Terms of use

About these terms

These terms are the agreement between you and Raziel Gershoni (“we”, “us”) for using FamCal. They cover the Telegram bot, the WhatsApp bot, the web app and famcal.bot. By using FamCal, you accept these terms. If you don’t accept them, please don’t use FamCal.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your data.

We publish these terms in Hebrew, English and Russian. If a translation ever differs, the version in the language you use FamCal in applies.

Who runs FamCal

FamCal is run by Raziel Gershoni, in Israel.

• Postal address: to be added
• Phone: to be added
• Email: privacy@famcal.bot
• In the Telegram bot: /feedback, and /paysupport for payments.

What FamCal is

FamCal is a family-calendar assistant. It:

• keeps your family’s calendar;
• sends you briefings, in text and voice;
• shows Hebrew dates, holidays and zmanim;
• can pause on Shabbat and Yom Tov;
• lets you share calendars with a partner.

Connecting Google Calendar is optional.

For now, some features work only on Telegram:

• reminders and event alerts;
• adding events from photos, PDFs and forwarded messages;
• paying for a plan.

Who can use FamCal

To use the bots or the web app, you must be 18 or older, and you need your own Telegram or WhatsApp account. A partner you link with needs their own account, and must be 18 or older too. Anyone may use famcal.bot’s public pages, such as the zmanim pages, without an account.

Your account and your family

• You’re responsible for what you add, including details about your children, your partner and other family members. Add only what you have the right to share.
• Anyone who can use your Telegram or WhatsApp account, the Google account your calendar is connected from, or a Google account or mailbox you added for signing in, can use FamCal as you. Keep those accounts safe.
• A partner sees the calendars you share with them. If you allow it, they can also change them.
• What you add stays yours. You allow us to store and process it only to run FamCal for you.

Plans and payment

Trial

Every new account gets the Pro plan free for 14 days. The trial starts automatically the first time you use FamCal. When it ends, you’re on Free unless you pick a paid plan. Nothing is charged automatically.

Plans

• Free:
  • 10 text briefings and 3 voice briefings a month;
  • up to 3 calendars;
  • no reminders;
  • no adding events by voice, photo, PDF or forwarded message;
  • no Copy to Google.
• Basic:
  • unlimited text and voice briefings;
  • up to 5 calendars;
  • no reminders;
  • no adding events by voice, photo, PDF or forwarded message;
  • no Copy to Google.
• Pro:
  • unlimited briefings and calendars;
  • reminders;
  • adding events by voice, photo, PDF or forwarded message;
  • Copy to Google.

Paying

• You pay for Basic and Pro in the Telegram bot, with Telegram Stars. You can’t pay on WhatsApp yet.
• Prices are in Stars. The invoice shows the plan and its price before you pay. What Stars cost in your own money is set by Telegram or your app store.
• Paying for a plan means you accept these terms.
• A paid plan lasts one month from the day you pay. It never renews by itself, so to keep it, you pay again. The bot reminds you before it ends, unless the reminder falls inside your Shabbat and Yom Tov pause.
• If you pay again before your month ends, including to move from Basic to Pro, the new month starts on the day you pay. The days left on the old month aren’t added to it.
• When a trial or a paid month ends, you move to Free. Nothing you added is deleted, but features your plan doesn’t include stop working.

Cancelling and refunds

• You can cancel a payment within 14 days of making it. We refund all of it, in Stars, through Telegram.
• To cancel, tell us in any of these ways:
  • in the Telegram bot, send /paysupport followed by your message;
  • email privacy@famcal.bot;
  • write to the postal address above;
  • call the phone number above.
• Give your name and the date of the payment, so we can find it.
• We refund within 14 days of your message. Your paid plan ends when the refund goes through.
• Israeli law gives some people longer to cancel, in some cases up to four months: people aged 65 or older, people with a disability, and new immigrants.
• Telegram’s own rules for Stars also apply.

Changes to prices and plans

• We may change prices and plans. A new price applies only to payments made after the change.
• An unpaid invoice from before a price change stops working. Choose the plan again to get a new one.
• We may give a plan or a feature to some people for free.

AI and computed times can be wrong

FamCal uses AI to:

• understand voice notes, photos, PDFs and forwarded messages;
• write your briefings and the voice show;
• read them aloud. The voices in voice briefings, the voice show and spoken replies are made by AI.

AI makes mistakes. It can mishear a name, get a date or a time wrong, or leave something out. Check what the bot made of your message, and check anything important against its source.

Zmanim, candle lighting, Hebrew dates, holidays and the times of the Shabbat and Yom Tov pause are all computed from your place and your community’s set. They can be off, for example when your place is set wrong. On famcal.bot’s zmanim pages, they are computed for the centre of each city, so they can differ from the times where you are. For a halachic time that matters, check a reliable source.

Weather is a forecast.

Reminders and messages can fail

A reminder or a briefing can arrive late, or not at all, for example when Telegram, WhatsApp or one of our providers has a problem.

With the Shabbat and Yom Tov pause on, scheduled messages that fall inside the pause are not sent, not even afterwards. If FamCal can’t work out the pause times, it sends as usual.

Don’t rely on FamCal alone for anything critical, such as medication or safety.

Fair use

Don’t:

• use FamCal for anything illegal, or to harass or harm anyone;
• add details about someone that you have no right to share;
• try to break into FamCal, get around its limits or payments, or reach other people’s data;
• overload FamCal, spam it, or use it through bots or scripts;
• copy, resell or rebrand FamCal.

Suspension and closing an account

We may suspend an account, which means the bot stops answering it. We may also ban or delete an account. We do this when the account breaks these terms, puts FamCal or other people at risk, or when the law requires it. You can ask us why through the contact above.

If, during a paid month, we suspend or close an account that didn’t break these terms, we refund that month.

You can stop using FamCal any time: block the bot, and ask us to delete your account (see the Privacy Policy).

Changes to FamCal and to these terms

FamCal changes as we build it. Features may be added, changed or removed.

• If a change takes away something your paid plan includes, you can ask us to refund the month you’re in.
• If we stop FamCal, we’ll say so on famcal.bot at least 30 days before, and refund any paid month that hasn’t ended.

When we change these terms, we post the new version on this page with a new date. If you keep using FamCal after that, the new terms apply. If a change is to your disadvantage and you’re in a paid month, you can ask us to refund that month.

Liability

FamCal is provided as it is. We don’t promise that it will always work or be free of errors. To the extent the law allows:

• we’re not responsible for indirect losses, such as a missed appointment, a missed time or lost data;
• our total responsibility for any claim is limited to what you paid us for FamCal in the 12 months before the claim.

These limits don’t apply to bodily harm, to harm we cause on purpose or through gross negligence, or to any right the law doesn’t allow to be limited, including your rights as a consumer.

Telegram, WhatsApp, Google and our other providers run their own services under their own terms, and we aren’t responsible for them.

Law and courts

Israeli law governs these terms. A dispute goes to the Israeli court that has jurisdiction under Israeli law.

If you live outside Israel and use FamCal as a consumer, you also keep the protection that the consumer law where you live gives you, including the right to go to court there.

Contact

• Email: privacy@famcal.bot.
• In the bot: on Telegram, send /feedback followed by your message. For payments, send /paysupport followed by your message. On WhatsApp, send “feedback” followed by your message.
• By post or phone: see “Who runs FamCal” above.