Terms and Conditions

Effective date: 19 October 2026

These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Howsit (Registered as a Micro Enterprise under Udyam) ("Howsit", "we", "us") for using the Howsit Superapp on Android, iPhone and the web, the website https://howsit.in and related services (the "Services"). They are published under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Rule 3(1) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ("IT Rules"), and, for shopping on Howsit, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020.

By creating an account or using the Services, you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, our Community Guidelines and our Cancellation & Refund Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use Howsit.

1. Who can use Howsit

• You give your date of birth when you sign up, and it must be true.
• You must be at least 13 years old to have a Howsit account.
• If you are under 18, your parent or lawful guardian must agree: when you sign up we send a one-time code to your parent's or guardian's phone, and they confirm their consent. They agree to these Terms for you and are responsible for your use.
• Students may also be added by their school in Students Corner; the school confirms it has the parent's or guardian's consent.
• Howsit is available worldwide, except where the law does not allow it. You must follow the laws of the country you use Howsit from, and must not use Howsit if you have been barred from it.

2. Your account

• You sign in with your mobile number and a one-time code sent by SMS or to your confirmed email. Keep your phone and codes safe; you are responsible for what happens in your account.
• Give true information, including your name and date of birth. Do not impersonate anyone or create accounts to get around a suspension.
• You may add a second number to the same phone, change your number (your account and chats move with it), or delete your account at any time in Settings.

3. Howsit's role

For messages, calls, posts, Reels, live streams and listings that users create, Howsit is an intermediary under section 79 of the IT Act: we provide the platform and do not create, select or edit that content. Each user is responsible for what they share. We follow the due-diligence duties of the IT Rules, act on lawful orders, and remove unlawful content as the law requires.

For purchases on Howsit, shops and sellers sell their own goods and services, and Howsit acts as the marketplace (see section 8).

4. Content you must not share

You must not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that (as listed in Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules):

1. belongs to another person and to which you do not have any right;
2. is obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, invasive of another's privacy (including bodily privacy), insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, racially or ethnically objectionable, relating to or encouraging money laundering or gambling, or promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion or caste with the intent to incite violence;
3. is harmful to children;
4. infringes any patent, trademark, copyright or other proprietary right;
5. deceives or misleads anyone about the origin of a message, or knowingly and intentionally communicates misinformation or information that is patently false, untrue or misleading;
6. impersonates another person;
7. threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order; incites the commission of any cognisable offence; prevents the investigation of any offence; or insults another nation;
8. contains a software virus or any other computer code, file or program designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer resource;
9. is an online game that is not verified as a permissible online game, or an advertisement, surrogate advertisement or promotion of such a game or of an intermediary offering it;
10. violates any law for the time being in force, in India or in the country you use Howsit from.

Our Community Guidelines explain these rules in plain words, including our zero-tolerance rules on nudity, sexual content involving minors, terrorism and violence.

If you break these rules, we may remove or disable the content, label it, limit your account, or suspend or terminate your account, immediately where the law or the seriousness of the violation requires. We may preserve information and report it to the authorities as required by law. You can contest our decision through the Grievance process, and appeal to the Grievance Appellate Committee.

5. Your content and licence

• You keep ownership of what you create. By posting public content (Reels, live streams, Vibes, comments, listings), you give Howsit a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, show, stream, translate, caption and distribute it within the Services and to promote Howsit, for as long as it is on Howsit.
• Private messages are only for the people you send them to; end-to-end encrypted chats cannot be read by us.
• Content made or changed with AI must be labelled as such when you post it.
• Music: use your own sound or the Howsit Studio library (its credit line stays under your caption). Music you have no licence for (film songs, tracks from Spotify, YouTube or other apps) is not allowed; such reels lose their sound or are removed, with a copyright strike. See Music and audio.
• Copyright: if you believe content on Howsit infringes your copyright or trademark, write to grievance@howsit.in with the details listed in Music and audio. We act on valid notices under the Copyright Act, 1957, Rule 75 of the Copyright Rules, 2013 (access disabled within 36 hours) and the IT Act.

6. Calls, live streams and recording

• Do not record calls or live streams of others without their consent, except with Howsit's own recording feature, which shows everyone that the call is being recorded.
• Live streams are checked automatically for unsafe content; a live stream that breaks the rules may be ended at once.

7. Payments, wallet and Howsit Pro

• Prices are shown in the app before you pay — in Indian rupees in India, and in your local currency where the app shows it — including applicable taxes unless stated otherwise. Payments are processed by Razorpay, an RBI-authorised payment aggregator; we never see your card, UPI PIN or bank password.
• Howsit Wallet is a record of what you can spend on Howsit. It is not a bank account, does not earn interest, and is not a prepaid payment instrument for paying other people. It has two parts:
• Welcome and promotional credit: given free, usable only for Howsit's own services (such as Pro, ads and boosts), expires as shown, and can never be withdrawn or turned into cash.
• Money: top-ups you make, and what you earn on Howsit (tips, sales, service payments, creator earnings). Use it to buy on Howsit, tip creators, or pay a shop or service provider through Howsit.
• No transfers between people. Money in a Howsit Wallet cannot be sent to another person's wallet. If you want to pay someone directly, Howsit opens your own UPI app to pay them bank to bank; Howsit does not hold, move or guarantee that money.
• Withdrawals of what you earn go only to a bank account or UPI ID in your own name, after your identity (KYC) and bank details are verified — automatically, or by a person at Howsit where needed — and after fraud checks. Unused top-up money is returned to the original payment method if you close your account.
• Howsit Pro is a monthly plan (currently ₹399 per month in India), paid from your wallet. It runs for the month you paid for and does not renew unless you pay again. See the Cancellation & Refund Policy.
• Business ERP and school plans are prepaid subscriptions billed for 6 months or a year (the monthly price is shown for comparison); they run until the end of that period. From a business's second year, the ERP's cloud server and backup fee is added to its bill.
• Tips and gifts are made at your own choice and are final.
• We may correct obvious pricing errors and reverse credits given by mistake.

