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Terms and Conditions — Sono AAC Communicator

Last updated: 25 May 2026

1. Introduction

These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern your use of the Sono mobile application (“the App”), made available by:

Matan Ljubas (“we”, “us”, “our”)

By installing or using the App, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree with any part of these Terms, do not install or use the App.

Where the App is configured and used for another person (such as a child or an adult who relies on supported communication), the person who installs and configures the App (“the caretaker”) is responsible for choices they make about its setup and use. A person may accept these Terms on someone else’s behalf only if legally authorised to do so.

2. Who May Use the App

The App may be used by anyone. Where the App is set up for a child or another individual who cannot independently accept legal terms, a parent, legal guardian, or other legally authorised person must accept these Terms before use.

There is no age restriction on using the App’s communication features. If you are setting up the App for a child, please review Section 12 of the Privacy Policy and obtain any authorisation required by applicable law.

3. Description of the App

Sono is a picture-symbol communication app that allows users to express themselves by tapping illustrated symbol cards to build sentences, which the App then reads aloud using text-to-speech technology.

Key features include:

  • A customisable symbol board with hundreds of illustrated categories and vocabulary items.
  • A sentence strip for composing multi-symbol messages.
  • Text-to-speech output using either offline voice models (downloaded on request) or the device’s built-in voice service.
  • Sentence suggestions powered by a deterministic local rule-based engine. Some builds of the App additionally expose a “Bring Your Own Model” path that allows the caretaker to import a GGUF-format language model file and use it locally for sentence suggestions (see Section 8 and Section 11). No language model is bundled with the App.
  • An optional learning area with lessons. Where the build is configured with a remote lessons backend, the App fetches lesson catalog, lesson content, and scene images from that backend over HTTPS and caches them locally for offline replay; otherwise only bundled lessons are available (see Section 8.2 and the Privacy Policy).
  • A caretaker-initiated backup feature that exports caretaker-managed content (custom symbols, custom photos, custom voice recordings, hidden items, quick phrases, and configuration) as a .sonobkp archive, and a corresponding import feature (see Section 8.3).
  • Caretaker settings for personalising symbols, photos, voice recordings, preferred voice, grid layout, and board behaviour.

Sono is a communication app, not a medical advice app or healthcare service. Neither the App nor its publisher acts as a medical professional or provides medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, clinical assessment, or an individual recommendation about care or therapy. The App is not designed to make clinical decisions. Consult a qualified healthcare professional or speech and language therapist about medical, therapeutic, or individual AAC needs. Using the App does not create a clinician–patient relationship. The caretaker and user decide how to use the App for everyday communication, subject to the safety limitations in Section 11.

4. Licence to Use

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and use the App on devices you own or control, for personal, non-commercial purposes.

This licence does not include the right to:

  • Copy, modify, or distribute the App or its content;
  • Reverse-engineer, decompile, or disassemble the App, except where applicable law permits this;
  • Sublicense or resell the App or access to it;
  • Use the App for any commercial purpose without our prior written permission.

5. Permitted Use

You may use the App to:

  • Build and speak communication sentences using the provided symbol vocabulary.
  • Customise the symbol board by adding personal photos, custom labels, custom symbols, categories, and voice recordings.
  • Download optional voice models to enhance offline speech functionality.
  • Configure settings to match the needs and preferences of the person using the App.

6. Prohibited Use

You must not use the App to:

  • Violate any applicable law or regulation.
  • Attempt to extract, copy, or redistribute the App’s symbol artwork or voice models in ways that infringe our or third-party intellectual property rights.
  • Attempt to disable, circumvent, or interfere with any security feature of the App or the device on which it runs.
  • Misrepresent the App’s functionality or origin to any third party.
  • Use the App in any way that could harm, endanger, or exploit any person, particularly a vulnerable user.

7. Custom Content

The App allows the caretaker to create custom symbols, rename symbols, assign personal photos, and record custom voice messages for communication symbols. By adding custom content or media, you confirm that:

  • You have the right to use that content or media within the App.
  • Where a photo or recording identifies another person, you have appropriate permission from that person or from their parent or legal guardian where required.
  • Where the content or media includes children, you are the parent or legal guardian of those children, or have appropriate parental permission.

