Terms of Use — Pinly
Effective date: 2026-09-18
Who provides Pinly
Pinly is published by Bright Birch Pte. Ltd. ("we", "us"). You can reach us at hello.pinly@gmail.com about anything on this page.
By installing or using Pinly you agree to these terms. If you do not agree with them, uninstall the app.
What Pinly is
Pinly reads Chinese text with your phone's camera and shows pinyin, tones and dictionary meanings for what it finds. It also reads text you paste in, keeps a vocabulary list, and can export study sheets.
What Pinly is not
Pinly gets things wrong. Character recognition runs on your device and is not always right — handwriting, stylised signage, low light, and rare or variant characters are where it struggles most. A misread character produces a wrong reading and a wrong meaning, confidently.
Pinly is a learning aid. It is not a certified translation, and it is not advice. Do not rely on it alone for medical, legal, financial or safety decisions. Check anything that matters.
Your content is yours
Camera frames, saved photos, your vocabulary list and any text you paste stay on your phone. We do not receive them, cannot see them, and claim no rights over them. What the app does and does not send is set out in full in the Privacy Policy.
Saved photos are written to your phone's shared gallery, which means other apps on the device can read them. That is a property of where they are stored, not something we control.
Pro purchases
Pinly Pro is sold through Google Play. The purchase, the payment, the receipt and any refund are handled by Google under Google Play's own terms of service — we never see your payment details. Refund requests go to Google Play in the first instance; write to us if that does not resolve it.
Pro is a one-time purchase tied to your Google account, not a subscription. If we change what the free tier includes, a Pro purchase already made keeps everything it was sold with.
Acceptable use
Use Pinly lawfully. Do not use it to infringe anyone's rights, and do not work around the free-tier limits or the purchase check.
Open-source components
Pinly is built on open-source software and public reference data, each under its own licence. The full list, with licence text, is in the app under Settings → About → View licenses, and the data sources are credited under Settings → About → Data + content attributions. Nothing in these terms overrides those licences.
Availability and changes
Pinly is provided as it is, and we may change or discontinue features. We may update these terms; the effective date above changes when we do, and continuing to use the app after that means you accept the update.
No warranty
To the fullest extent the law allows, Pinly is provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose and accuracy of results.
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability arising out of or relating to Pinly is limited to the amount you paid for it. We are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss.
Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of Singapore.
Contact
hello.pinly@gmail.com — the same address as for privacy questions. We aim to respond within a few business days.