The terms of using yern

The short version

yern is a dating service built by a small team in Oakland. Creating an account means you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. You must be 18 or older to use yern.

Your account

You sign up with an email and password and are responsible for keeping them secure. One account per person, and it's for you personally.

Gender and who you're seeking are set at onboarding and can be changed in settings afterward. Because they're foundational to how we match you, changing either one locks both for 30 days.

Your date of birth is set once at onboarding and cannot be changed.

How matching works

You get up to 5 mutual matches a day, revealed at 3pm. A match means you both showed up in each other's queue and said yes. A daily match is a suggestion. It hasn't been vetted, screened, or asked whether it's interested, and we never claim the algorithm predicts long-term compatibility or finds a soulmate.

When a match happens, a 24-hour window opens for the two of you to talk. If it closes without a conversation, the match moves to missed connections and may resurface later. Reopening a closed window, or extending a live one, may be offered as a paid feature.

Subscriptions and trials

New accounts get a free trial with no card required. When it ends, you choose a paid tier or lose access to matching. Free wellbeing features stay available either way.

Cancellation happens in settings and takes the number of clicks it should. If you find an obstacle to leaving, tell us, it's a bug.

Respect, conduct, and photos

You agree to treat the people you meet here with respect, on the app and off it. Harassment, impersonation, spam, sexual content involving minors, and attempts to access data we don't show you are all violations, and any of them can end your account.

Every photo is reviewed before other people see it: an automated scan first, a human as needed. Only a human can reject a photo.

Reporting, blocking, and bans

You can report or block anyone, from their profile or a conversation. Blocking is permanent, symmetric, and silent: you'll never be matched with each other again, and they're never told.

A single report can't take down an account by itself. Sustained report pressure can trigger an automatic suspension pending review. Only a human being can issue a ban, and banned users can't come back under a new account.

Safety, and what we do not do

WE DO NOT RUN BACKGROUND CHECKS, AND WE DO NOT VERIFY WHO ANYONE IS.

yern does not run criminal background checks, sex-offender registry checks, or any other screening on the people you are matched with. We do not verify anyone's name, age, photos, job, or anything else on their profile, including your own. The 18-and-over requirement is enforced by asking for a birth date and by a rule in our database that rejects an under-18 date. Nobody checks whether the date is true.

Use the judgment you would use meeting any stranger. Meet in public the first few times. Tell someone where you are going. The in-app safety tools are there for you.

Wellbeing features are not medical care

Our wellbeing tools, including the daily note, the Wellness tab, and Pause & Grow once it ships, are not clinical, psychological, or therapeutic advice, and we are not clinicians. Every wellbeing prompt is something you can decline with no effect on your matching or your account.

If you're in crisis, call or text 988, or text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. yern is not an emergency service.

Changes, and leaving

The product is young and will keep changing. If we materially change these terms, we'll tell you in the app before the change takes effect.

You can pause, deactivate, or delete your account at any time. Deletion and its narrow exceptions are described in the Privacy Policy.

Questions

Reach us at hello@yern.dev and a person will answer.