Terms of Service
1. Acceptance of the Terms
Welcome to Chronic Friends. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Chronic Friends mobile app, the web version at chronicfriends.app, our website (chronicfriends.org), and all related services (together, the "Service"), operated by Chronic Friends LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company ("we", "us", "our").
By creating an account, downloading the app, or using the Service in any way, you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy (https://www.chronicfriends.org/privacy/). If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
2. Description of the Service
Where you can use the Service. Chronic Friends is offered in two places, and these Terms cover both: the mobile app for iPhone and Android, and the web version at chronicfriends.app, which runs in your browser on a computer and can be installed as a desktop app. Both are the same product — the same account, and the same journal, community and settings, synchronised through your account. Three things work differently in the browser: Health Sync is not available (it reads from Apple Health or Health Connect, which only exist on your phone); medication reminders only ring while the page is open, because a browser cannot wake itself up; and Premium cannot be purchased from a computer (see section 7). Our public information website, chronicfriends.org, is a separate site and does not require an account.
Chronic Friends is a wellness and community app dedicated exclusively to people living with chronic illness. It does not privilege any single "primary" condition — every supported condition is treated equally. Rather than being built around one diagnosis, the app is organized into modules by body system, so that one person can follow one or several conditions at the same time — because living with more than one chronic condition is common. You choose your condition(s) when you set up the app, and it shows you the self-tracking tools that are relevant to you.
The Service is designed to support people living with a wide and growing range of chronic conditions (grouped below by body system, in no order of priority), including but not limited to:
- Digestive: Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, unclassified IBD (IBD-U), microscopic colitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), SIBO, coeliac disease, gastroparesis, and mastocytosis / MCAS.
- Muscles & joints: rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic back and neck pain, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, osteoarthritis, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (for adults living with it).
- Eyes: Sjögren's syndrome, Graves' disease, and chronic uveitis / episcleritis.
- Skin & mucous membranes: psoriasis, vasculitis, severe atopic dermatitis, and discoid lupus.
- Pelvic health: endometriosis, adenomyosis, and interstitial cystitis.
- Breathing & heart: chronic asthma, COPD, and chronic hypertension.
- Mental health: anxiety disorders, major depression, persistent depression (dysthymia), ADHD, alcohol and substance use disorders, and bipolar disorder.
- Energy, fatigue & nervous system (available to everyone): chronic fatigue (ME/CFS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), Hashimoto's / hypothyroidism, chronic migraine, Addison's disease, adrenal insufficiency, and diabetes (type 1 and type 2).
- Multi-system conditions such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and multiple sclerosis (MS), which span several of the areas above.
We add support for further conditions over time. Choosing which condition(s) you follow only personalizes which trackers you see — it is not a diagnosis, and Chronic Friends does not provide medical advice.
The Service offers:
- Community: open posts and private chats between people living with chronic conditions.
- Self-tracking: daily logging of wellness, symptoms, food, and habits, with tools that help you see your own patterns over time.
- Access to verified doctors: where available, the ability to request video consultations with accredited healthcare professionals.
- Health Sync (optional, mobile app only): if you switch it on and grant permission on your device, the app reads your step count, sleep duration and activity minutes — and, where your device records them, resting heart rate and heart-rate variability — from Apple Health (HealthKit) on iPhone or Health Connect on Android. It is read-only: we never write anything back into them. Those readings stay on your device — with one exception, and only one: if you join the steps tournament described below, the four step totals it publishes are uploaded to our servers, and nothing else is. You can revoke the permission at any time from your phone's settings without losing the rest of the app.
- Self-assessment questionnaires (optional): standardised questionnaires you may choose to complete, such as the PHQ-9, the GAD-7, the AUDIT-C or a condition activity index. They are reproduced from their official published versions and are offered only in the languages in which an official translation exists.
- Steps tournament (optional, free, off until you join): a friendly table of who has walked the most today, this week, this month and this year, which starts again on 1 January. It requires Health Sync to be switched on, so it is not available in the browser. If you join, four step totals are published next to the display name and avatar you already show in the community, and nothing else about your health goes with them. Leaving the tournament deletes your row.
- Wellness and supply-management tools.
We strive to keep the Service available and up to date, but we may modify, suspend, or withdraw features at any time.
3. Important medical notice
Chronic Friends is NOT a medical device and does NOT replace the advice, diagnosis, or treatment of a healthcare professional.
- The information, self-tracking, and visualization tools in the app are for general informational and wellness purposes only. They visualize the data you enter yourself and do not predict, diagnose, or detect any disease.
- Self-assessment questionnaires (such as the PHQ-9, the GAD-7, the AUDIT-C, or a condition activity index) are screening and self-observation tools, not diagnostic tests. The app shows you the score you obtained and does not interpret it: it assigns no severity category, no risk level, and no clinical threshold, it raises no alert, and no other feature reads that score to change what you are shown. A score is not a diagnosis; discuss it with your doctor.
- Readings brought in by Health Sync come from your phone's own health store and from the consumer devices that feed it. They are shown for your own reference, they are not medical-grade measurements, and they are not verified by us. If a day has no data, the app tells you so rather than estimating a value.
- Nothing in the Service should be interpreted as a medical diagnosis or as a treatment recommendation.
- Always consult your doctor or a qualified healthcare professional before making any decision about your health, your medication, or your diet.
