Terms of Service
Summary
- Routemates is a group-travel app: plan a trip, share your live location with the people on it, chat, split costs and get safety alerts.
- You must be 18 or older to use it.
- Routemates is not an emergency service. Safety features help but can fail. In an emergency, call your local emergency number (112 in India, 911 in the US).
- When you share your location, the people you share it with can see where you are. You can always see who they are and stop sharing at once.
- Paid features (Trip Pass, Plus) are bought through Google Play on Android and, where offered, through Apple’s App Store in-app purchase on iOS. Refunds follow our Refund Policy and the store’s rules.
- Behave decently. Our Community Guidelines are part of these Terms. We can remove content and suspend accounts that break them.
- Indian law applies. Contact us first at [email protected] if something goes wrong.
1. Who we are and what these Terms cover
1.1 Routemates is operated by LORS Nexus, of New Delhi, India (full postal address sent on request to [email protected]) (“Lorsnexus”, “we”, “us”). LORS Nexus is the contracting party for every account, including accounts created before any later change of legal form; if the operator’s legal form or name changes, these Terms continue with the successor and we will tell you in the app.
1.2 These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a contract between you and Lorsnexus. They cover the Routemates Android and iOS apps, the website at routemates.lorsnexus.com, public Live Watch pages, and any related service (together, the “Service”).
1.3 These documents are part of these Terms: the Community Guidelines, the Safety & Emergency Disclaimer and the Refund & Cancellation Policy. The Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal data. If you organise paid trips once that feature launches, the Organiser Terms will also apply.
1.4 You accept these Terms by ticking the box at sign-up. We record which version you accepted and when.
1.5 These Terms are written in English. If a translation differs, the English version prevails.
2. Eligibility and accounts
2.1 You must be 18 or older. You confirm this at sign-up. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will close it and delete its data. Anyone can report a suspected underage user from within the app. Because we do not offer the Service to anyone under 18, we do not process children’s data with parental consent under section 9 of the DPDP Act; instead we refuse minors, act on every report, and close and erase any account found to belong to a minor.
2.2 You sign in with your Google account. Sign-in by SMS one-time code is not offered at launch; we will update these Terms before it is.
2.3 An account can be signed in on one phone at a time. Signing in on a new phone signs the old one out.
2.4 You are responsible for activity on your account. Keep your Google account and phone secure. Tell us at once at [email protected] if you think someone else has used your account.
2.5 Give accurate information about yourself and your vehicles. Do not impersonate anyone.
3. Personal, non-commercial use
3.1 Routemates is for personal travel with friends, family and groups you travel with. You may not use it to track employees or drivers, run a fleet, run a delivery, taxi or logistics business, or for any other commercial monitoring.
3.2 We look for patterns that suggest fleet or commercial use. A person reviews any such case before we act. We may restrict or close accounts used commercially.
4. Trips, members and visibility
4.1 Trip owners and admins. The person who creates a trip is its owner. Owners and the admins they appoint can invite and remove members and change trip details. An owner can delete a trip for everyone. The trip can be restored for 7 days; after that it is permanently deleted.
4.2 Location sharing is never hidden from you. While your location is being shared, the app always shows an indicator you cannot dismiss. You can always see the complete list of people who can view you, and you are told when a viewer is added. When you stop sharing, it stops on our servers immediately, and any public watch link stops working. Nobody — including a trip owner — can set sharing up so that you cannot tell you are being tracked.
4.3 Joining and leaving. When you join a trip, other members see your location from that moment on, and you see theirs from that moment on — never the trip’s earlier location history. If you leave a trip, or are removed, you lose access to its live and past location data immediately. The in-app activity list records notifications we sent you about trips you were part of at the time. It does not give you access to anything you could not already see, and it stops showing a trip’s activity as soon as you leave that trip.
4.4 Do not use Routemates to track someone without their knowledge. Tracking a person covertly, or pressuring someone to share their location, breaks these Terms and may be a crime.
4.5 Blocking. You can block any user. A block stops the two of you being placed in the same trip in future. The other person is not told that a block exists. If you are already in the same trip, you both stay in it, but each of you is hidden from the other (no chat, profile, presence or location), and you both see the same neutral notice. Safety alerts (crash, fall, SOS) are never suppressed by a block. They still go to the whole trip and to emergency contacts.
4.6 Driving lock. While you are driving, the app limits what you can do on screen to reduce distraction. Calls, SOS and emergency dialling always work. If a driver leaves the map screen while driving, the trip’s owner and admins may be notified. You remain fully responsible for driving safely and lawfully. Never handle your phone in a way the law forbids.
