Terms of Service

Agreeing to these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Seruces Information Technology Private Limited (“BharatChat”, “we”, “us”). By creating an account or using BharatChat, you accept them and our Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree, please don’t use BharatChat.

Who can use BharatChat

• You must be at least 18 years old.
• You must use a mobile number that belongs to you and that you can receive SMS on. One account per number.
• You must not have been banned from BharatChat before.

Your account

You’re responsible for what happens on your account. Keep your phone locked and never share the one-time sign-in code. BharatChat will never ask you for it.

Usernames are first come, first served. We may take back a username that impersonates someone, infringes a trademark or misleads people.

If you stop using your number, delete your account or change it first. Mobile numbers are reassigned, and a new owner of the number could otherwise sign in.

Your content

You own the messages, photos, voice notes and other content you send. To run BharatChat, you give us a limited, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, copy, transmit and display that content to the people you send it to, and to show a short preview in their notifications. The licence ends when the content is deleted from our servers.

You’re responsible for your content and must have the right to share it.

Translation

BharatChat translates messages automatically. Machine translation can miss meaning, tone or context, and some languages can’t be translated yet. Always check the original (tap Show original) before relying on a translation for anything important, such as medical, legal, financial or safety matters. We aren’t responsible for errors in automatic translation.

What isn’t allowed

Don’t use BharatChat to share, or help anyone share, content or behaviour that:

• Sexually exploits or endangers children in any way. We have zero tolerance for this. See our child safety standards.
• Is illegal in India, or promotes violence, terrorism, or the sale of weapons or drugs.
• Harasses, threatens, bullies, stalks or intimidates someone, or shares their private information or intimate images without consent.
• Is hateful towards people because of religion, caste, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability or similar.
• Impersonates a person or organisation, or misleads people about who you are.
• Is spam, bulk or automated messaging, a scam, or phishing.
• Is deliberately false and likely to cause harm, or is otherwise prohibited under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules made under it.
• Infringes someone’s copyright, trademark or other rights.

Also don’t try to break, overload, reverse-engineer, scrape or get unauthorised access to BharatChat or other people’s accounts.

Groups and invite links

Group admins decide who can join, who can post and who can change group details. Anyone who has a group’s invite link can see its name, photo and member count, and ask to join or join directly, depending on the group’s settings. Only share invite links with people you trust, and reset a link if it gets out.

Reporting and enforcement

To report a message, account or group that breaks these terms, email support@bharatchat.co with the @username or group name and what happened. We may remove content, limit features, or suspend or ban accounts that break these terms or the law, and we may preserve information and report it to the authorities when required. If we act on your account, you can appeal to our Grievance Officer.

The service

BharatChat is free to use. We’re always improving it, which means features may change, and occasionally the service may be interrupted. We can’t guarantee that every message will be delivered.

BharatChat isn’t for emergencies. It can’t contact emergency services. In an emergency in India, call 112.

Our app is also subject to the terms of the app store you downloaded it from, and to the terms of your mobile network.

Shops, orders and payments

Local businesses can open a shop on BharatChat to list what they sell, take orders and bookings, and get paid. BharatChat is the messenger, not the seller. Every order, booking, bill and payment is between you and that business.

• You pay the business directly, through your own UPI app, to the UPI ID or QR the business set up. BharatChat never holds, routes or receives the money, and takes no cut.
• Prices, availability, delivery, quality, refunds and cancellations are the business’s responsibility. Take them up with the business first; a “verified” badge means we checked the business’s documents, not its goods or service.
• Businesses are responsible for their listings, their orders, their refunds and their taxes (including GST), and for following the law in what they sell.
• We aren’t a party to any sale and aren’t liable for an order that isn’t delivered, a payment that goes to the wrong account because of details the business entered, or a dispute between you and a business. If a business breaks these terms, tell us and we may remove it.

Liability

BharatChat is provided “as is”. To the extent the law allows, we don’t make promises beyond those in these terms, and we aren’t liable for indirect or consequential losses, for content sent by other users, or for errors in automatic translation. Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to ₹1,000. Nothing in these terms limits liability that can’t be limited under Indian law.

If you use BharatChat in a way that breaks these terms or the law and someone makes a claim against us because of it, you agree to cover our reasonable losses from that claim.

Ending your use

You can stop using BharatChat at any time and delete your account. We may suspend or end your access if you break these terms, if the law requires it, or if we stop offering BharatChat. Where we reasonably can, we’ll tell you first.

Changes to these terms

If we make significant changes, we’ll tell you in the app before they take effect. If you keep using BharatChat after that, the new terms apply.

Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of India. Disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts at Hyderabad, Telangana. Before going to court, please contact our Grievance Officer so we can try to resolve it.

Contact

For help using the app, see Help or email support@bharatchat.co.