Terms of Use

Emoji Bee is operated by Michael Pugh, an independent developer (“we”, “us”). By playing Emoji Bee — on the web at emojibee.com or in the iOS or Android app — you agree to these Terms of Use and to our Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree with them, please don’t use Emoji Bee.

If you purchase Emoji Bee+ through the Apple App Store, Apple’s own media services terms also apply to that purchase.

Emoji Bee is a daily emoji-rebus word game: five puzzles a day, solved by reading emoji as words. The daily game is free to play, forever, and you don’t need an account to play it.

We may change, add, or remove features over time as the game evolves. We’ll try not to break things you love.

Emoji Bee is anonymous-first: the first time you play, we create a device account for you automatically — no email, no password, no form. You can optionally sign in with Apple, Google, or an email magic link; doing so merges your device history (results, EQ, streaks) into that signed-in account so it survives across devices.

• You’re responsible for keeping access to the Apple, Google, or email account you sign in with.
• One account per person, please — don’t impersonate anyone or share an account.
• An anonymous device account lives on that device; if the device or its data is lost before you sign in, we can’t recover its history.

Emoji Bee+ is an optional one-time purchase — not a subscription. It comes in two tiers: Bee+ ($4.99) and Bee+ Original Colony ($9.99). Pay once and your account keeps its membership for as long as Emoji Bee exists. Both tiers unlock the full past-puzzle archive and streak repair: if you missed exactly yesterday, solving all five of yesterday’s puzzles before tonight’s new puzzle restores your streak. Prices may vary by region and currency; the exact price is always shown before you buy.

Original Colony. The Original Colony tier is for supporters: everything in Bee+, plus an OC badge shown beside your name on leaderboards and friend surfaces, and a physical sticker. The sticker is a free promotional gift we mail separately — it isn’t sold as part of the purchase, and we’ll ask for a mailing address by email only if you want it. A refunded purchase ends the Original Colony membership along with Bee+. We may also grant honorary Original Colony badges at our discretion.

Founding accounts. Accounts created before Bee+ launched hold Bee+ free of charge, permanently — we call them the founding hive. A granted membership works exactly like a purchased one (it can’t be refunded, because nothing was paid), and founding accounts may still purchase the Original Colony tier.

EQ can never be purchased. Membership confers no scoring advantage of any kind — every point of EQ is earned by solving puzzles, member or not. Archive play earns EQ but doesn’t build your streak; only streak repair (yesterday, and no further back) touches a streak.

Emoji Bee+ is billed by the platform you purchase it through, not by us directly: Apple In-App Purchase in the iOS app, charged once to your Apple ID, or our payment processor (Stripe, via RevenueCat) for purchases made on emojibee.com. In every case the platform’s payment processor handles your payment details — we never see your full card or bank information. A membership bought on either platform belongs to your Emoji Bee account and works everywhere you sign in.

• One charge, no renewal. Both Bee+ tiers are single one-time purchases. There is no recurring billing, no trial that converts, and nothing to cancel.
• Restores. Reinstalled the app or got a new device? Use Restore purchases on the Bee+ screen, signed in with the same Apple ID, and your membership comes back. Signing in to your Emoji Bee account keeps the membership attached to it across devices — web purchases restore simply by signing in.
• Refunds. For purchases made through Apple, billing and refunds are handled by Apple under its terms — request refunds through Apple, not us. For purchases made on the web, contact us and we’ll deal with it fairly. A refunded purchase ends the membership, including any Original Colony status it carried.
• Future offerings. The one-time price applies to the purchase you make; we may offer Bee+ under different pricing or plans in the future, but a completed one-time purchase stays yours.

Emoji Bee is a game of honest solving. Don’t:

• use bots, scripts, or automation to play, scrape, or extract puzzle answers;
• exploit bugs to inflate your EQ or streak (found one? tell us — we’ll be grateful);
• interfere with, overload, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the service;
• reverse-engineer the service except where the law says we can’t stop you;
• resell or commercially exploit the game or its puzzles.

We may suspend or close accounts that break these rules.

The puzzles, game design, scoring system, name, logo, artwork, and code of Emoji Bee belong to us or our licensors. We grant you a limited, personal, non-transferable, non-commercial, revocable license to use Emoji Bee to play the game under these terms.

Sharing your results is encouraged — post your score cards anywhere you like. Emoji glyphs themselves are rendered by your device’s system fonts and belong to their respective vendors. Our logo and brand artwork incorporate glyphs from Google’s Noto Emoji, used under the Apache License 2.0.

You can stop using Emoji Bee at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially breach these terms, and we may discontinue the service (we hope never to). Any purchase is still governed by section 5 — termination doesn’t retroactively charge you for anything.

Sections that by their nature should survive (ownership, disclaimers, limitation of liability, governing law) survive termination.

Emoji Bee is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied — including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We’re a tiny operation: we don’t promise the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that every puzzle will be perfectly fair (though we sweat them). Where the law doesn’t allow a warranty to be excluded, it applies to the minimum extent required.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we won’t be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, or streaks, arising out of or relating to Emoji Bee. Our total liability for all claims relating to the service is limited to the greater of US $20 or the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Some jurisdictions don’t allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

We may update these terms as the game evolves — for example, when Bee+ billing launches on a new platform. When we do, we’ll update the “Last updated” date above, and for material changes we’ll give notice in the app or on the site. Continuing to play after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and disputes will be resolved in the state and federal courts located in Pennsylvania. Nothing in these terms limits any consumer rights you have under the mandatory laws of the place you live.

Questions about these terms? Email support@emojibee.com.