4.7 Fake locations. Do not use mock-location or GPS-spoofing tools. The app detects them, stops sharing the fake position, and notes the event in the trip’s history, where other members can see it.
4.8 Times and clocks. A planned time is shown with its timezone when your phone is in a different one, so an agreed schedule is never silently shown as a different time. The time our server records decides when something happened for any legal, safety or billing purpose. A wrong clock on your phone does not change it.
5. Safety features — read the Safety & Emergency Disclaimer
5.1 Routemates is not an emergency service and does not contact emergency services for you. It never dials an emergency number automatically. Crash and fall detection, SOS, regroup and alerts are assistive tools. They can miss real emergencies, raise false alarms, or fail to deliver because of network coverage, battery, phone settings, GPS accuracy or our own systems. In an emergency, call your local emergency number yourself (112 in India, 911 in the US).
5.2 SOS alerts to emergency contacts who do not use the app are sent as SMS from your own phone and SIM. Your mobile operator’s normal charges apply. If you do not grant SMS permission, the app opens your messaging app with the message ready for you to send.
5.3 You are responsible for the emergency contacts you add. Only add people who have agreed to receive alerts about you.
5.4 Safety features are never behind a paywall. The full Safety & Emergency Disclaimer is part of these Terms.
6. Your content and conduct
6.1 “Your content” means anything you add: messages, photos, voice notes, trip names and descriptions, stops, expenses, reports and profile details.
6.2 You keep ownership of your content. You give Lorsnexus a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, process, transmit and display your content only as needed to run, secure and improve the Service — for example, to show your messages to your trip, send notifications and handle reports. This licence ends when your content is deleted, except for copies we must keep by law or as described in the Privacy Policy. We do not use your content for advertising, and we do not sell it. The licence also covers showing reported content to our moderators and keeping encrypted backups that expire within 35 days.
6.3 Messages are not end-to-end encrypted. They are encrypted in transit and in our database. Our systems can read them to deliver them, send notifications and handle reports.
6.4 You must follow the Community Guidelines. In particular, do not host, display, upload, share or transmit content that is unlawful or harmful — the full list is in the Community Guidelines and covers everything Rule 3(1)(b) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 prohibits.
6.5 Moderation. We may remove content, warn you, restrict your account (usually for 7 days), suspend it (usually for 30 days) or ban it, as set out in the Community Guidelines. Serious harm — child sexual abuse material, credible threats, publishing someone’s private information — can lead to an immediate ban and a report to the authorities. We tell you what we did and why, and you can appeal.
6.6 For content users share with each other, Lorsnexus acts as an intermediary under the Information Technology Act, 2000. We act on court orders, lawful government directions and valid complaints as described on the Contact & Grievance page. Routemates is not a “significant social media intermediary” under the IT Rules, 2021; if it ever crosses the user threshold the Government has notified, we will meet the additional duties that apply and update these Terms.
7. Paid features
7.1 Trip Pass (premium features for one trip, for all its members) costs ₹99. Routemates Plus costs ₹149 a month or ₹999 a year. First-time Plus subscribers may be offered a 7-day free trial. The price you pay is the one the store (Google Play, or Apple’s App Store on iOS) shows you before you confirm; it is inclusive of GST and other applicable taxes, which the store collects and remits as the merchant of record. The seller details the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 require are on our Contact & Grievance page and in the Refund Policy.
7.2 On Android you buy these through Google Play, using your Google account; Google’s Play terms also apply to the purchase. On iOS, where in-app purchase is offered, you buy through Apple’s App Store and Apple’s Media Services terms apply; cancel in iOS Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions. Plus renews automatically at the end of each period until you cancel in Google Play (Play Store → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions). Cancelling stops the next renewal; you keep Plus until the end of the period you paid for. A free trial becomes a paid subscription unless you cancel before it ends.
7.3 We may change prices. Google Play tells existing subscribers about a price change before it applies, and may ask you to accept it.
7.4 Premium is never removed mid-ride. If a paid feature lapses, is refunded or is cancelled during an active trip, it stays on until that trip ends.
7.5 Refunds are covered by the Refund & Cancellation Policy.
7.6 Expense splitting is a record-keeping tool. When you settle up, the app opens your own UPI app so you can pay another member directly. Lorsnexus never holds, receives or moves that money, is not a party to the payment, and is not responsible for a payment that fails, goes to the wrong person, or is disputed between members. Settle such disputes with the other member or your bank.
7.7 Paid trip joins (organisers charging for a seat) are not available yet. When they launch, separate Organiser Terms and additional refund rules will apply, and we will update these Terms first.
