Terms of Use

1. Acceptance of these terms

Poddle is developed and operated by Daniel Tan, an individual based in Ontario, Canada ("we", "us"). By accessing or playing Poddle, pairing a phone, watching a match or using Poddle Helper, you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to them, please do not use Poddle. Our Privacy Policy describes how we handle your information, and we encourage you to read it.

Poddle is provided free of charge. It does not offer accounts, purchases or subscriptions.

2. Eligibility

• You must be 13 years of age or older to use Poddle.
• If you are under 18 (or under the age of majority in your place of residence), you must have the permission of a parent or guardian to play. Your parent or guardian must read these terms and agree to them on your behalf. By permitting you to play, they accept these terms on your behalf and are responsible for your use of Poddle.
• We recommend that an adult be nearby while anyone under 18 plays, both because the game involves swinging a device and because display names are publicly visible.

3. Player safety

Poddle is a physical game. You swing a real phone or AirPod as a paddle and, when playing with a webcam, you step from side to side. Accidents can occur: a phone may slip from your hand, a swing may strike a lamp, or your foot may catch on a rug.

Before and during play

• Clear the space all around you, including the space behind and above you. Check your surroundings before every swing.
• Maintain a secure grip. Phones and AirPods are not supplied with a strap, so hold your device firmly and use a wrist strap or a case with a non-slip grip if you have one. Ensure that your hands are dry.
• You swing toward your screen. Stand well back from your laptop or television (the webcam requires you to be a couple of metres away in any event), and never play while another person is between you and the screen or seated within reach.
• Never deliberately throw or release your phone or AirPod. The game never requires you to do so.
• AirPods are small. If one comes loose during play, locate it before a young child or pet does.
• Do not play with a phone that has cracked glass.
• Remain mindful of people, pets and fragile objects, such as televisions, screens, windows, lamps, glasses and furniture. Keep other people, particularly children, out of swinging range.
• Play on a flat, non-slip floor, wearing suitable footwear or with bare feet, with no tripping hazards nearby.
• Stop playing if you experience pain, dizziness or discomfort, and take breaks. If you have a health condition or injury that physical activity could affect, consult a doctor before playing.
• Do not play in any situation that requires your attention elsewhere, such as while driving, or near stairs or roads.

Permission requests

Poddle may request access to your camera, your phone's motion sensors, the ability to keep your screen awake, local network access (for AirPods) and, only if you select a speaker in Settings, your microphone. Grant these permissions only on poddleball.com. Poddle will never ask for your password, contacts, photos, location or payment details. Each permission is explained in the Privacy Policy.

Your responsibility

You decide where, how and with what you play. You accept the risks of playing a movement-based game, including the risk of injury to yourself or others and of damage to your phone, AirPods, computer, television and surroundings. You are responsible for your devices and your play area. Players under 18 should have an adult nearby. Section 11 sets out the limits of our liability, as well as the liability that the law does not permit us to exclude.

4. Display names and conduct

Your display name is visible to strangers. Choose a name that is appropriate for anyone to see, and do not use your full real name. Do not use names that:

• consist of slurs or are hateful, harassing, bullying or threatening;
• are sexual, obscene or violent;
• impersonate anyone else, including a real person, a brand or Poddle itself;
• include personal information, such as a full name, address, phone number or social media handle, whether your own or another person's;
• contain advertising, spam or links, or are otherwise unlawful.

When using Poddle, you must not:

• flood, overload, attack or disrupt the servers, or attempt to circumvent rate limits;
• cheat, use scripts or bots to play on your behalf (other than Poddle's own bot, Matt), falsify motion data, or exploit bugs;
• join or watch courts in order to harass players, or guess court codes to gain entry to courts to which you were not invited;
• send emotes excessively or use them to harass a player;
• attempt to access parts of Poddle that are not intended for you, or interfere with other players' phones or games;
• copy or reuse Poddle in any manner not permitted by these terms (see Intellectual property).

If you discover a security vulnerability, please report it to us at hello@danielrltan.com rather than exploiting it.

We may, without notice, rename, remove, kick or block any player, close any court or tournament, or restrict anyone's access, if we believe that they have violated these rules or put other players at risk. To report a problem, please email us with the court code, the name involved and a description of what happened.

5. Public courts and spectators

• Listed courts appear in the public court list, together with both players' names, the score and the number of people watching. Anyone may watch.
• Courts created with a code are unlisted, not locked. Anyone who has the 4-character code or link may take an empty seat or watch. Share a code only with people with whom you wish to play.
• Spectators can see your name, your score and every movement and swing you make. Spectators' names are shown to the players when they begin watching or request to play, and on any emote they send.
• Tournaments: the host's name is listed while players are joining, and anyone with the tournament code can see every player's name and the bracket.
• Your phone pairing QR code and code link a phone to your game. Do not display or share them (for example, on a stream), and do not scan another person's code without their permission.
• Poddle does not record or replay matches. However, anyone watching could film their own screen, so please play with the understanding that others can see you.

Tournaments

Anyone may host a tournament. The host is a player, not us. Poddle tournaments are intended solely for recreation: we do not offer prizes, and we are not responsible for any prize, wager or entry fee arranged by anyone else. Do not gamble on matches. A tournament may end early if the server restarts, a player leaves or we update the game, and results are not saved.

6. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy describes the information Poddle uses, including your webcam (processed on your computer only), your motion data (relayed live and not stored) and your display name (publicly visible). It also explains your privacy rights and how to exercise them.

7. Poddle Helper

Poddle Helper is an optional, free and open-source Mac application that allows a single AirPod to serve as your paddle. It is licensed to you under the MIT License, copyright 2026 Daniel Tan. The MIT License, which accompanies its source code on GitHub, governs your use, copying and modification of the application. In the event of a conflict between the MIT License and these terms, the MIT License prevails with respect to the application.

