Terms of use

Taper · Effective 21 October 2026 · Version 1.0

The short version

Taper is an AI running coach. It is not a doctor, a physio or a medical service.
Check with a doctor before you start if you have any health concern, and stop and get help if something feels wrong. You train at your own risk.
An AI writes the coaching. It can get things wrong, so use your own judgement. Nothing in your plan changes until you accept it.
Subscriptions are bought and cancelled through your Apple account.
You must be 18 or over.

1. About these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Rob Freshwater, a sole trader in the United Kingdom trading as Taper ("we", "us"). They cover your use of the Taper app. By creating an account you agree to them. Please read them, especially section 2 on health and safety and section 10 on our responsibility to you.

Our Privacy policy explains how we use your data. If you live in the US, our Consumer health data privacy policy also applies.

You must be 18 or over to use Taper.

2. Your health and safety

Taper gives training guidance for healthy adults. It is not medical advice, and it does not diagnose, treat, prevent or monitor any illness, injury or medical condition.

Check with a doctor first if you have a heart, lung or other medical condition, are pregnant, take medication that affects your heart rate, are returning from injury or illness, or are unsure whether running is safe for you.
Stop running and get medical help if you have chest pain, faintness, unusual breathlessness, a racing or irregular heartbeat, or sharp or worsening pain. In an emergency call 999 in the UK, or 911 in the US.
The coach is not a medical professional. When you report an injury or illness it will adjust your training, and it will encourage you to see a doctor or physio. It cannot tell what is wrong, and it is not a substitute for proper care. Where a clinician's advice and the app differ, follow the clinician.
Watch readings are not medical readings. Heart rate, HRV, sleep and skin temperature from a consumer watch can be inaccurate. The app compares them with your own normal range to guide training only.
You are in charge. You choose whether and how hard to train, and whether to accept any change the coach proposes. Listen to your body: if a session feels wrong, ease off or stop, whatever the plan says.
Run safely. Watch for traffic, terrain and weather, and don't look at your watch or phone when it isn't safe.

Running carries a risk of injury. Any training plan, however careful, can only make injury less likely, never prevent it. You take part in running and training at your own risk. This does not limit our responsibility under section 10 for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

3. The AI coach

Your plan, messages and assessments are written by artificial intelligence (Claude, made by Anthropic), working from figures our software computes from your data. You are always talking to an AI, never a person.
AI can be wrong. It can misread your data, make mistakes, or say something that sounds confident but is not right. Don't rely on it as your only source of guidance, and use your own judgement, especially about anything to do with your health.
Race times and paces the app predicts are estimates, not promises.
The coach proposes changes; nothing in your plan changes until you accept.
If the coach says something wrong or worrying, please tell us at hello@taperrun.com so we can fix it.

4. Your account

Give us accurate details, keep your password to yourself, and tell us if you think someone else has used your account.
One account is for one person. The coaching is personal to your body and your data.
You can delete your account in the app at any time (Account › Delete account).

5. Your watch and other services

The app needs a supported Garmin watch or an Apple Watch. We connect to them through Garmin Connect, directly or through a connection service such as Terra, and through Apple Health and Apple's Workout app on your iPhone.
Garmin, Apple and any connection service we use are separate companies with their own terms. We don't control their services, and if one of them changes or stops, parts of the app may stop working until we can fix it.
Workouts we send to your watch are copies of your plan. Check them before you run. If your watch shows something different from the app, the app is the plan.
If your data doesn't arrive, the coach can only work from what it has. It will say so.

6. Subscriptions and payment

Taper is a paid subscription, bought through the App Store. The price, length and anything included are shown in the app before you buy. If a free trial is offered, the app shows how long it lasts and when you will first be charged. You are charged when the trial ends unless you cancel at least 24 hours before.
It renews automatically at the end of each period, and Apple charges your Apple account, unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the period ends.
To cancel, go to Settings › your name › Subscriptions on your iPhone. Deleting the app or your account does not cancel the subscription by itself. When you cancel, you keep access until the end of the period you have paid for.
Refunds are handled by Apple, under Apple's policies: request one at reportaproblem.apple.com. We cannot issue refunds ourselves.
If we change the price, Apple tells you before the change applies and, where the law or Apple's rules require it, asks you to agree first.
If you are a consumer in the UK, by starting your subscription you agree that the service begins straight away, and you understand that you then lose the 14-day right to cancel. Your other legal rights are not affected.