8. Using the Service properly
8.1 Do not: reverse-engineer or interfere with the Service; scrape it; test it for vulnerabilities without our written permission; overload it; create accounts with automated tools; resell access; harvest other users’ data; or use the Service to break any law.
8.2 If you find a security weakness, report it to [email protected]. Put “Security” in the subject line. We acknowledge security reports within 24 hours, do not take legal action against good-faith research that respects other users’ data, and ask you to give us 90 days to fix an issue before disclosing it.
9. Our intellectual property
9.1 The Service, its software, design, brand and the content we create belong to Lorsnexus or its licensors. We give you a personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the app on devices you own or control, under these Terms.
9.2 Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, served by OpenFreeMap. Open-source licences are listed in the app.
10. Availability and changes to the Service
10.1 We work to keep the Service running but do not promise it will always be available, error-free or uninterrupted. We may switch features off — during a problem, for maintenance or while a feature is being checked — and we may change or stop features. If we permanently stop a paid feature before the end of a period you paid for, we will give a fair refund for the unused part.
10.2 Many features depend on your phone, its settings and battery, your mobile network, GPS, and third-party services we do not control.
11. Ending your account
11.1 You can delete your account at any time in Settings. Deletion takes effect after a 7-day grace period, during which you can cancel it. If you own trips, you must first hand them to another member or end them. After deletion, your data is removed as described in the Privacy Policy. Deleting your account does not cancel a Google Play subscription — cancel that in Google Play.
11.2 We may suspend or close your account if you seriously or repeatedly break these Terms, if the law requires it, or to protect other people. We will tell you why unless the law or a safety risk prevents it, and you can appeal through Help & Support.
11.3 If you decline updated Terms, you can export your data and delete your account. Your account is read-only until you decide. Safety features keep working during an active trip.
11.4 Clauses that by their nature should continue (disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity, governing law) survive the end of your account.
12. Disclaimers
12.1 To the extent the law allows, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. We do not guarantee the accuracy of locations, routes, arrival times, maps, road information, crash or fall detection, or information other members provide.
12.2 Directions and maps are guidance. Obey road signs, traffic law and conditions on the ground.
12.3 We are not responsible for what other users do, on or off the Service. Take ordinary care when meeting or travelling with people.
13. Limitation of liability
13.1 Nothing in these Terms limits liability that the law does not allow to be limited, including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
13.2 Subject to 13.1, Lorsnexus is not liable for: loss or harm caused by a safety feature failing to detect, alert or deliver; indirect or consequential loss; loss of profit, data or opportunity; or loss caused by events outside our reasonable control (including network, power or GPS failures and third-party services).
13.3 Subject to 13.1, our total liability to you for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) what you paid for the Service in the 12 months before the claim and (b) ₹5,000. This cap and the exclusions in 13.2 do not apply to death or personal injury caused by our negligence, to fraud or wilful misconduct, or to any liability that Indian law does not allow us to limit, including your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
14. Indemnity
14.1 You will compensate Lorsnexus for reasonable losses and costs caused by your breach of these Terms, your content, or your misuse of the Service (for example, tracking someone unlawfully). This applies only to losses caused by your unlawful conduct, wilful misconduct or deliberate breach of these Terms, and only to the extent a court would hold you responsible for them; it does not cover losses caused by our own breach or negligence.
15. Changes to these Terms
15.1 We tell you about material changes (to data use, sharing, retention, rights, prices, refunds or liability) at least 30 days before they take effect, in the app and by email, unless the law requires a faster change. We ask you to accept them the next time you open the app after they take effect — never while you are driving, in an incident or on a call. Safety features keep working while you decide.
15.2 For minor changes (clarifications) we show a notice in the app and email you.
15.3 Every past version stays public at routemates.lorsnexus.com/legal.
16. Governing law and disputes
16.1 These Terms are governed by the laws of India.
16.2 Please contact us first. Most problems are solved through Help & Support or the Grievance Officer (see the Contact & Grievance page), who responds within the timelines stated there.
16.3 Subject to your right to approach a Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the courts at New Delhi, India have exclusive jurisdiction. We do not require arbitration: you may always go to a court or consumer commission.
17. General
17.1 If part of these Terms is unenforceable, the rest still applies. Not enforcing a right is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer these Terms; we may transfer them to a successor operating Routemates, and will tell you. These Terms and the documents in 1.3 are the whole agreement about the Service.
17.2 Contact: [email protected] · Grievance Officer: [email protected] · New Delhi, India (full postal address sent on request to [email protected]).