Draft for legal review before public launch. Details in [brackets] are still to be filled in.

Terms of use

Version 2026-11-10, 11 November 2026.

These terms are the agreement between you and Abyl Applications Limited (registered in England and Wales, company number 09519157) (“we”, “us”), who run Overheard. They apply when you use Overheard on the web or as an installed app. Please read them with our privacy policy, which explains what we do with your data.

1. YouTube’s terms

Overheard plays videos through YouTube’s embedded player and uses YouTube API Services. By using Overheard, you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service. Videos are YouTube’s and their creators’, not ours, and YouTube’s terms apply to everything that happens in its player.

2. Who can use Overheard

  • You must be 18 or over. You confirm this when you sign up. We close accounts we learn belong to someone younger.
  • Overheard is invite-only for now. Without an invitation or a teacher’s or creator’s link, you join a waiting list until we let you in.
  • One account per person. Keep your sign-in to yourself: you’re responsible for what happens in your account.

3. What Overheard is

Overheard is listening practice with real YouTube videos. Each video is split into sections of a few minutes. You can watch any section, and you can practise it: answer questions while you listen, then see what was said and replay the moments you missed. You can save words and practise them in new sentences, and see your progress.

4. Watching is always free

Anyone signed in can watch every video in Overheard, on any plan, at any time. Our plans are for Overheard’s own learning features. Nothing you pay us goes to YouTube, buys access to a video, or is a YouTube charge.

5. Plans and payment

  • Free: a set number of practice sessions a week (a practice session is one section and its questions; redoing a section you’ve practised is free) and a set number of saved words. The current limits are on the Plans page: 3 practice sessions a week and 30 words when we wrote this. We may change the Free limits; we’ll say so on the Plans page first.
  • Plus: unlimited practice and saved words, for £7.99 a month or £59.99 a year, including VAT. The price is shown before you pay. Plus renews automatically at the end of each period until you cancel.
  • Payments are taken by our payment provider. We never see or store your card details.
  • Cancelling: cancel any time in Settings. Plus carries on until the end of the period you’ve paid for, then you go back to Free. We don’t refund part-periods, except as below or where the law says we must.
  • Your 14 days: you can cancel within 14 days of first paying for Plus and get a full refund. Write to us at hello@overheard.it.com.
  • Price changes: we’ll tell you at least 30 days before a new price applies to you. It applies from your next renewal after that, and you can cancel before it does.
  • Free months (for example when you join through a teacher’s or creator’s link, or use a discount code) give you Plus until the date shown in Settings. A code works once per account, only for new accounts, and never on top of a paid plan. If you haven’t chosen a plan by the end date, you go back to Free. We never charge you for a plan you didn’t choose.
  • Teachers get Plus free as the teacher terms describe.

6. Videos and creators

  • Each video belongs to its creator and plays from YouTube, in YouTube’s player, with the creator’s name, a link to their channel and “Watch on YouTube”. We don’t download or keep copies of videos.
  • Videos can disappear: if a creator makes a video private, deletes it, stops it being embedded, or asks us to remove their channel, it goes from Overheard. Creators can read how this works on For creators.

7. Questions, translations and other content we make

  • Questions, translations, word lists and example sentences are generated with AI (Google’s Gemini) and questions are checked by a person before they’re published. Mistakes still happen. Please use “Report this question” when you find one.
  • This content is ours. You may use it for your own learning. Don’t copy, sell or republish it, or collect it in bulk, without our written permission.

8. Teachers

  • You can link your account to a teacher, through their link or code. Your teacher sees your learning activity only if you choose to share it, and you can stop sharing any time in Settings. The privacy policy lists exactly what they see.
  • Teachers are independent. Their lessons and anything you agree with them are between you and them, not part of Overheard.
  • If you joined through a teacher’s or creator’s link, they earn a share of what you pay us. It doesn’t change your price, and they never see who you are unless you link to them as your teacher and share.

9. Using Overheard fairly

Please don’t:

  • try to download, record or save videos or their audio, or get round YouTube’s player;
  • scrape Overheard, use bots or automated tools on it, or try to get round the Free limits (for example with several accounts);
  • share or sell your account, or use someone else’s;
  • break, overload or probe Overheard’s security, or use it for anything unlawful;
  • use a teacher’s or creator’s link or code in ways their terms don’t allow (for example signing up to your own link).

We may pause or close an account that breaks these terms. If we close a paid account for no fault of yours, we refund the unused part of your current period.

10. Your account and your data

You can download your data or delete your account in Settings. Deleting it removes your data from Overheard straight away (and always within 7 days) and cancels any subscription. It doesn’t affect anything YouTube or Google hold about you.

11. Keeping Overheard running

We work to keep Overheard available and accurate, but it may sometimes be unavailable, for example for maintenance, and we may change, add or remove features. If we make a change that substantially reduces what Plus gives you, you can cancel and get a refund for the unused part of your current period.

12. Our responsibility to you

  • If we break these terms or fail to use reasonable care and skill, we’re responsible for loss you suffer that was a foreseeable result. We’re not responsible for loss that wasn’t foreseeable, or for business losses: Overheard is for personal learning.
  • Our total responsibility to you is limited to what you’ve paid us in the 12 months before the problem, or £100 if that’s more.
  • Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn’t let us limit. Nothing here affects your legal rights as a consumer.
  • We’re not responsible for YouTube, its player or the videos themselves, or for teachers’ lessons.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when Overheard or the law changes. For changes that matter, we’ll show you the new version when you next sign in and ask you to accept it before you carry on. If you don’t want to accept it, you can delete your account; if you pay for Plus, we’ll refund the unused part of your current period.

14. The law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If there’s a dispute, the courts of England and Wales can decide it; if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also go to the courts there.

15. Contact

Abyl Applications Limited (registered in England and Wales, company number 09519157), Taudinn, Tunstall, Richmond, North Yorkshire, DL10 7QL, United Kingdom. Email: hello@overheard.it.com.