Terms of Service

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to use Layne. This is a hard requirement, not a suggestion: India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act treats anyone under 18 as a legal "child," and processing a child's data requires verifiable parental consent that Layne has no mechanism to obtain. Age is currently self-declared at signup — we do not yet run automated age verification, but the 18+ requirement applies regardless, and accounts found to misrepresent age may be suspended or terminated.

2. What Layne is

Layne is a mood-first social and dating app. You choose from six moods — Good vibes, Heavy heart, Vent out, Confused, Bored, Here to listen — and are matched with people whose mood complements yours, not necessarily the same one.

Layne is not an anonymous service. Once you and a match are chatting, your full profile — name, photo, bio, age, city, and more — is visible to them, and theirs to you. Every user goes through a live face-verification check to confirm their profile photo is really them.

3. Face verification

Verification is required to use Layne's core features. Unverified accounts cannot be matched, cannot send or accept Knocks (Layne's connection-request mechanic), cannot create Mood Feed posts, and cannot comment or like. Verification requires a live camera check — a static uploaded photo is not accepted.

4. Your account and conduct

You're responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide and for keeping your account secure.

Harassment, impersonation, inappropriately soliciting personal information, spam or fake profiles, and sharing sexual content without consent are all prohibited. Our full Community Guidelines describe what's expected in detail.

Based on user reports and the strikes and respect-score system described on Safety, Layne may take enforcement action against accounts that violate these terms or the Community Guidelines — including warnings, temporary suspension, or permanent termination.

5. Chats and matching

You can hold up to a few active chats at once, depending on your account standing — the exact number varies by tier. A short mutual question exchange, the Sync Game, happens before a chat can begin.

6. No safety guarantee

Layne implements verification, reporting, and moderation features, but we cannot guarantee the identity, intentions, or conduct of any user. We are not responsible for interactions between users, including any in-person meetings arranged through the app. If you choose to meet another user in person, you do so entirely at your own risk.

7. No payment, no premium — yet

Layne does not currently charge for any feature or offer any paid subscription. If that changes, we'll publish updated terms covering payment, billing, and refunds before any paid feature launches.

8. Intermediary status

With respect to user-generated content — Mood Feed posts, comments, and chat messages — Layne acts as an intermediary under India's Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. We maintain a grievance redressal mechanism (see Grievance Redressal) and act on valid complaints, including removing or disabling access to unlawful content consistent with our obligations as an intermediary. Layne is not liable for user-generated content we did not create and have not been notified about, in line with the safe-harbour principles of Indian law.