Terms of Service
Effective . Last updated .
The short version
- Vako shows you real short-form video in the language you are learning, with a transcript and word meanings under it.
- It is free to start. A subscription lifts the daily limit, and it is billed by Apple or Google, not by us.
- Cancel any time in the App Store or Play Store. Cancelling stops the next renewal; it does not refund the current period.
- The videos belong to their creators and play through YouTube. The transcripts and translations are ours.
- Do not scrape it, resell it, or try to get round the limits. Otherwise, enjoy it.
1. This agreement
These terms are the agreement between you and Vako for the Vako mobile app and this website. By using either, you accept them. If you do not, do not use them. Our Privacy Policy is part of this agreement and explains what we do with data.
You need to be at least 13 to use Vako, or older where your country sets a higher age for digital consent.
2. What Vako is
Vako is a feed of publicly available short-form video in the language you are learning, presented with a time-aligned transcript, an optional translation and per-word meanings, plus a review system for words you save. It is a study tool. It is not a course, not a qualification and not a teacher, and we do not promise any particular result from using it.
3. Your account
The app creates an anonymous account when you first open it, so you can use Vako without signing up. You may later sign in with Google, with Apple, or with an email address and password, which upgrades that same account and keeps what you have saved.
Accounts are personal. Keep your credentials to yourself, and tell us at hello@abhishekbr.com if you think someone else has got into your account. You can delete your account at any time in Settings → Delete account.
4. The free plan and subscriptions
Vako is free to use up to a daily allowance, which the app shows you. A subscription removes that limit and is offered as a monthly or an annual plan.
- Who bills you. Purchases are made and charged through the App Store or Google Play under their terms. We do not take payment directly and never see your card details.
- Price. The price is the one shown in the app at the moment you subscribe, in your own currency, including any tax the store applies. We do not quote a price on this page because the store’s is the one that governs.
- Renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each period unless you cancel at least 24 hours before it ends. Your account is charged for renewal within the 24 hours before the period ends.
- Free trials. Where a trial is offered, any unused part of it is forfeited if you subscribe before it ends. The app never promises a trial to someone the store has already given one to.
- Cancelling. Cancel in your App Store or Google Play account settings — we cannot cancel a store subscription for you. Cancelling stops the next renewal and leaves your access running to the end of the period you have paid for.
- Refunds. Refunds are handled by Apple and Google under their own policies. If a refund is genuinely owed and the store will not help, write to us and we will do what we can.
- Price changes. If we change the price, it applies from your next renewal, and the store will tell you and ask you to consent before it takes effect.
5. Video, and who owns it
The videos in Vako are made by third parties and remain theirs. They are not hosted, downloaded, copied or re-uploaded by us: every clip plays through YouTube’s official embedded player, and your use of it is also subject to the YouTube Terms of Service. Vako is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube, Google, Apple or any creator whose work appears in the app.
Because the video is not ours, it can disappear: a creator can delete a clip or turn off embedding at any time, and it will then leave the feed. We check availability, but we cannot promise any particular clip will be there tomorrow.
If you are a creator and would rather your work were not featured, write to hello@abhishekbr.com and we will remove it. You do not need to explain why.
6. What is ours
The transcripts, translations, word meanings, difficulty grading, the app, this site, the name and the artwork are ours or our licensors’. We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use them inside the app for your own learning. That licence does not let you copy them out, republish them or build a competing product from them.
7. What you agree not to do
- Scrape, bulk-download or systematically extract content, transcripts or word data from the app or the API.
- Use the API other than through the app, or automate access to it.
- Work around the free-plan limits, the paywall, or any technical restriction — including by modifying the app.
- Reverse-engineer, decompile or disassemble the app, except where the law says you may.
- Resell, sublicense or share your access, or use Vako to build a competing service.
- Attack the service: probing, overloading, or interfering with it or with anyone else’s use of it.
- Abuse the reporting tools, or use Vako for anything unlawful.
8. Reporting a clip
Every clip has a report control, and reports are read by a person. Every video in Vako is reviewed and published by a person before anyone sees it — nothing is published automatically — but review is human and fallible, so if something is wrong, tell us and we will look.
9. Availability, and changes to the app
We will try to keep Vako running and will not pretend to guarantee it. We may change, suspend or discontinue features, and we may change the catalogue, the ranking or the free allowance. If a change materially reduces what you have paid for, you may cancel and we will help you get the unused part refunded through the store.
10. Ending it
You may stop using Vako and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, and where it is reasonable to do so we will warn you first and give you a chance to put it right. If we close your account without cause and you have paid for a period, you get the unused part back.
11. Disclaimers
Vako is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we make no warranties — express or implied — about fitness for a particular purpose, uninterrupted availability, or the accuracy of any transcript, translation or word meaning. Machine transcription and machine translation both get things wrong; we review what we publish, and you should still treat any single line as a study aid rather than an authority.
12. Liability
Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow to be limited. Subject to that, and to the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability to you is capped at the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or US$50.
If you are a consumer, you keep every right your local consumer law gives you, and nothing in these terms takes any of them away.
13. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. The date at the top changes when we do, and for a material change we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. Continuing to use Vako after that is acceptance; if you would rather not, delete your account.
14. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of India, and the courts of India have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere, this does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory law of the country you live in, or of the right to bring proceedings there.