

Draft pending legal review. Every item marked “to be confirmed” will be settled before these terms are published as final. If this translation differs from the Korean version, the Korean version applies.

1. The service

Reply is a letter app run by Darak Studio Co., Ltd. (“we”). You post letters on a topic under a pen name and choose which letters on the shore to answer. A conversation between two people opens only when the letter’s author accepts the reply.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be 19 or older to sign up, in every country. Outside Korea, you sign up with Sign in with Apple (iPhone) or Google sign-in (Android) and enter your date of birth to confirm you are 19 or older.
In Korea, you must also complete identity verification through PortOne to confirm you are 19 or older, in addition to Apple or Google sign-in. Verification is required again at sign-in once a year has passed.
Sign-up is not available in some places. This currently includes the United Kingdom, Brazil, and the US states of Mississippi and Tennessee. We determine the sign-up region from your connecting IP address and the country of your App Store or Google Play account. We do not block log-in for accounts that already exist.
If you cannot sign up with the date of birth you first entered, you cannot sign up again with the same Apple or Google account until the date on which that date of birth would make you old enough. A date of birth entered by mistake cannot be changed in the app. You may write to the contact address; we check each case individually, but we do not guarantee that a sign-up restriction will be lifted. If an age range that Apple or Google shares on iPhone (iOS 26 or later) or Android is under 19, you cannot sign up, on the same basis.
One person may have one account. A deleted or restricted Apple or Google account, or identity, cannot create a new account.
You must enter your real date of birth. We may restrict or close an account that we find was created with a false date of birth or by someone who was under the minimum sign-up age when the account was created.
You must create a pen-name card before reading or writing letters. A pen name has 2–12 characters, must be unique, and can be changed once every 30 days. Names suggesting the operator, the team or official status are not allowed.
Your pen name, intro, interests, region, age range, verification badge (Korean identity verification only) and month joined are visible to other users. Your date of birth, gender and sign-in details are not.
An account that signed up in Japan, or whose pen-name card region is Japan, cannot choose the gender of the letters it receives, and the received-letter gender setting it makes is not applied.

3. Letters, replies and conversations

A letter stays on the shore for up to 72 hours, where several users can read it. Each letter can receive up to 3 replies.
Sending a reply does not open a conversation. A conversation opens only if the letter’s author chooses “Continue the conversation” within 72 hours.
You can send up to 10 replies every 24 hours and up to 30 messages every 10 minutes. Letters, replies and messages are limited to 1,000 characters each.
Letters, replies, messages, and pen names and intros are checked for contact details and screened by AI (DeepSeek) before they are sent. Content judged inappropriate, or content that cannot be checked, is not sent. See the Privacy Policy for details.

4. What is not allowed

We have zero tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users. Content that violates these terms will be removed from user-facing areas and the responsible account will be banned from participation.

Sexual content, or offering or hinting at paid or transactional sex
Anything that sexualises minors or seeks to meet minors, and any other form of child sexual abuse or exploitation (see the Child Safety Policy)
Exchanging phone numbers, messenger IDs, social media accounts or links, or asking to move to another app
Advertising or promotion, asking for money, investment pitches, scams
Abuse, hate, harassment, threats of violence, tracking or stalking someone
Encouraging self-harm or suicide
Impersonating the operator, public bodies or other people
Posting other people’s personal information without their consent
Signing up under the minimum age or with a false date of birth
Using several accounts, using automation, or disrupting the service

5. Reporting, blocking and restrictions

Every letter, reply, message and pen-name card can be reported. Reporting also blocks the person by default, and a reported letter is taken off the shore at once.
If either of you blocks the other, you cannot exchange letters, replies or messages. You can unblock people in Account → Blocked people.
An account reported by three or more different users within 7 days, or by two or more different users for child safety or threats, is restricted automatically until we review it.
When a report confirms a violation, we remove the offending account’s letters, replies and messages from user-facing areas and ban the account from participation. A restricted account cannot send letters or messages but can still log in, contact us and delete the account.
If you disagree with a restriction, email us and a person on our team will review it. Response time to be confirmed.

