Zap Live
English

Terms of use

In force since 3 October 2026

Who can use Zap Live

You must be at least 14, or older if the law of the country you sign up from requires it: the app tells you the minimum age as you sign up. When you sign up you give your date of birth, the real one: if you are under the minimum age, the account is not created. By using the app you declare that you meet the minimum age and that the details you give when signing up are true. You are responsible for what you post with your account.

If you are under 18, read these terms with a parent or guardian.

If your phone lets us, we also ask the store, Apple or Google, for the age range of your account. If the store tells us a lower age than the one based on the date of birth you entered, the store's age applies, and if, according to the store, you are under the minimum age, the account is not created. If the store says that a parent's approval is needed to use Zap Live, the app can't be used without that approval.

If you're under 18

Until you're 18, Zap Live works in a more protected way. «Friends» means people you follow who follow you back, as long as neither of you has blocked the other.

If your account dates from before we asked for date of birth and you haven't given it to us yet, the rules for 14- and 15-year-olds apply until you enter it.

Family Pairing

Anyone under 18 can link their account to that of an adult parent or guardian. The parent or guardian creates a code, valid for 10 minutes, from Settings → Family Pairing, and the teen scans it or types it in on their phone. An account can have only one linked parent or guardian, and a parent or guardian can link more than one account.

From their own phone, the parent or guardian can set: a daily time limit, which, once reached, locks the app until the next day; a scheduled break, during which the app can't be used and notifications don't come through; private messages, along with calls and groups, off or with friends only; who can comment, no one or friends only; private account; search; whether others can see liked videos. The teen can see these controls but can't change them, and the rules for anyone under 18 still apply: the parent's controls don't relax them. The parent or guardian can't see messages, what is watched or what is searched for.

Either of them can remove the link, from Settings → Family Pairing, and the other gets a notification. When the link is removed, the controls stop applying.

Age verification

If several people report an account with the reason «Appears to be under the minimum age», a person at Zap Live reviews the case: the account isn't blocked automatically. If there is any doubt, we ask for the age to be confirmed, and until it is, the app can't be used.

Age is confirmed with Yoti, a service that checks it on our behalf, in one of three ways: a selfie, from which Yoti estimates the age; an identity document; or a credit card, with a small temporary authorisation that doesn't turn into a charge. Up to three attempts can be made. If the age is confirmed, the app goes back to working as before; if it isn't, the app stays locked, and a person at Zap Live decides whether to close the account. How we process the verification data is explained in the privacy policy, in the «Age verification» section.

Banned content

You may not post, or send privately: explicit sexual content; any content that sexualises or exploits a minor; intimate images of a person without their consent, even fake ones or ones created with artificial intelligence; gratuitous violence or graphic content; incitement to hatred or discrimination; terrorism and violent extremism; harassment, threats and bullying; instructions for dangerous acts and content that encourages self-harm or eating disorders; illegal activities, such as selling drugs or weapons; spam and scams; accounts impersonating someone else; material you don't hold the rights to.

There is no tolerance for this content or for those who post it: we remove it, and every removal counts as a violation. For the most serious violations, such as the sexual exploitation of minors, terrorism, threats of violence and intimate images posted without consent, we close the account the first time, without notice.

Promotional content and content made with AI

If a post promotes a brand, a product or a service, including in exchange for gifts, discounts or other benefits, turn on «Promotional content» when you post it. If it contains realistic images, video or voices generated or altered with artificial intelligence, turn on «Made with AI». The label appears on the post, so that viewers know what they're seeing.

Labels are mandatory: the law requires advertising and realistic content made with AI to be recognisable. If one is missing we may add it ourselves, and a post that deliberately hides it may be removed.

How moderation works

Before a video or a photo is shown to others, it is checked by an automatic system: Amazon Rekognition, an Amazon Web Services service, in the Frankfurt region. It looks at the thumbnail and, for videos, up to four frames taken across the video. If it is confident it has found explicit nudity, the post is blocked and we tell you. If it is unsure, or if it finds violence, self-harm, disturbing images or hate symbols, the post stays hidden until a person at Zap Live looks at it and decides. Meanwhile you see it on your profile, marked as under review. If the check can't be completed, the post waits for a person. Exclusive content, which only subscribers see, doesn't go through this check: we look at it when someone reports it.

The other decisions are made by a person: on reports, on appeals, on suspensions. When we remove your content or restrict your account we tell you in your Inbox, with the reason, which stays on record in Settings → Account status. You can also block anyone: whoever you block no longer sees your content, and you don't see theirs.

Reporting content

From the app you can report a post, a comment, a profile, a chat or a sound: choose «Report» (for a post it's under the Share button, for a comment just press and hold it), then the reason, and add a note if you like. When you report a chat you can attach the last 5 messages: they're end-to-end encrypted, and without them we can't see what happened. The person you reported doesn't know it was you.

