Orbit

Find someone studying the same thing, at the same time.

Orbit Terms of Service

Effective date: 30 August 2026
Last updated: 30 August 2026

These are the rules for using Orbit. Using Orbit means you agree to them. If you don't agree, don't use the app.

We've kept this short and readable on purpose. Please actually read it — especially section 8 (Safety) and section 10 (Limits on our liability).

1. Orbit is not affiliated with UBC

Orbit is an independent app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or connected to the University of British Columbia or any other university.

UBC did not build Orbit, does not run it, does not review it, and has no responsibility for anything that happens on it. Course codes, faculty names, and campus locations are used only to describe where and what people are studying.

Every account is created with a confirmed UBC email address. That means one thing only: the person could receive email at a UBC address. It is not a UBC endorsement, not proof of current enrolment, not an identity check, and not a background check.

2. Who runs Orbit

Orbit is operated by an independent developer based in British Columbia, Canada. Orbit is not incorporated and is not a company.

Contact: orbitstudyapp@gmail.com

Orbit has no business premises. If you need a postal address for a formal or legal notice, email the address above and we'll provide one.

In these terms, "Orbit," "we," "us," and "our" mean that operator. "You" means you, the person using the app.

3. Eligibility — you must be 17 or older, with a UBC email

You must be at least 17 years old to use Orbit, and you must sign up with a UBC email address. No exceptions to the age floor.

By creating an account you represent and confirm that:

We set the floor at 17 because some first-year students are still 17 when term starts.

Two things follow from that, and you should know both.

First, 19 is the age of majority in British Columbia, so some Orbit users are minors. If you are an adult, assume you may be matched with or messaged by someone under 19, and conduct yourself accordingly. Section 5 applies with particular force where a minor is involved.

Second, under BC's Infants Act, an agreement like this one generally cannot be enforced against someone under 19. That is true whatever this document says. We are not pretending otherwise: if you are under 19, these terms describe the rules we will enforce on our side — we can and will close your account for breaking them — rather than a contract we could sue you over.

If we find out you're under 17, we'll close your account and delete your data.

4. Your account

Keep it accurate. Your display name, year, faculty, and courses should be real. Orbit only works if people are honest about what they're studying and when they're free. Deliberately false profile information is grounds for suspension.

Keep it yours. One account per person. Don't share your login. Don't let someone else use your account, and don't use anyone else's.

Keep it secure. You're responsible for what happens under your account. If you think someone else has access to it, change your password and email us right away.

You own your account only as long as you follow these terms. Orbit is free. There's nothing to pay, nothing to subscribe to, no ads, and no in-app purchases.

5. Acceptable use — what you can't do

Orbit is for finding people to study with. That's it.

You must not:

  1. Harass anyone. No bullying, stalking, intimidation, unwanted repeated contact, or persisting after someone has told you to stop.
  2. Post or send hate speech. No content that attacks, demeans, or dehumanizes people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic.
  3. Post or send sexual content. No nudity, no sexually explicit or suggestive content, no sexual propositions, no sexual comments about another user. Orbit is not a dating app and profiles are not to be used as one.
  4. Threaten anyone. No threats of violence, no encouraging self-harm or suicide, no content that glorifies violence.
  5. Impersonate anyone. Don't pretend to be another person, a professor, a TA, university staff, or an Orbit representative. Don't use someone else's photo as your profile picture.
  6. Dox anyone. Don't post or share another person's private information — home address, phone number, class schedule, student number, workplace, family details, or anything else they didn't choose to share on Orbit.
  7. Solicit. No recruiting, no MLM, no promoting a business, no crypto, no "opportunities," no fundraising, no political campaigning, no asking users for money, and no selling tutoring services, notes, or essay-writing help.
  8. Spam. No mass identical messages, no bots, no automated posting, no repeatedly re-creating accounts to reach more people.
  9. Scrape. Don't use bots, crawlers, or scripts to collect profile data, availability, courses, or any other information from Orbit. Don't try to build a copy of our data or reverse-engineer the app.
  10. Use Orbit commercially. Orbit is for personal, non-commercial use. Don't use it to advertise, recruit customers, generate leads, or conduct market research.
  11. Behave inappropriately toward a minor. Orbit admits users from age 17, so some users are under the age of majority. Any sexual, romantic, or grooming behaviour directed at a user you know or suspect to be a minor results in an immediate permanent ban and, where warranted, a report to law enforcement. If you become aware a user is under 17, stop contacting them and report the account immediately.
  12. Cheat. Don't use Orbit to arrange academic misconduct — exam answer-sharing, contract cheating, plagiarism, or anything that would violate your university's academic integrity policy. Studying together is the point; cheating together is not.
  13. Break the app. No hacking, no attempting to access other users' accounts or data, no exploiting bugs, no overloading our servers, no bypassing blocks or bans, no security testing without our written permission.
  14. Break the law. Nothing illegal under the laws of British Columbia or Canada.

If you spot any of this, report it — see section 7.

6. Your content

You own what you post. Your photo, your profile text, your messages, your session descriptions — they stay yours. We don't claim ownership.

You give us a licence to run the app. By posting content on Orbit, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, store, copy, display, and transmit that content solely for the purpose of operating, maintaining, and improving Orbit — for example, showing your profile to a user you matched with, or delivering your message to the person you sent it to.

This licence is limited. We will not use your content for advertising, we will not sell it, and we will not use it to promote Orbit publicly without asking you first.

The licence ends when you delete. When you delete content or your account, this licence ends for that content, except for the limited exceptions listed in the Privacy Policy (copies already delivered to another user, backups that haven't rolled over yet, and minimal safety records).