6. Bottles (digital items)

Posting a letter to the shore uses one bottle. Reading the shore, replying, conversations, reporting and blocking are free.
“Read by country” (app version 1.1 or later) uses one saved bottle (from an ad or invite reward or a purchase, never the free bottle) to show, for 24 hours, only letters whose writers show the country you chose on their pen-name card. One can be active at a time, unless the active one has no letters left to show. No bottle is used if there is no such letter on the shore when you choose. Letters can leave the shore during the 24 hours; the bottle is not returned then.
You get one free bottle every 24 hours. Unused free bottles do not accumulate.
Where ads are offered, you can choose to watch an ad (Google AdMob) to the end for one bottle, once every 24 hours. Ad consent is described in the Privacy Policy.
Inviting friends (app version 1.2 or later): you can see and copy your invite code in Account → Invite friends. An invite succeeds when a friend enters your code within the number of days after signing up that the app shows (currently 7) and then, within a set number of days after signing up (currently 14), posts a letter (a letter taken off the shore after a report does not count) and opens the shore again the next day (at least 20 hours after signing up). You and your friend then both get bottles. The app shows how many bottles each of you gets and the limits on how often the inviter is rewarded (currently 3 bottles for the friend and 5 for the inviter, who is rewarded at most 5 times every 30 days and 20 times in total); these numbers and the periods above may change. Once the inviter has reached a limit, only the friend gets bottles. An invite does not succeed if the friend’s account has been deleted or restricted; if the inviter’s account has been deleted or restricted when the invite succeeds, only the friend gets bottles. Each account can enter a code only once, and you cannot enter your own code or the code of someone who entered yours. Our team’s accounts cannot enter codes. Bottles from invites are treated like ad reward bottles: they are not purchased bottles, so they are used before purchased ones, and they cannot be refunded, transferred or exchanged for cash. If invite rewards were obtained unfairly, for example by using several accounts (sections 2 and 4), we may take them back and restrict the account. We may stop invitations at any time; while they are stopped, codes cannot be entered and no invite rewards are given, and bottles already received can still be used. The app never tells the inviter who their friends are, only how many entered the code and how many invites succeeded, and it does not show the friend the inviter’s pen name either. The app does not read your contacts or send invitations for you. Everything else works the same whether or not you invite anyone.
“5 Bottles” is a consumable item bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play. It does not expire and cannot be transferred or exchanged for cash.
Bottles for letters are used in this order: free, ad or invite reward, purchased. “Read by country” uses an ad or invite reward bottle first, then a purchased one. At most 3 letters can be posted every 24 hours.
No bottle is used for a letter that is rejected by safety screening or cannot be screened.
A bottle posts a letter to the shore, starts “Read by country” or, from app version 1.2, sends a letter by a vehicle. It does not guarantee a reply or a conversation, and letters from purchased bottles are not shown ahead of others. Bottles are not returned when a letter leaves the shore without replies.
Ocean currents (app version 1.2 or later): unless you choose another way to send, a letter sets out on the ocean current from the shore of the country on your pen-name card and uses no extra bottle. Before you send, the app shows a launch forecast: which country’s shore the letter will reach first and about how long it takes. The route is drawn from public ocean-current statistics and depends only on you, the country on your card, the month and the hour you send. If the result would differ from the forecast you saw, the letter is not sent and no bottle is used. If your card shows no country, the letter goes to the shore at once, as before.
Vehicles (app version 1.2 or later): instead of the current, you can send a letter by helicopter, mail ship, seaplane, submarine, rocket or Santa Claus. Each vehicle uses one or more extra bottles (currently 1 to 9); the app shows how many and the arrival time before you send, and both may change over time. Extra bottles come from ad or invite rewards first, then purchases, never from the free bottle. You choose which country’s shore the letter reaches first (for Santa Claus, the countries it goes to; below), among the countries the app offers for that vehicle (never the country on your card or shores we have closed). A helicopter reaches only the countries the app lists as sharing a sea with the country on your card. A vehicle only changes where the letter first arrives, its postmark, how soon it arrives and how its trip is drawn; the trip is an illustration, not a real route. Unless you choose readers as described below, or send by Santa Claus (whose letter is shown only to readers of the countries it reached, below), it does not choose who reads the letter: readers in any country can still read it. Whichever vehicle you choose, and whether or not you choose readers, the letter is never placed ahead of other letters on any shore. Only a letter the free current carried to a country’s shore may be placed slightly ahead, and only for readers whose card shows that country. No bottle is used if the letter is rejected by safety screening or cannot be screened, or if, when you send, the vehicle is unavailable or cannot reach the shore you chose, that shore is closed, or too few readers fit the readers you chose (for Santa Claus, only if too few fit in every chosen country).