- In a medical emergency, call your country's emergency services immediately. Do not use the app for urgent situations.
You rely on the information in the Service at your own risk.
4. Consultations with doctors
When the Service facilitates video consultations, the doctors are independent and duly accredited professionals. Chronic Friends acts solely as a platform that connects patients with those professionals:
- The medical relationship is established directly between you and the doctor, not with Chronic Friends.
- We do not provide medical services and are not responsible for the advice, diagnosis, or treatment provided by each professional.
- Consultation fees and the platform service charge will be shown clearly and separately before you confirm any consultation.
5. Accounts and minimum age
- You must be at least 18 years old to create an account and use the Service.
- You are responsible for keeping your credentials confidential and for all activity that occurs on your account.
- You agree to provide accurate information and to keep it up to date.
- We may suspend or close accounts that violate these Terms.
6. Community guidelines
Chronic Friends is a supportive space. By participating in the community, you agree NOT to post or share:
- Insults, harassment, hate speech, or any content that attacks other people.
- Spam, unauthorized advertising, or unsolicited commercial content.
- Dangerous medical advice or information that could put other people's health at risk.
- Illegal, violent, sexually explicit content, or content that infringes the rights of third parties.
- Other people's personal or sensitive information without their consent.
We reserve the right to remove content and to suspend or close accounts that violate these guidelines.
You can report objectionable content or block another user at any time — from a post, from a chat, or from that person's profile. Reports reach our team and we aim to review them within 24 hours. We have zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive behavior, and we may remove content, block users, or suspend or close accounts that break these rules.
Fair play in the steps tournament. Do not falsify your step data or use any means to submit step counts you did not walk. Where we have reason to believe this has happened, we may remove a member from the steps tournament without closing their account.
7. Subscriptions and payments
Chronic Friends can be used free of charge, and no screen is locked. A free account can use the community and private chats, the tools and the tools room with no limits, and can record without limits — journal, daily check-in, body map, medication and its reminders. It can also connect Health Sync, join the steps tournament, and use the emergency card, the warning signs, the crisis resources and the flare episode report. Downloading a complete copy of your own data is always free.
What a free account has is limits, not locks: you can look back over the last 14 days of your history, download the doctor report for periods of up to 14 days, and use Food Scan five times a month and the meditation and entertainment sessions once a day. A paid Premium plan removes those limits: your full history, reports covering longer periods, and unlimited use.
Premium is offered through the following plans:
- Monthly: $19.99 per month.
- Semi-annual: $87.99 every six months (six months plus one free).
- Annual: $167.99 per year (twelve months plus two free).
- Lifetime: $599.99 one-time payment for a lifetime Premium subscription (see below).
The recurring plans (monthly, semi-annual, and annual) include a 30-day free trial for new subscribers.
The prices above are the United States list prices. In other countries the app store shows the price in your local currency, which may differ (it includes local taxes such as EU VAT). The exact amount you will be charged is always shown by the App Store or Google Play before you confirm the purchase, and that amount is the one that applies. Promotional prices, when offered, are limited to the announced campaign period.
Automatic renewal (recurring plans only): unless you cancel, your monthly, semi-annual, or annual subscription renews automatically at the end of each period and is charged to your payment method through the app store (App Store or Google Play).
Lifetime plan: the lifetime Premium subscription is a single, one-time payment. It does not renew and is not charged again. It grants Premium access for as long as the Chronic Friends app remains available. It does not include a free trial.
Cancellation: you can cancel a recurring plan at any time from your account settings in the App Store or Google Play. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you keep Premium access until that date. If you cancel during the free trial before it ends, you are not charged.
Where Premium is bought. Premium is purchased and managed in the mobile app (iPhone or Android), through the App Store or Google Play. It cannot be purchased from a computer: the web version at chronicfriends.app has no checkout. A subscription bought in the mobile app also unlocks Premium in the web version, because both use the same account.
Payments, refunds, and renewals are handled according to the policies of the relevant app store.
8. Intellectual property
The Service, its design, brand, logos, and content are the property of Chronic Friends or its licensors. You may not copy, modify, or distribute the Service without authorization. The content you post remains yours, but you grant us a license to display it within the Service.
Third-party instruments. The self-assessment questionnaires offered in the app belong to their respective authors and are reproduced under the terms those authors set. The PHQ-9 and the GAD-7 were developed by Drs. Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B.W. Williams, Kurt Kroenke and colleagues, with an educational grant from Pfizer Inc., and require no permission to reproduce, translate, display or distribute. The AUDIT is a World Health Organization instrument and is used with attribution. Each questionnaire carries its attribution where it is shown. Instruments whose authors require written permission are not included in the app.
9. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law:
- The Service is provided "as is", without warranties of any kind.
- We are not responsible for the medical, health, or any other decisions you make based on information in the Service.
- We are not responsible for content posted by other users or for the advice of independent doctors.
- We will not be liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from the use or inability to use the Service.
10. Changes and termination
We may update these Terms at any time. If the changes are significant, we will notify you through the app or by email. Continued use of the Service after the changes means you accept them. You may stop using the Service and close your account whenever you wish.
11. Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, USA. Any dispute will be submitted to the competent courts of Wyoming, without prejudice to the rights granted to you as a consumer under the law of your country of residence.
12. Contact
If you have questions about these Terms, write to us at: info@chronicfriends.org