These Terms & Conditions ("Terms") govern your use of the Lumae application ("Lumae" or the "App"), provided by Gess Technologies Ltd ("we", "us", "our" or "Gess Technologies"), a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17350731.
By downloading, installing or using Lumae, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree to them, please do not use the App.
Nothing in these Terms affects any statutory rights you may have as a consumer that cannot legally be excluded or limited.
Lumae is a personal book-tracking application that lets you catalogue your reading library, track reading progress and reading sessions, save quotes and notes, and manage your reading history.
Lumae is free to use for a library of up to 25 books. Depending on your subscription, Lumae may also provide:
A library of more than 25 books, and some features, require an active Core or Pro subscription, as described below.
Subject to your compliance with these Terms and Apple's applicable Standard End User License Agreement, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use Lumae on Apple devices that you own or control, for your own personal, non-commercial use.
You may not use Lumae for commercial purposes unless we have agreed to this in writing.
This licence does not give you ownership of Lumae or any of its software, code, design, branding or other intellectual property.
Lumae can be used free of charge for a library of up to 25 books ("Lumae Free"). It also offers two subscription tiers, both billed and managed through the Apple App Store:
Core — an auto-renewing annual subscription providing the complete book tracker, with no limit on the number of books: your library, with search, barcode scanning, automatic cover and metadata lookup, and duplicate detection; records of books you have borrowed, with optional reminders before they are due back; import from CSV, including Goodreads exports; manual backup and export of your library; the Reading Timer; reading statistics; the Reading Calendar; saved quotes and notes; the Dashboard; and two of Lumae's five colour themes.
Pro — an auto-renewing annual subscription providing everything included in Core, plus multi-device iCloud sync, Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, the Reading Timer Live Activity, the Apple Watch app, three additional colour themes, custom app icons, automated iCloud Drive backups, Reading Trends, Reading Wrapped, My Charts, ARC tracking with review reminders, and Spin the Wheel.
Two points worth stating plainly. The Reading Timer is part of Core, while its Live Activity — the Dynamic Island and Lock Screen display — is a Pro feature, because that is a widget surface. And manual backup and export are available to everyone, including after a subscription has ended; only the automated iCloud Drive backup requires Pro.
Lumae Free includes every Core feature for a library of up to 25 books, with no time limit. The 25 books include books on your wishlist.
Every download of Lumae also includes a 14-day Pro preview, with access to all Pro features. The 25-book limit applies during the preview as well. No payment details are required, and the preview does not automatically convert into a paid subscription. Nothing will be charged unless you choose to purchase a Core or Pro subscription.
When the preview ends, Lumae continues as Lumae Free unless you have subscribed. Pro features are then no longer available, but nothing you created is deleted or locked.
The limit only affects adding books. While your library holds 25 books or more, adding another — by search, barcode scan, manual entry or CSV import — requires an active Core or Pro subscription. Everything already in your library remains available to view, edit, track and export. Restoring a Lumae backup is never limited, and a library that grew beyond 25 books while you were subscribed remains fully available if the subscription ends.
Your library remains on your device throughout. You can export your library as a CSV file, and create a full backup, at any time — including after the preview has ended and after any subscription has ended.
The preview period begins when your Apple Account first obtains Lumae. Deleting and reinstalling the App does not restart or extend it.
Both Core and Pro are auto-renewing annual subscriptions. Your subscription renews automatically for a further one-year period unless you turn off auto-renewal at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.
Your Apple Account is charged within 24 hours before the end of the current period, at the applicable renewal price. Apple manages billing, payment processing and renewal.
You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time through your Apple Account's App Store subscription settings.
Gess Technologies Ltd does not have access to your Apple Account or payment details and cannot cancel an Apple subscription on your behalf.
Lumae receives from Apple only the information needed to establish whether a Core or Pro subscription is currently active, and uses it solely to decide which features to make available to you.
Cancelling a subscription normally stops future renewals while allowing you to continue using the subscription until the end of the period already paid for, subject to Apple's applicable rules.
We may change the price of a subscription from time to time.
If a price change affects an existing subscription, Apple will provide any notice or require any acceptance that is required under Apple's App Store rules or applicable law. Where required, your subscription will not renew at the new price unless you accept the change.
Purchases and subscriptions are billed by Apple. Refund requests are handled by Apple in accordance with Apple's applicable refund policies and procedures.
Nothing in this section limits any statutory refund or other consumer rights that cannot legally be excluded.
Core and Pro belong to the same subscription group, so you hold one tier at a time. Because Pro is the higher tier, moving from Core to Pro takes effect immediately, and Apple applies a credit for the unused portion of your Core period. Moving from Pro to Core takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for. These changes are handled by Apple under the App Store's subscription rules.
The books, quotes, notes, reading history and other information you add to Lumae ("Your Content") remain yours. We do not claim ownership of Your Content, and we do not receive a copy of it.