Reports are reviewed by a person, usually within 24 hours. A post reported by three different people is hidden straight away, pending review. Once we've decided, we tell you in your Inbox: whether we removed the content, whether we took action or whether the content doesn't break our rules. If you disagree with the outcome, write to us from Settings → Report a problem.

To report without the app, even if you don't have an account, write to [email protected]: the «Reporting content and contacting us» page of the Zap Live website explains what to include.

Violations, suspensions and closure

Every piece of content we remove and every suspension counts as a violation for 90 days. Moderators see your violations when they make a decision, and the more recent violations you have, the stricter the limits. Copyright infringements also follow a rule of their own, «Repeated copyright infringement».

A suspension can have an end date or last until we lift it, and we tell you about it along with the reason. While the account is suspended you can't post, comment or send messages, and your posts aren't visible. We may also block access to the account.

We close the account the first time for the most serious violations, and after repeated violations. Opening another account to get around a suspension or a closure is not allowed.

Appealing a decision

If you think a decision about your content or your account is wrong, appeal it from Settings → Account status within 90 days: once per decision, explaining why in no more than 1000 characters. The appeal is reviewed by a person at Zap Live, even when the decision was made by the automatic check, and you get the answer in your Inbox. If we agree with you, the content becomes visible again, or the suspension is lifted, and the violation no longer counts. If you can no longer log in, write to [email protected].

You can also always go to court and, if you live in the European Union, file a complaint with the Digital Services Coordinator of your country: in Italy it's AGCOM.

How we choose the videos in For You

For You chooses videos based on what you do on Zap Live: how long you watch a video or whether you skip it, what you like, what you comment on, share and save, the authors and hashtags you're interested in, and who you follow.

It also takes into account how much a video is liked by people who have already seen it, and how similar it is to the ones you've liked. A new video is shown to a small test audience, so that even someone who has just started can be seen.

We don't use your messages, your age or your country to choose videos.

In the Following tab you only see the people you follow, most recent first: there's no personalisation there.

You can correct it yourself: «Not interested», from the Share button, removes a post from your feed; Settings → Words to hide removes posts with those words or hashtags from For You and Following; Settings → Refresh your For You feed restarts the recommendations from scratch.

Your content stays yours

What you post stays yours. By posting it you grant Zap Live a free, non-exclusive licence to host it and show it to other users inside the app, for as long as it stays published. You also allow other users to use it as the app permits: share it in a chat, repost it, use the audio of your videos as a sound in their posts and, if you leave «Allow video downloads» on, save it to their phone.

If you delete a post or the account, the licence ends and the files are removed from our storage. Posts that others have already published with your sound stay, because the audio is inside their video.

The rights to what you upload

By posting you declare that you hold all rights to the material you upload — images, video and above all audio: voice, sounds, background music — or that you have permission from whoever holds them. Do not upload protected music you have no right to use: crediting the author is not enough, a track lasting a few seconds is not enough, your video being free is not enough.

Responsibility for what you upload is yours, civil and criminal. If someone brings a claim over content you have published, you hold us harmless: damages, legal costs and fines arising from it remain at your expense.

Music inside the app

Zap Live has no music catalogue and holds no music licences. The sounds you find in the app are the original audio of posts: when you post a video, its audio becomes a sound that others can use too.

You are responsible for any sound you use, as for everything you upload, even when you reuse the sound of another post: if it contains protected music you must have the right to use it, and the fact that a sound is on Zap Live gives you no rights to the music it contains. A sound that infringes someone's rights can be reported from its page, with «Report sound», or through the procedure below: if the report is well-founded we withdraw it, and nobody can choose or reuse it any more.

Reporting a copyright infringement

If content published on Zap Live uses a work you own, or whose owner you represent, report it from the app with the reason «Copyright infringement», or write to [email protected] with «Copyright» in the subject line. A report is handled faster if it contains: the link or identifier of the content, which work is being used and on what title you hold it, your contact details, and the statement that the use was not authorised. For the United States there is also the DMCA procedure, explained on the «Reporting content and contacting us» page of the Zap Live website.

A valid report is acted on promptly, normally within 48 hours: the content is removed or made invisible and whoever published it is given the reason. If the report concerns a sound, we also withdraw the sound, and nobody can choose or reuse it any more.

Anyone whose content is removed may appeal the decision from Settings → Account status, or reply to the same address. If the reply shows the use was legitimate — a licence, an authorisation, their own work — the content goes back online and the infringement is not counted.