Poddle Helper is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, as stated in the MIT License. Because it has not yet been signed or notarised by Apple, macOS cannot verify it, and you will need to select Open Anyway in Privacy & Security. Doing so instructs your Mac to trust this particular application, so please do this only for a copy downloaded from poddleball.com or built by you from the GitHub source. Never use a copy obtained from any other source. Poddle Helper will request Motion & Fitness access, which it uses solely to read your AirPod's movement. If you are under 18, ask a parent before installing any software.

Whether to install and run Poddle Helper is your decision, and you do so at your own risk. You may quit it from its menu bar icon, or remove it by dragging it to the Trash.

8. Intellectual property

Poddle's name, logo, game code, artwork, sounds, characters (including Matt) and website are owned by Daniel Tan. We grant you a personal, free, non-exclusive and revocable permission to use Poddle to play and watch, as permitted by these terms. You may share links and court codes, as well as screenshots and videos of your own games. You may not copy, sell, rehost or rebrand the game, or use the Poddle name or logo in any manner that suggests that we endorse you.

Poddle also uses open-source software and fonts owned by third parties, which are used under their respective licenses, including:

• three.js, under the MIT License;
• Google MediaPipe, under the Apache License 2.0 (usage reporting is disabled in our copy; see its licence and notice);
• qrcode-generator by Kazuhiko Arase, under the MIT License;
• the Nunito and M PLUS Rounded 1c fonts, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Nothing in these terms limits your rights under those licenses.

If you send us ideas or feedback by email, we may use them freely, without any obligation to you.

9. Apple and other trademarks

AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, iPhone, iPad and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. Poddle is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Apple.

Other product names, such as Android, Chrome, Windows and Chromebook, are the property of their respective owners and are used solely to identify the products with which Poddle works. Pickleball is a sport, and Poddle is not affiliated with any pickleball organisation.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

Poddle is a free hobby project. We strive to make it enjoyable and reliable; however, to the extent permitted by law:

• Poddle is provided "as is" and "as available", without any warranty or condition, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement;
• we do not promise that Poddle will always be available, fast or free of bugs, that matches, scores or tournaments will be saved or completed, or that it will work on your devices. We update Poddle frequently, and each update restarts the server, which ends all matches and tournaments in progress. Scores and names are not saved;
• we do not promise that motion or webcam tracking will be accurate. Tracking may lag, drift or misinterpret your movement;
• we do not control other players and are not responsible for their conduct or the names they choose.

Some jurisdictions do not permit certain of these exclusions. If you reside in such a jurisdiction, the exclusions that are not permitted do not apply to you.

11. Limitation of liability

Poddle is free, and we earn no income from it. Accordingly, to the extent permitted by law:

• we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost data or lost profits, arising from Poddle or these terms. We are not liable for damage to your devices or property caused by how or where you play (see Player safety);
• our total liability to you for all claims relating to Poddle or these terms is limited to CAD $50 (fifty Canadian dollars).

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits:

• liability for death or bodily injury caused by our negligence, or for moral or bodily injury where the law does not permit such liability to be limited (such as under article 1474 of the Civil Code of Québec);
• liability for our intentional misconduct, fraud or gross negligence;
• any right you have under the consumer protection laws of your place of residence that cannot be waived or altered by contract, including the Ontario Consumer Protection Act, 2002 and the Quebec Consumer Protection Act.

12. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, if anyone makes a claim against us because you breached these terms or misused Poddle, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of responding to that claim. This does not apply where the claim arises from our own fault, and it does not affect any consumer rights you have.

13. Changes, suspension and discontinuation

• Changes to these terms. We may update these terms, for example when we add new features. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will change accordingly. For important changes, we will post a notice on the Poddle home page before or when they take effect. Changes do not apply to anything that occurred before they took effect. If you continue to use Poddle after a change takes effect, you accept the revised terms. If you do not agree, you should stop using Poddle. Where the law requires it (for example, for consumers in Quebec), we will give at least 30 days' notice of any change that affects you, setting out the new wording, its effective date and your right to stop using Poddle rather than accept it.
• Changes to the game. We may modify, add or remove features at any time.
• Suspension. We may suspend or terminate anyone's access to Poddle at any time, for example to address abuse or to protect the service.
• Discontinuation. We may take Poddle offline, temporarily or permanently, at any time.
• Your right to stop. You may stop using Poddle at any time by closing the page. To remove your saved settings, clear your browser's data for poddleball.com.

Sections 3, 8 and 10 to 15 continue to apply after you stop using Poddle.

14. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be resolved by the courts in Toronto, Ontario.

However, if you are a consumer, nothing in this section deprives you of the protection of the mandatory laws of your place of residence, or of your right to bring a claim in the courts there. This includes consumers in Quebec under the Quebec Consumer Protection Act, and consumers in the EU and UK.

These terms contain no arbitration clause and no class action waiver. We ask that you first contact us by email so that we can attempt to resolve the matter informally.

15. General provisions

• Entire agreement. These terms and, with respect to Poddle Helper, the MIT License constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding Poddle.
• Severability. If a court finds any part of these terms unenforceable, that part will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or removed, and the remainder will remain in effect.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a term immediately, we may still enforce it later.
• Transfer. You may not transfer your rights under these terms. We may transfer our rights to a person who takes over Poddle, provided that they agree to honour these terms and the Privacy Policy.
• Language. These terms are written in English. If we publish a translation and the two versions differ, the version that provides you with greater protection applies.

16. Contact

Daniel Tan
Ontario, Canada
hello@danielrltan.com

Questions, reports of abuse, legal notices and security reports may all be sent to that address.