7. The test version

If you use a test version through TestFlight:

It is free. It is unfinished, it may have faults, and features may change or disappear.
We may end the test, or your place in it, at any time.
We may ask for your feedback, and we may use any feedback you give to improve the app, without paying you for it.
Please don't share screenshots or details of unreleased features publicly without asking us.

8. Using the app properly

Please don't:

break the law using the app, or use it to harm anyone;
try to get into our systems, other people's accounts, or the app's code, or overload or disrupt the service;
copy, resell or build a competing product from the app or its output;
use automated tools to extract data or the coach's output;
try to make the AI produce harmful, abusive or unlawful content.

9. Your content and our app

Your content stays yours. That includes your messages, reports and your data. You give us permission to use it only to provide and improve the service, as our Privacy policy describes. Neither we nor Anthropic use it to train AI models.
The app is ours. We give you a personal, non-transferable right to use the app on Apple devices you own or control, under these terms and Apple's Usage Rules. All other rights in the app, its design, the coach character and its content stay with us.
Your training plan and the coach's messages are for your own use.

10. Our responsibility to you

What we promise. We will provide the app with reasonable care and skill, and as described. If you are a UK consumer, you have legal rights in relation to digital content and services that are not as described, faulty or not fit for purpose. Nothing in these terms affects those rights. Advice about them is available from Citizens Advice.

What we never exclude. Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit.

What we are not responsible for:

Loss or damage that was not foreseeable when you started using the app.
Injury, illness or loss caused by you not following section 2, for example training through pain or symptoms, or ignoring a doctor's advice.
Problems caused by Garmin, Apple, a watch connection service, your device, your internet connection, or other things outside our reasonable control.
Business losses. The app is for personal use only.

Limit. Apart from the things we never exclude, our total liability to you is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, and £100.

If you live outside the UK, you keep any protections your local law gives you that cannot be changed by agreement. For users in the US, to the extent the law allows: the app is provided "as is" and "as available"; we make no warranties beyond those in these terms, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement; and we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages.

11. Ending your use

You can stop at any time by deleting your account and cancelling your subscription with Apple.
We may suspend or close your account if you seriously break these terms, or if we have to for legal or safety reasons. Where we can, we will warn you first and explain why.
If we ever close the service, we will give you at least 30 days' notice in the app, and you can get a copy of your data before it closes.

12. Apple

These points are required by Apple, and apply to everyone who downloads the app from the App Store:

These terms are between you and us only, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for the app and its content.
Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support for the app.
If the app fails to meet any warranty that applies, you can tell Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price you paid for the app, if any. To the extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the app. Any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses from a failure to meet a warranty are our responsibility, under these terms.
We, not Apple, are responsible for dealing with any claims from you or anyone else about the app or your use of it, including product liability claims, any claim that the app fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer protection, privacy or similar laws, including in connection with the app's use of HealthKit.
If anyone claims that the app or your use of it infringes their intellectual property rights, we, not Apple, are responsible for investigating, defending, settling and discharging that claim.
You confirm that you are not in a country subject to a US government embargo or designated by the US government as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not on any US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
You must also comply with any third-party terms that apply when using the app, such as your mobile network's terms.
Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms. Once you accept them, Apple has the right to enforce these terms against you as a third-party beneficiary.

Questions, complaints or claims about the app go to us, at the contact details below.

13. Law, changes and contact

Law. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You can bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales, or, if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, in your local courts. If you live elsewhere, you may also have the right to bring a claim where you live.
Changes. We may update these terms, for example when we add features or the law changes. We will tell you in the app before an important change takes effect. If you don't agree, you can stop using the app and cancel your subscription.
The whole agreement. These terms and the Privacy policy are the whole agreement between us about the app. If a court finds part of them unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later.
Transfer. We may transfer this agreement to someone else, for example if the business becomes a company or is sold. Your rights under it won't be reduced.

Contact: Rob Freshwater, trading as Taper, hello@taperrun.com.