BookMingle Terms & Conditions

Last updated: 31 August 2026

These Terms govern your use of the BookMingle mobile application, website and related services (together, the “Service”). By creating an account or using BookMingle, you agree to these Terms.

BookMingle is currently operated personally rather than through a registered company. You can contact us at team@bookmingle.co.uk.

1. Age requirement

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account or use BookMingle. If we reasonably believe that an account is being used by someone under 13, we may suspend or remove it.

BookMingle does not currently collect a user’s age or operate a technical age-verification system. Users are nevertheless required to comply with this age requirement.

2. What BookMingle does

BookMingle helps people discover, borrow, lend and give away physical books and connect with other readers. Users can post books, request books, communicate with other users, share book-related social content and create or join Groups with shared libraries and Group Chat.

BookMingle does not sell books and does not process payments between users. Book sharing through BookMingle is currently free.

3. Accounts

You are responsible for activity on your account and for keeping your login credentials secure. You may sign in using email and password, Google Sign-In or Sign in with Apple. You must not impersonate another person, create an account for abusive or fraudulent purposes, or misuse another person’s account.

4. Borrowing, lending and giving away books

BookMingle provides technology that helps users find and communicate with each other. Any agreement to borrow, lend, return, collect or give away a book is made directly between the users involved.

Users are responsible for agreeing the condition of a book, collection or meeting arrangements, expected return date and any other relevant details. BookMingle does not take possession of users’ books and cannot guarantee that a borrowed book will be returned, returned on time or returned in its original condition.

BookMingle is not responsible for resolving private disputes about lost, damaged or unreturned books, although users may report inappropriate behaviour to the BookMingle team.

5. Meeting other users safely

BookMingle may help users arrange real-world book exchanges and provides safety guidance when users arrange exchanges. You remain responsible for deciding whether, where and how to meet another user. Use appropriate caution, avoid sharing unnecessary personal information and consider meeting in a safe public place. Users aged 13–17 should involve a parent, guardian or trusted adult when arranging an in-person exchange.

BookMingle stores latitude and longitude for its location-based features, but precise coordinates are not shown to other users. Other users see only an approximate location where relevant to books, users or Groups. Do not use location information provided through BookMingle to harass, track, threaten or endanger another person.

6. Groups

BookMingle allows users to create private or public Groups for friends, families, colleagues, neighbourhoods, book clubs and other reading communities. Groups may include a name, description, image, selected location, members, invitation information, shared library and Group Chat.

Groups are identified in the app as private or public. Private Groups are intended for invited members. Public Groups may be discoverable by other users, but a request to join a public Group must be approved by a Group administrator.

A Group’s six-digit invitation code is available to the Group administrator and is not displayed publicly to other BookMingle users. Group administrators are responsible for deciding how and with whom to share an invitation code and for managing membership appropriately. Being a Group administrator does not make that person an employee, agent or representative of BookMingle.

7. Posts, messages and other user content

You remain responsible for the books, photos, text, social posts, Group content, messages and other material you upload or send through BookMingle (“User Content”).

You must have the right to upload your User Content. You must not post or send content that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, hateful, fraudulent, sexually exploitative, invasive of privacy, defamatory, deliberately misleading, infringing of intellectual-property rights, or otherwise likely to cause harm.

Do not use BookMingle to spam users, advertise unrelated commercial services, conduct scams, solicit payments for prohibited activity, or distribute malware or harmful links.

8. Licence needed to operate the Service

You keep ownership of your User Content. By posting content to BookMingle, you give BookMingle a non-exclusive licence to host, store, reproduce, display and technically process that content to the extent necessary to operate, provide, secure, moderate and improve the Service. This licence ends when the content is deleted, except where retention is reasonably necessary for backups, archives, safety, audit, legal obligations or the handling of reports and disputes.

9. Messages and privacy

BookMingle provides one-to-one messaging and Group Chat. Messages are stored using Firebase and are not end-to-end encrypted. Authorised BookMingle administrators may access relevant messages when necessary to operate the Service, investigate a report, moderate content, address safety concerns or troubleshoot problems.

Please read the BookMingle Privacy Policy for more information about how personal information is handled.

10. Reporting, moderation and blocking

Users can report users, books, messages and posts and can block other users. Reports are reviewed by the BookMingle team.

We may investigate reports and review relevant User Content. We may remove content, limit functionality, reject or remove Group membership, issue warnings, suspend accounts or terminate accounts where we reasonably believe these Terms have been breached or action is necessary to protect users or the Service.

Moderation cannot guarantee that all inappropriate content or behaviour will be identified immediately. If there is an immediate risk to someone’s safety, contact the appropriate emergency service or authority rather than relying solely on BookMingle’s reporting tools.

11. Content moderation and books

BookMingle administrators may review books and social posts for moderation purposes. We may remove listings or content that breach these Terms, appear fraudulent, are inappropriate for the Service, or create safety or legal concerns.

12. Account deletion

You can delete your account using the Delete Account option in BookMingle. Active user data and active book listings associated with the account are deleted from the active service as part of the deletion process. A copy of book records may be retained in an archive for storage, audit and analytics purposes. BookMingle does not currently have a defined retention period for this archive.

Deleting an account does not prevent BookMingle from retaining information where reasonably necessary for legal obligations, security, moderation, fraud prevention, handling reports or protecting the rights and safety of users, subject to applicable law.

13. Intellectual property

BookMingle’s name, branding, software, interface, designs and other materials created by BookMingle are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws. These Terms do not transfer ownership of BookMingle’s intellectual property to users.

You may not copy, reverse engineer, exploit or redistribute the Service except where permitted by law.

14. Availability and changes to the Service

We aim to keep BookMingle available and reliable, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access. Features may change, be added, be removed or become temporarily unavailable as the Service develops.

15. Third-party services

BookMingle relies on third-party services, including Google/Firebase infrastructure and optional Google and Apple sign-in. Those providers may have their own terms and privacy policies. BookMingle is not responsible for third-party services outside our control.

16. Our responsibility

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so. Subject to applicable law, BookMingle provides a platform that connects users and is not responsible for the independent acts of users, the condition or ownership of books posted by users, or private arrangements users make for borrowing, lending, giving away or exchanging books.

You remain responsible for exercising reasonable judgment when interacting with other users online or in person.

17. Suspension and termination

You may stop using BookMingle and delete your account at any time. We may restrict, suspend or terminate access where we reasonably believe a user has breached these Terms, created a safety or security risk, misused the Service or where action is required by law.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as BookMingle develops or legal requirements change. Where a change is significant, we may provide notice through the app, website or other appropriate means. Continued use after updated Terms take effect means the updated Terms apply to your future use of the Service, subject to applicable law.

19. Governing law

These Terms are intended to be governed by the applicable laws of the United Kingdom, subject to any mandatory rights you have under the law that applies where you live.

20. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to team@bookmingle.co.uk.