Your Content is stored on your own device. If you subscribe to Pro and turn on iCloud sync or automated backups, Your Content is also stored in your own private iCloud account, which is managed by Apple and to which Gess Technologies Ltd has no access. We therefore neither require nor ask for any licence over Your Content.
You are responsible for Your Content, including ensuring that you have the necessary rights to store or use any material you add to Lumae. For example, if you save a quote or excerpt from a book, you are responsible for using that material lawfully and respecting applicable copyright and other intellectual property rights.
You agree not to:
Lumae uses third-party services to retrieve book information: Open Library, Apple's Books / iTunes Search API, and Google Books. These services may provide information such as book titles, authors, ISBNs, cover images and other metadata.
Requests to Open Library and to Apple are made directly from your device, and Gess Technologies Ltd is not involved in them and does not see them.
Google Books requires an API key, which cannot safely be included in a downloadable app, so requests to Google are made through a small lookup service we operate at api.gesstechnologies.com. That service receives the search text or ISBN and, as an unavoidable part of any internet request, your device's IP address. It does not receive your name, your library, your reading history or any account information, because Lumae has no accounts. Our Privacy Policy explains what that service stores and for how long.
Importing a library from a CSV file does not use our lookup service; those requests go only to Open Library and Apple.
Information obtained from third-party services may be incomplete, inaccurate, unavailable or changed without notice. Gess Technologies Ltd does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of third-party book information.
Your use of third-party services may also be subject to the terms and policies of the relevant third-party provider.
Please see our Privacy Policy for information about what information may be sent to these services and how it is handled.
Lumae, including its software, source code, user interface, design, graphics, logos, trademarks, branding and other materials provided by Gess Technologies Ltd, is owned by or licensed to Gess Technologies Ltd and is protected by applicable intellectual property laws.
The Lumae name, logo and branding are the property of Gess Technologies Ltd.
These Terms do not grant you any rights to our trademarks, branding or other intellectual property except as necessary to use Lumae as intended.
We aim to keep Lumae available and working as intended, but we cannot guarantee that the App will always be uninterrupted, error-free or available.
Lumae may occasionally be unavailable because of maintenance, updates, technical problems, issues affecting third-party services, Apple's services or other circumstances outside our reasonable control.
Information retrieved from third-party services may not always be accurate, complete or available.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Lumae is provided "as is" and "as available".
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any statutory rights or remedies you may have as a consumer, including rights relating to digital content that cannot legally be excluded or limited.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Gess Technologies Ltd will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss arising from your use of, or inability to use, Lumae.
Where permitted by law, you are responsible for maintaining your own backup copies of anything stored in Lumae that is important to you.
However, nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability, right or remedy that cannot legally be excluded or limited. This includes, in particular:
We do not seek to exclude or limit our responsibility where doing so would be unlawful.
Lumae provides manual export and restore features and, for Pro subscribers, may provide automated iCloud Drive backups and iCloud synchronisation.
These features are intended to help protect and synchronise Your Content, but they should not be treated as a guarantee that Your Content can never be lost, corrupted or unavailable.
You are responsible for maintaining your own backup copies of anything that is important or irreplaceable.
Your Content remains on your device and can be exported using Lumae's available export functionality, including after the Pro preview or a subscription has ended, subject to the App's available functionality and any applicable technical limitations.
You may stop using Lumae at any time by deleting it from your device.
Lumae has no user accounts, and we do not operate any service that controls whether the App runs on your device, so we cannot suspend or disable your copy of Lumae. Where the book-information service described in section 6 is misused — for example through automated or excessive requests — we may restrict access to that service.
We may also cease providing updates, or withdraw Lumae from sale, in accordance with Apple's terms.
Nothing in this section affects any rights you may have under applicable consumer law or Apple's applicable terms and policies.
Deleting Lumae from your device does not automatically cancel an Apple subscription. You must manage or cancel your subscription through your Apple Account's App Store subscription settings.
We may update these Terms from time to time, for example to reflect changes to Lumae, changes in law, or changes to how our services operate.
When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of these Terms.
If we make a material change, we will take reasonable steps to bring the change to your attention.
Your continued use of Lumae after revised Terms take effect will constitute acceptance of the revised Terms, to the extent permitted by law.
If you do not agree to a material change, you should stop using Lumae.
Nothing in this section allows us to make changes that remove or reduce statutory rights you have as a consumer.
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales.
If you are a consumer, you will also benefit from any mandatory protections and rights available to you under the laws of the country in which you live.
Nothing in these Terms affects your right to bring proceedings in your local courts where applicable.
If you have a concern or dispute about Lumae, we encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve it informally.
Gess Technologies Ltd 63 Edgwick Road, Coventry, CV6 5FP Company Number: 17350731 Registered in England and Wales
Email: lumae@gesstechnologies.com