Custom content and media are stored only on the device and are never transmitted to us by the App. We cannot review content you add. You are responsible for obtaining the rights and permissions needed to add and share it, subject to the non-excludable rights described in Section 12.

8. Optional Downloads, Imports, Lessons, and Backups

8.1 Optional model and voice downloads

The App can optionally download or import three kinds of file at the caretaker’s request:

  • Offline voice synthesis models from the Sherpa-ONNX project on GitHub (github.com);
  • Caretaker-imported voice files for the “Bring Your Own Voice” feature, fetched over HTTPS from a URL or selected from device storage by the caretaker;
  • On-device language model files in GGUF format, where the build exposes the “Bring Your Own Model” path for the Smart Sentences feature. The caretaker selects the source — typically a model repository or institutional URL — and imports the file from device storage or fetches it from the URL.

By using any of these download or import features, you must comply with the terms and licences of the relevant third-party services and the upstream projects that publish each file. No on-device language model is bundled with the App. We do not host these files (other than where explicitly stated) or control their availability, content, accuracy, behaviour, or licensing status. The caretaker is responsible for checking that any model or voice file they choose is permitted for the intended use under its licence and applicable law. Section 12 explains the limits of these responsibilities.

Downloaded or imported files remain subject to the licences of their respective upstream projects, which may change independently of the App. The open-source notices and licence texts for components that are actually bundled with the App are listed in the App’s “Licences” screen and reflect the current dependencies (such as sherpa_onnx, flutter_tts, audioplayers, archive, image_picker, share_plus, file_picker, pdf, printing, wakelock_plus, and record). Where this document mentions third-party AAC, AI, or speech components, those references describe components the caretaker may obtain and use with the App, not components bundled with the App, unless the App’s “Licences” screen specifically lists them as bundled.

8.2 Remote lessons (where configured)

The App fetches the lesson catalog, individual lesson JSON files and scene images over HTTPS from its configured lessons media host (the default is https://ljmatan.github.io/apps/communicator; builds may override it at compile time with GCM_LESSONS_BASE_URL) when the user opens the Learning area. Downloaded lesson content is cached locally for offline replay, and lesson progress is stored locally on the device.

The configured lessons host may receive standard HTTPS request metadata, as explained in the Privacy Policy. Where a separate third-party backend is configured, its terms may also apply to content it supplies. The default build uses GitHub Pages for lessons. Where a build is not configured with a lessons backend, only bundled lessons are available and no remote lesson fetches occur.

8.3 Backup, export, and import

The App includes a caretaker-initiated backup feature that bundles caretaker-managed JSON entries and custom media files into a .sonobkp archive, and a corresponding import feature that restores those entries on the device. The contents and storage location of the archive are described in Section 17 of the Privacy Policy.

By using the backup feature, the caretaker agrees that:

  • They have the necessary rights and consents (as required under Section 7) for any custom photos, voice recordings, or other custom content included in the archive, including media that may identify other people;
  • The archive contains data that may identify the user or third parties; the caretaker is responsible for protecting the archive in transit and at rest, restricting access to it appropriately, and deleting it when it is no longer needed;
  • Importing an archive overwrites the corresponding caretaker-managed entries and replaces matching custom media files on the device, and that this is the intended behaviour;
  • We do not retain, host, or process the archive on our infrastructure, and we cannot recover an archive that has been lost or that the caretaker has overwritten.

9. Intellectual Property

App and built-in content: All rights in the App, including its code, design, symbol artwork, and built-in language content, are owned by us or our licensors. Nothing in these Terms transfers any intellectual property rights to you.

Third-party components: The App incorporates open-source libraries and third-party assets, each governed by their respective licences. Details are available in the App’s open-source notices.

Symbol artwork: The symbol illustrations included in the App are licensed for use within the App only and may not be extracted or redistributed.

User-added content: Photos, recordings, labels, and symbols you add remain your property. We claim no rights over user-added content.

10. App Updates

We may release updates to the App from time to time to add features, fix issues, or address security concerns. We recommend keeping the App updated to the latest available version. We may cease supporting older versions of the App without notice.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties; AI-Generated Output; Use in Critical Situations

The App is provided “as is” and “as available”, subject to any rights and guarantees that applicable law does not allow us to exclude. To the extent permitted by law, we do not guarantee:

  • That the App will be uninterrupted or error-free;
  • That its text-to-speech, sentence-polishing, or Smart Sentences features will always produce accurate, complete, or contextually appropriate output;
  • That the App will meet every individual’s communication needs.

