The house rules in full. They're plain on purpose: where a joke would get in the way, we left it out.
1. Who we are
Bail is published by Fenger Digital GmbH, Wiesenstraße 6, 49074 Osnabrück, Germany ("we"). Apple licenses the app to you under its Licensed Application End User License Agreement. These terms add what is specific to Bail. You accept them when you start using Bail. Questions go to bail@softailed.com.
2. What Bail does
Bail locks apps, app categories and websites you pick (your inmates) for a set time (a sentence). A sentence ends in one of these ways:
- Served: its time is up. That costs nothing.
- Bailed out: you pay its bail, a price you set yourself when you lock up.
- Paroled: if you chose parole as the way out, you solve its challenges. No charge.
You can also choose no bail: then only time ends the sentence. With conditions, you solve challenges first and then pay the bail. Stop halfway and you pay nothing, and the sentence goes on.
Bail runs on Apple's Screen Time. It works only while Bail has Screen Time access on your iPhone.
3. Sentence rules
- When you hold to lock up, the door takes about 3 seconds to shut. Until it does, Wait, undo cancels the sentence. Nothing is locked and nothing is charged.
- Once the door has shut, a sentence can only get stricter. You can extend it, raise its bail or add inmates. You can't shorten it, lower its bail, remove inmates or delete it. Only its way out or time ends it.
- Visits are open times inside a sentence. During a visit your apps are free, but the sentence stands: no edits, no early end. You can remove a visit later. You can't add one.
- Repeats lock the same inmates on a weekly schedule. While a repeat is open, you can edit or delete it for free. While it's locked, nothing about it can change. Paying bail opens it until its next locked time, and the repeat itself stays.
- Stricter now, softer tomorrow. Settings that make Bail stricter apply at once. Settings that relax it apply 24 hours after you change them, for example switching off strict mode or pay bail up front.
4. Paying bail
- Bail is paid by in-app purchase through your Apple account. Apple sells and charges in its own name, under its own terms. Before you pay, Bail shows the exact price in your App Store currency.
- We never charge more than the bail you set when you locked up. You can raise it later, never lower it.
- Every payment needs a tick from you. It reads: "I want my apps released immediately. I understand that I lose my right of withdrawal once they are released and that bail is final." The wording follows what's inside: app, apps, website or websites.
- Under EU consumer law you can normally withdraw from a purchase within 14 days. Bail releases your apps the moment you pay. So with that tick you ask for the release to happen right away, and you accept that your right of withdrawal ends once it has.
- Bail is final once paid. Your inmates are out, and the sentence goes on your rap sheet as bailed out.
- If Apple is still approving a payment (Ask to Buy, or your bank), your inmates stay locked until it goes through. If it fails, nothing is charged and the sentence goes on.
- With less than a minute left, you can't pay. Just wait.
5. Refunds
Refunds go through Apple, not us. We can't grant or refuse them. When you ask Apple for a refund, Apple may ask us about the purchase. By accepting these terms, you agree that we share purchase-related information with Apple for that, for example that the bail was used to release your apps. We tell Apple the bail was used. Apple decides. Your statutory rights stay unaffected.
6. The bail fund
Pay bail up front is optional and off until you switch it on. You then pay money into your bail fund: prepaid credit for bail, inside Bail.
- When you lock up, that sentence's bail is reserved from your fund. If the fund is short, you top it up or lower the bail before the door shuts. An undo puts the reserved bail back.
- You serve the sentence: its bail goes back into the fund.
- You cave and pay out: that bail is spent.
- You escape while a sentence is active (section 7): the whole fund is gone.
The fund is credit for bail only. It is not a deposit. It is never paid out, never goes back to your card and never expires.
Each top-up is an in-app purchase. You tick that you know what loses the fund, that it never goes back to your card, and that you want it added now and lose your right of withdrawal once it is.
The fund lives in your iPhone's Keychain, with no account behind it. Deleting Bail while no sentence is active keeps it, and reinstalling Bail finds it. Erasing or resetting the iPhone loses it, because there is nothing to restore it from. Switching pay up front off applies after 24 hours.
7. Escapes
While a sentence is active, each of these counts as an escape, also called a jailbreak:
- deleting Bail;
- switching off Bail's Screen Time access;
- erasing or resetting your iPhone.
A sentence is active from the moment the door shuts until it is served, bailed out or paroled, its visits included. A repeat is active while it is locked. This is the whole list.
What an escape costs:
- The sentence goes on your rap sheet as escaped, and your clean streak resets.
- The escaped sentence waits for you. When you come back, you serve it again in full or pay its bail before you can lock up anything new. A sentence with no bail can only be served again.
- If you pay bail up front, the whole bail fund is gone. It is not refunded.
Bail recognises an escaped sentence by a small marker it keeps in your iPhone's Keychain, as far as iOS keeps it. We can't charge anyone after the fact, and we don't try. The only money an escape can cost is a bail fund paid in advance.
8. Strict mode
Strict mode is on by default. While a sentence is active, it has iOS refuse to delete any app, Bail included. Switching it off applies after 24 hours.
9. Screen Time is Apple's
Bail relies on Apple's Screen Time, and Apple may change how it works. We take reasonable care, but we can't promise that iOS enforces every lock at every moment. If iOS lifts a lock early, you owe nothing for it. If a lock stays up after its time, open Bail: it releases what's due whenever it opens. If it doesn't, write to us.
Bail is a self-control tool. It is not medical or psychological help, and we make no promises about your willpower.
10. Under 18
If you're under 18, pay bail or top up a bail fund only with a parent's or guardian's permission.
11. Liability
We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, and under the German Product Liability Act. For simple negligence we are liable only for the breach of essential contractual obligations, limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this kind of contract. Beyond that, liability is excluded.
12. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms when Bail or the law changes. Material changes are announced in the app before they take effect. The current version always lives at this address.
13. Governing law
German law applies. If you are a consumer, the mandatory consumer protection rules of your country of residence remain unaffected. We are neither obliged nor willing to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.