Terms of use

Last updated October 16, 2026

These terms are the agreement between you and Porchlight for using the Porchlight app and this website. We've kept them short and plain. By making an account or using Porchlight, you agree to them and to our privacy policy. If you don't agree, please don't use Porchlight.

Porchlight is a small, independent app based in California. Questions about these terms go to hello@porchlight.network.

Who can use Porchlight

• You must be 18 or older. Porchlight is for adults only, and we suspend any account we learn belongs to someone younger.
• One account per person, under the name you go by with your neighbors. Don't pretend to be someone else.
• Keep your sign-in to yourself. You're responsible for what happens in your account.
• Hosting is by invitation during the pilot. Guests are always free.

Be a good neighbor

Porchlight is for telling a few friends and neighbors to come on over. We have no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users. In your lights, notes, events, comments, bring lists, house notes, name and anything else you post or send, don't:

• harass, bully, threaten or intimidate anyone, or keep contacting someone who has made clear they don't want to hear from you;
• post hate speech or slurs, or attack people for their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or any similar trait;
• post sexual or sexually explicit content, nudity, or graphic violence;
• invite people to anything illegal or unsafe, or use Porchlight to sell drugs, weapons or anything else that's against the law;
• send spam, scams, chain messages or ads;
• share someone else's address, phone number or other private details without their permission, or use an address you saw in Porchlight for anything but visiting when you were invited;
• involve anyone under 18;
• try to get around a block, the Restricted circle, a hold or a suspension, scrape Porchlight, or interfere with how it runs.

Porchlight checks what people write for slurs and explicit words and won't post them. That catches the obvious things; the rest is up to all of us.

Reports, holds and suspensions

• Report and block are on every light, note, event, comment and person. Tap the three dots and choose Report or Block. Blocking works both ways right away, and they aren't told.
• We read every report. Each one comes to us within the hour, and we look at every report within 24 hours. We remove content that breaks these rules, and we suspend accounts that keep breaking them or do something serious.
• Holds. When people from two households report the same thing, it's paused until we take a look: a light goes off, an event is hidden from everyone but its hosts, a comment comes off, or a person can't ask to join or use links. We can also hold anything on a single report. A hold isn't a ban; if it was a mistake, we lift it.
• Suspensions. We may suspend an account that breaks these terms. A suspended account can't sign in or do anything in Porchlight, and its lights, events and comments are hidden from everyone.
• Nobody is told who reported them. We don't tell the person reported who sent a report, and reporting someone doesn't tell you anything more about them.
• Think we got something wrong? Write to support@porchlight.network and a person will look again.

If someone is in danger, call 911 first.

Meeting up

Porchlight helps you let people know you're up for company. You decide who sees your light and your address, who you visit, and whether you go. We don't run background checks on members or watch over visits, so use the judgment you would with any neighbor. Hosts are responsible for their own homes and events, and guests for how they behave as guests.

What you post

What you write and share stays yours. So that Porchlight can work, you let us store it and show it to the people you choose, the way the app describes, for as long as it's in Porchlight. Don't post anything you don't have the right to share. We may remove anything that breaks these terms.

Paying

Porchlight is free during the pilot. After that, turning on your light and hosting events needs a household plan, and pilot households get a month's notice before paying starts. Guests are always free.

Ending your account

You can delete your account at any time, in the app under Settings, then Delete account, or by emailing support@porchlight.network. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, or if we have to stop running Porchlight; if we ever do that, we'll give members notice when we can.

The app stores

If you got Porchlight from Apple's App Store, these terms are between you and Porchlight, not Apple. Apple isn't responsible for the app, its content, support or any claims about it, and you may use it only on Apple devices you own or control, as Apple's terms allow. Apple and its subsidiaries can enforce these terms as third-party beneficiaries. The same goes for Google if you got Porchlight from Google Play.

The fine print

We work hard to keep Porchlight running well, but it's provided as it is, without promises that it will always be available or free of mistakes. To the extent the law allows, Porchlight isn't responsible for what members do, at their homes or anywhere else, or for indirect or unforeseeable losses, and our total responsibility to you is limited to what you paid us in the past 12 months, or $50 if that's more. Some places don't allow these limits, so they may not all apply to you.

These terms are governed by California law. If we change them, we'll update the date above and tell you in the app before the change takes effect.