AI-generated output (Smart Sentences): Where the “Bring Your Own Model” path is available and the caretaker has imported and enabled a model, sentence suggestions are produced by an on-device language model supplied by the caretaker. Such suggestions:

  • Are generated by an AI system and may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, ambiguous, or otherwise fail to reflect what the user actually intends to communicate. We do not select, validate, or train caretaker-supplied models, and their upstream providers may set separate terms for them.
  • Are intended as suggestions for the caretaker and user to review, accept, edit, or reject — never as a substitute for the user’s own expression. Caretakers are strongly encouraged to confirm with the user, by whatever means are available, that any suggestion accepted on the user’s behalf accurately reflects the user’s intent.
  • Must not be relied on as the user’s authentic statement in any setting where the content of the statement carries legal, medical, financial, contractual, or similarly significant consequences.

Use in critical communication situations: The App is a communication aid, not an emergency communication system. The App must not be relied upon for:

  • Emergency, life-safety, or medical-emergency communication (e.g., calling for help, reporting an injury, communicating with first responders, conveying time-critical clinical information);
  • Communication of legally significant statements, consents, refusals, or instructions (e.g., medical consent or refusal, legal declarations, contractual agreements);
  • Any situation where a misunderstood or AI-altered message could result in harm to the user or to another person.

Caretakers should make a reliable alternative way to communicate available in these situations and should not configure emergency communication to depend on AI-generated suggestions. If an emergency occurs, use an appropriate emergency service and a reliable means of communicating with it.

The App is not offered as a medical advice service and has not been certified for clinical use. Caretakers should evaluate its suitability with the user, involve a qualified professional where appropriate (such as a speech and language therapist or other AAC specialist), and supervise its use where appropriate. They should review output, including AI-generated suggestions, before relying on it for important decisions. These user responsibilities do not remove any duty or liability we have under applicable law.

12. Limitation of Liability

You are responsible for the content you add, the third-party model and voice files you choose, the settings you select, and backup archives after you export them. The App can make mistakes, and you should check important messages before using them. We do not control independent third-party services or files supplied by them.

To the extent applicable law permits, we exclude liability for losses caused solely by misuse of the App contrary to Section 11, content or files supplied by the user, independent third-party services, or loss of a backup archive after the caretaker has exported it. We also exclude liability for indirect losses to the extent that exclusion is lawful. These exclusions do not apply to losses caused by our own acts or omissions where applicable law makes us responsible.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our acts or omissions, intentional misconduct, gross negligence, statutory product-liability claims, data-protection obligations, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. Nothing limits mandatory consumer rights or remedies.

13. Third-Party Services

The App may interact with third-party services, which may include GitHub (for offline voice model archives and for hosting legal documents on GitHub Pages), any host the caretaker selects for an on-device language model file or caretaker-imported voice file, the operator of the configured remote lessons backend (where applicable), the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, and device-level text-to-speech services. Those services may have their own terms and privacy policies. We do not control their availability, accuracy, content, licensing terms, or privacy practices. Section 12 governs responsibility for any resulting loss.

14. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Croatia, subject to any mandatory protection you have under the law of your country of residence. The courts competent to hear a dispute are determined by applicable law; these Terms do not remove a consumer’s right to bring proceedings in a court available under mandatory jurisdiction rules.

EU/EEA consumers: If you are a consumer located in the EU or EEA, you benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law of your country of residence that cannot be derogated from by agreement. The European Commission’s Online Dispute Resolution platform was discontinued on 20 July 2025. Information about consumer dispute resolution bodies is available from the European Commission’s Consumer Redress site at consumer-redress.ec.europa.eu.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date above and, where changes are material, notify you through an in-app notice or an app update. Where applicable law requires your agreement to a change, we will seek it. Changes will not remove rights you have already acquired under mandatory law.

16. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact us at:

Matan Ljubas 10A Ul. Joze Krstića, Zadar, Zadarska županija 23000, Croatia lj.matan@gmail.com

These Terms and Conditions apply to your use of the Sono app and do not govern any third-party services referenced herein.