Terms of Use

Effective Date: March 1, 2026  ·  Last Updated: April 14, 2026

Hey — I'm Hemanth, the person who built Swale. It's a personal project, not a company. I wrote these terms in plain English. Please read them before using the app.

1. What Swale is

Swale is an Android launcher I built to help people (including me) break the doomscrolling habit. It adds a mindful pause before you open distracting apps, tracks your screen time, and gives you tools to set your own boundaries.

Swale is a tool, not a treatment. It can help you build better phone habits, but it doesn't guarantee any specific outcome — and it's no substitute for professional help if you're struggling with addiction, mental health, or anything serious.

2. Using Swale

By installing Swale, you agree to use it for its intended purpose and not to:

• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or tamper with the app
• Redistribute or resell the app or any part of it
• Use the app for anything illegal

These are the same ground rules any other app would ask for. Nothing unusual.

3. Pricing

Swale is currently free. No ads, no trial, no paywall, no upsells. I may introduce a paid tier later to help cover developer costs — if I do, I'll give everyone clear notice inside the app first, and existing features will never stop working retroactively. Anything you're using now, you'll be able to keep using.

4. Permissions & device control

Swale is a launcher, which means it takes over your home screen. A few things to know:

• Blocks are soft enforcement. A determined person can always uninstall the app. That's the point — if you've really decided to open something, Swale shouldn't stop you from getting your phone back.
• Device Admin is optional. During onboarding, you can choose to register Swale as a Device Admin. This only prevents uninstall without first deactivating admin rights. It grants zero other powers (no lock-screen policies, no data wipe, no tracking).
• Grayscale is Android's. Swale can guide you through enabling system-level grayscale, but Android controls the actual toggle.

5. “As-is” disclaimer

I'm one person building this in my free time. Swale is provided as-is, with no guarantees that:

• It will always work perfectly
• Every feature will block every distraction
• It will be compatible with every Android device or OS version

If something breaks, email me and I'll try to fix it. But I can't promise instant turnaround.

6. Limit of responsibility

To the extent the law allows, my total responsibility for anything related to Swale is limited to what you've paid for the app in the last 12 months. I'm not responsible for indirect losses like lost productivity, missed notifications, or anything similar.

This isn't me trying to be slippery — it's standard language that protects solo developers from open-ended liability. If you've got a real problem, email me first and we'll figure it out.

7. If I need to stop offering Swale

If I ever need to shut Swale down (health, life changes, whatever), I'll give as much notice as I can. Lifetime plan holders will have the app keep working as long as Google Play allows.

8. Changes to these terms

If I update these terms, I'll change the “Last Updated” date at the top. For anything significant, I'll notify you inside the app.

9. Governing law

Since I'm based in the United States, any dispute about these terms is governed by US law. I'd rather handle any issue over email first — that's always faster and cheaper for both of us.

10. Contact

Email: support@swale.hackthru.com
Website: swale.hackthru.com/terms

I'm one person — expect a real reply, not a form response.

— Hemanth

Google Play is a trademark of Google LLC. Swale is an independent personal project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.