House Rules

Every letter has exactly one recipient, and there is no way to send the same letter to several people at once. That is a deliberate limit, not an oversight — a letter that was written to everybody is not a letter, and the person receiving it can always tell.

A first letter is capped at 220 words. It is enough to say something true and short enough that a bad one costs the reader half a minute. The cap lifts as soon as they write back.

Nobody owes you a reply. Letters here take real time to arrive and people answer when they have something to say, which is sometimes weeks. Writing again and again to somebody who has not written back is not enthusiasm — it is pressure, and we limit it.

If you would rather not continue a correspondence, you can decline it. The other person is told that you are not writing back and nothing else. Your reason stays private.

• Anything sexual involving a minor. This is the one rule with no context, no nuance and no second chance. Accounts are removed and reports are escalated.
• Harassment, threats, or hate directed at a person or at a group — including on the basis of race, religion, nationality, disability, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.
• Sexual content sent to somebody who did not ask for it. A stranger has not asked for it.
• Money. Requests for money, gifts, cryptocurrency, investment schemes, or links to any of them. A pen pal who needs your bank details is not a pen pal.
• Anybody else’s private information — their address, their photographs, their messages — without their agreement.
• Advertising. Recruiting, promoting a product, or driving people to another platform.

Use a name people can write to and describe yourself honestly. You do not have to use your legal name, share your photograph, or say where exactly you live — the app never asks for your street and never shows anyone your precise location. Inventing a different person entirely is another matter, and it is grounds for removal.

You must be at least 13 to have an account.

Every correspondence has Mute and Block. Mute quiets a correspondence and keeps the letters; block stops the person reaching you at all. Neither is ever shown to the other person, and blocking also stops any letter of theirs still on its way.

Reporting is a different thing from declining: it tells us this person is a problem for people who are not you. A report attaches the letter it is about, and we read them. See Staying safe for how, or write to us at tryletterway@gmail.com.

Depending on what happened, we may remove a letter, restrict an account’s ability to write to new people, or close it. Child safety violations are removed immediately and reported to the relevant authorities. You will not be told the outcome of a report you made about somebody else, and they are never told that you reported them.

The enforceable version of all of this is in our Terms of Service.