You're responsible for what you post. You confirm you have the right to post it and that it doesn't break section 5 or anyone else's rights.

7. Reporting, and our 24-hour commitment

Report anything that breaks section 5. There's a report option on every profile and in every conversation, and you can email orbitstudyapp@gmail.com.

Blocking is instant. Block someone and you disappear from each other immediately — no profile, no messages, no matching. You don't need a reason and they aren't told.

Our commitment: we will review and act on reports of objectionable content and abusive users within 24 hours of receiving the report. "Act" means we make a decision and do something about it — remove content, hide a profile, suspend the account, or ban the user permanently.

Reviewing a report may involve reading the reported messages. Messages on Orbit are not end-to-end encrypted. If you report a conversation, we may read the reported message and enough of the surrounding conversation to understand what happened. See the Privacy Policy for details.

Don't abuse reporting. Filing false or retaliatory reports is itself a violation of these terms.

8. Safety — please read this

Orbit does not verify who anyone is.

To be completely clear about what we do and don't do:

Anyone can say anything on their profile. Treat every person on Orbit as a stranger from the internet, because that's what they are until you've actually met them.

Meeting someone from Orbit in person is entirely at your own risk. We don't arrange, supervise, attend, or take responsibility for meetings between users. What happens when you meet someone is between you and them.

Before you meet anyone:

Read the full Safety Guidelines in the app for more.

If someone makes you uncomfortable, block and report them. You will never get in trouble for reporting someone.

9. Moderation — we can remove content and accounts

We can, at our discretion and without prior notice:

We'll normally do this because of a section 5 violation, a credible safety concern, or a legal requirement. We may also do it if we reasonably believe an account is putting other users at risk, even if we can't prove a specific violation. On safety questions we will err on the side of protecting users.

If your account is actioned, we'll tell you at the email on your account where we reasonably can, and you can appeal by replying. A human will look at it again. We're not obligated to explain every detail of a decision — sometimes explaining would identify whoever reported you — but we'll be as clear as we responsibly can be.

Banned means banned. Don't create a new account to get around a ban.

10. Disclaimers

Orbit is provided "as is" and "as available."

We do our best, but we don't promise that:

Orbit is a tool for finding study partners. It is not an academic service, a tutoring service, a safety service, or a substitute for your university's own resources.

To the maximum extent the law allows, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under the BC Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act or other consumer protection laws that can't be waived by agreement. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain disclaimers — where that's the case, they don't apply to you.

11. Limits on our liability

Orbit is a free app run by one student. This section limits what we're on the hook for. It's a real limit and you should understand it before agreeing.

We are not responsible for other users. We're not liable for anything another user does — what they say, what they post, whether they show up, what happens when you meet them, or any harm they cause you. Interactions between users are between those users.

Cap on our liability. To the maximum extent the law allows, our total liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to Orbit — added together, however they're framed — is limited to one hundred Canadian dollars (CAD $100).

No indirect damages. To the maximum extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost opportunities, lost grades, or lost profits.

What this does not limit. Nothing here limits our liability for:

If a court decides some part of this section can't be enforced, the rest still applies.

12. Indemnity

If you break these terms or break the law while using Orbit, and someone brings a claim against us because of it, you agree to cover our reasonable costs — including reasonable legal fees — in defending that claim.

This only applies to claims that come from your conduct: your content, your use of the app, or your violation of these terms or someone else's rights. It doesn't apply to anything caused by our own negligence or wrongdoing.

We'll tell you promptly about any claim we want covered, and we won't settle it without talking to you.

13. Ending your use of Orbit

You can leave any time. Delete your account in Settings → Account → Delete my account. That removes your profile, photo, messages, matches, sessions, and login record, as described in the Privacy Policy. It can't be undone.

We can end it too, as described in section 9.

We can shut down Orbit. It's a free app run by a student. If we have to discontinue it, we'll give you reasonable notice by email and in the app so you can save anything you need first.

What survives the end: sections 6 (for the limited exceptions listed there), 10, 11, 12, 14, and any other section that by its nature should keep applying.

14. Governing law and where disputes go

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia and the laws of Canada that apply there.

Disputes go to the courts of British Columbia, and you and we both agree to their jurisdiction.

There is no mandatory arbitration clause in these terms, and there is no class-action waiver. That's deliberate. Those clauses are not enforceable against consumers in British Columbia, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. You keep your right to go to court, to use the Civil Resolution Tribunal for smaller claims, and to participate in a class action.

You also keep every right you have under BC consumer protection law and under BC PIPA. Nothing in these terms takes those away.

Before going to court, please email us. Most problems can be sorted out with a message to orbitstudyapp@gmail.com. You are not required to — it's just usually faster for everyone.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the app changes or the law does.

If you don't agree with a change, delete your account before it takes effect. Continuing to use Orbit after the effective date means you accept the new terms.

16. The small print

Whole agreement. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the full agreement between you and us about Orbit.

Severability. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, that part is removed or narrowed and the rest stays in force.

No waiver. If we don't enforce something right away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later.

Assignment. You can't transfer your account or your rights under these terms. We may transfer ours if Orbit is acquired or reorganized — we'll tell you if that happens.

Language. These terms are written in English, and the English version is the only version we publish. If we ever publish a translation, the English version governs.

17. Contact

Orbit British Columbia, Canada

Support and general questions: orbitstudyapp@gmail.com
Privacy questions and requests: orbitstudyapp@gmail.com
Reports and safety: use the in-app report option, or orbitstudyapp@gmail.com

Orbit is not affiliated with the University of British Columbia.