What we do to prevent re-uploads

We are committed to keeping a work that has already been reported from returning to the platform. Today that means three concrete things: we do not offer a music catalogue, and every sound is the original audio of a post, for which whoever published it is responsible; a sound withdrawn after a report can no longer be chosen or reused in any post; and anyone who uploads protected material is stopped by the rules in the next section.

Zap Live is a new and small service, and these are the efforts proportionate to its size. As it grows we will adopt automatic audio recognition, which compares what is uploaded against the works reported by rightsholders. If you are a rightsholder, you can tell us about your works by writing to [email protected].

Repeated copyright infringement

Every established infringement is recorded on the account, and those from the last 24 months count towards this rule.

Anyone uploading protected material blatantly or in bulk — a whole track, a film, dozens of other people's works — is closed down immediately, without going through the warnings. An account closed for repeated infringement is not reopened, and registering another one to get around the closure is not allowed.

Coins, tips and subscriptions

Coins are used to subscribe to the exclusive content of people who post, and to send tips. They can only be bought in the app, through Apple's or Google's payment system, and only by adults: under 18, or without a date of birth, coins, tips and subscriptions aren't available, whether for giving or receiving.

Coins are not money: by buying them you get a personal licence to use them inside Zap Live. They can't be exchanged for money, can't be transferred to other accounts and are worth nothing outside Zap Live. A subscription lasts one month and doesn't renew by itself. Exclusive content follows the same rules as all other content.

Anyone who receives tips and subscriptions builds up earnings, a share of the coins spent on them. At present, earnings can't be cashed out: they're a count inside the app, and don't entitle you to any payment.

Refunds for purchases are handled by Apple and Google, according to their rules and the law. If the account is deleted, by you or by us because of a violation, any remaining coins and earnings are lost, except for the rights the law gives you.

Closing your account

You can delete your account whenever you like from Settings → Delete account: it is immediate and permanent. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms.

Zap Live is free and shows ads

In Home, between posts, third-party ads appear, provided by Google and labelled «Sponsored». We don't choose them one by one: advertisers are liable for them, and we aren't liable for what they say or for the products and sites they lead to, as with content posted by users. If an ad seems illegal or misleading to you, report it to Google from the icon in the corner of the ad, or to us from Settings → Report a problem. The privacy policy explains which data is used for advertising, in the «Advertising» section.

Contact

Zap Live's single point of contact is [email protected]. It is for people who use the app and for the authorities of the Member States, the European Commission and the European Board for Digital Services (Articles 11 and 12 of the Digital Services Act), and it also receives removal orders for terrorist content. People who use the app can also write to us from Settings → Report a problem. You can write to us in Italian or English, and a person replies to you, not an automated program.

How to report illegal content, even without an account, is explained on the «Reporting content and contacting us» page of the Zap Live website.

At the same address, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, the Italian data protection authority, can notify us of its orders concerning intimate images spread without consent, as provided for by Article 144-bis of the Italian Privacy Code.

No warranty

Zap Live is provided «as is». We don't guarantee that the service is always available or free of errors, and we aren't liable for content posted by users. The rights the law gives you as a consumer remain unaffected.

Governing law

These terms are governed by Irish law. If you are a consumer and live in the European Union, the rights given to you by the law of the country where you live remain unaffected, and for a dispute you can also go to the courts of the place where you live.

If you live outside the European Union

Zap Live is not available in every country. Where it is available, these terms apply everywhere, and where the law of your country requires different rules or gives you more rights, for example a higher minimum age, those apply too. Below is what changes in some countries.

India

The Grievance Officer provided for by India's rules on intermediaries, the IT Rules 2021, is Sufyan Arif, at [email protected]. You can write to the Grievance Officer with a complaint about content, about one of our decisions or about your data: receipt is acknowledged within 24 hours and the complaint is resolved within 15 days, or within 72 hours if you are asking for content to be removed. If you disagree with the decision, you can appeal to the Indian government's Grievance Appellate Committee within 30 days.

As the IT Rules require, we remove intimate images of a person posted without consent, even fake ones, within 24 hours of the report, and we carry out orders from a court or the government within 3 hours. In India it is also forbidden to post content that threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, its relations with other States or public order; patently false information spread in order to mislead; content that promotes gambling or money laundering; viruses and malicious programs.

United Kingdom

If you live in the United Kingdom, the Online Safety Act also applies. As well as reporting content and appealing a decision, you can file a complaint with us about how we apply these terms and how we protect people who use Zap Live, from Settings → Report a problem or by writing to [email protected]: a person reviews it and replies to you. The authority that oversees these rules is Ofcom.

United States

For copyright, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) procedure also applies, with the notice and the counter-notice. For intimate images posted without consent, even fake ones, the TAKE IT DOWN Act procedure applies, with removal within 48 hours. Both can be found on the «Reporting content and contacting us» page of the Zap Live website.