Santa Claus (app version 1.2 or later): Santa Claus takes one letter to the shores of several countries at once, up to the number the app shows (currently 5). Each person can send this way once in 24 hours (currently). Such a letter is shown only to readers whose pen-name card shows one of the countries you chose, and choosing readers (below) and readers’ own settings apply as usual. A chosen country where too few recently active readers fit is left out; we tell you which countries were left out but not how many readers there are. When you send from the app, we tell you which countries would be left out before any bottle is used, and send only if you agree. Leaving countries out does not change the bottles used. If every country is left out, the letter is not sent and no bottle is used. However many countries it reaches, it is one letter and can receive at most 3 replies in total. Santa Claus is the app’s telling of a well-known folk figure, not a character of any company or work.
Choosing readers (app version 1.2 or later): some vehicles also let you limit who can read the letter in the country you chose: currently the submarine and the seaplane by age group (19–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50 and over), and the rocket and Santa Claus by age group and gender (women or men). Choosing gender, however, is not available if the sender signed up in Japan or has Japan as the region on their pen-name card, or if Japan is among the destination countries. The app shows which choices each vehicle offers before you send. Such a letter is shown only to readers whose pen-name card shows that country and who fit your choice, and only if their “Exchange letters with” settings (gender and age group) accept you and yours accept them: readers’ own settings always come first. You cannot choose a particular person, pen name, interest or anything else, and readers are not told what you chose. If too few readers who were recently active fit your choice, the letter is not sent and no bottle is used (for Santa Claus, that country is left out as described above); we do not tell you how many readers there are. Choosing readers does not guarantee that anyone reads or answers the letter. We may stop offering these choices at any time; the app then no longer shows them, and a letter sent at that moment goes to the country you chose without the choice, for the vehicle’s usual bottles.
A letter at sea (sent by current or by a vehicle) is visible only to you and cannot be read, answered or reported by anyone else. You can take it back while it is at sea; its bottles are not returned, and it still counts toward the 3 letters every 24 hours. A letter’s 72 hours on the shore start when it arrives, and where it first arrives does not limit who can read it unless you chose readers or sent it by Santa Claus (above). Ocean currents and vehicles may be unavailable for some accounts or at some times, for example while we compare them with the previous way of sending or fix a problem; letters then go to the shore at once, as before, and no extra bottle is used. A single vehicle may also be unavailable; the app then does not offer it.
Payments and refunds follow each store’s policy. If a store refunds a purchase, we take back those 5 bottles. Any you have already used remain as a shortfall that is deducted from your next purchase first. We never bill you separately.

7. Your content

You keep the rights to the letters, replies and messages you write.
You allow us to store and process that content as needed to provide the service (showing it on the shore and in conversations), to screen it for safety, and to handle reports.
A recalled message disappears from the other person’s screen but stays on the server as evidence for reports.

8. Deleting your account

You can delete your account instantly at any time in Account → Delete account, even while restricted.
Deleting takes down your pen-name card and your letters on the shore. What we keep, and why, is in the Privacy Policy.
A deleted Apple or Google account, or identity, cannot sign up again. If you signed in with Apple, we also revoke Reply’s access to your Apple ID.
Any remaining purchased bottles can no longer be used after deletion. Refund eligibility follows the store’s policy.

9. Changes to the service and liability

Notice of changes or suspension of the service, our liability and its limits, dispute resolution, governing law and jurisdiction: to be confirmed after legal review

10. Changes to these terms and contact

We will announce changes in the app and on this page before they take effect. Signing up requires accepting the terms version in force at that time.
Contact: hello@darak.studio