8. Shopping on Howsit: shops and marketplace

• Shops and sellers on Howsit sell their own goods and services. They are responsible for what they sell — its description, quality, safety, legality, pricing, invoices and taxes (including GST where it applies), and delivery when they deliver it themselves.
• Each listing shows who is selling, the price, the delivery charge and the return policy before you pay.
• Payments for shop orders and marketplace orders are held by Howsit and paid to the seller only after delivery (and, for marketplace orders, after the return window), so that a problem can be resolved first.
• Howsit charges sellers a platform fee shown to them when they list. Sellers must follow the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 and must not post fake reviews or manipulate prices.
• Returns, cancellations and refunds follow the Cancellation & Refund Policy; deliveries follow the Shipping & Delivery Policy.

9. Local Services

• Providers (for example electricians, cooks, tutors, drivers, beauticians) can offer their services on Howsit. They must give true details, hold any licence their work needs, and follow the law, including tax law.
• Identity checks. Before anyone can book them, providers verify their identity with Howsit: photos of a government ID and a selfie taken with the phone's camera, which Howsit staff compare, plus a check of the ID number's format; earnings are paid only to a bank account in the provider's own name. Only verified providers are shown and can be booked. For Aadhaar, Howsit asks only for the last four digits and the masked Aadhaar (never the full number). The ID photos are stored encrypted, seen only by Howsit staff reviewing them, and kept while you are a provider and afterwards only as long as the law requires.
• Providers are independent: they are not Howsit's employees or agents, and they are responsible for the quality, safety and legality of their work. A Verified badge means the identity was checked, not that Howsit guarantees the work.
• Bookings. The price is fixed when you book (the provider's base price plus their per-km rate for the distance). The provider accepts, travels to you (you can follow them live and share the trip), and starts only when you give them the start code shown in your app.
• Paying a provider: online (Razorpay): you pay when the provider accepts; Howsit holds the money and pays the provider only when the job is done, to their own bank account; if the booking is cancelled before the work starts, you get it all back. Or cash: you pay the provider when the job is done and give them the completion code from your app, which records the payment. Howsit's fee (currently 5%) comes out of the provider's share in both cases; Howsit never moves wallet money from one person to another. Payments made outside a booking are entirely between you and the provider; Howsit is not a party to them and cannot refund them.
• Safety. During a booking either side can press SOS: Howsit is alerted at once with the location and the phone calls the local emergency number. Misuse of SOS, or any threat or harm to the other person, ends the account.
• Ratings and reviews must be honest and only for work actually done.
• Problems with a payment made through Howsit can be raised with support, see the Cancellation & Refund Policy.

10. Students Corner

• Schools, teachers and coaching providers are responsible for their classes, content, fees and refund rules. Howsit provides the tools and processes the payments.
• Fee refunds are decided by the school under its own rules; Howsit processes approved refunds as described in the Cancellation & Refund Policy.

11. Business tools and POS for Mall

• Your business data (stock, sales, invoices, ledger, customers) belongs to you. You can export it. You are responsible for the accuracy of your books and for your tax filings. Howsit stores and processes this data for you, on your instructions.
• Invoices and tax calculations made with Howsit are tools to help you; check them before you rely on them.
• POS for Mall lets a business run sales counters (opening float, sales with stock and receipts, closing with cash reconciliation) and lets a mall manage its tenants: units, leases, monthly rent and revenue share, billed on the mall's own ledger.
• Money taken at a counter (cash, UPI or card) goes to the business's own accounts; Howsit does not collect or hold it. Rent and revenue share are agreed between the mall and its tenants under their own lease; Howsit only provides the tools to record and bill them.
• The business is responsible for its staff's access, its leases and its compliance with tax, consumer, shop-and-establishment and other laws.

12. Creators, ads and commissions

• Creators may earn from tips, gifts, live streams and commissions on sales they bring, as shown in the app. Earnings may be held to check for fraud and paid after identity and bank checks, subject to applicable taxes (including TDS where the law requires).
• Ads must follow our ad standards and the law, including the Consumer Protection Act and ASCI guidelines. We may review, reject or stop any ad; budgets of rejected ads are returned to the advertiser's wallet.

13. AI features

Some features use artificial intelligence (for example safety checks, "Ask the video" and captions). AI can make mistakes. Do not rely on AI answers for medical, legal, financial or safety decisions.

14. Howsit's rights

The Howsit name, logo, app and website belong to us. You may not copy, sell, reverse-engineer, scrape or misuse the Services, interfere with their security, or use them to send spam.

15. Availability and changes

We work to keep Howsit running but cannot promise it will always be available or free of errors. We may change, add or remove features. We will tell you in the app before a change to these Terms that affects you significantly.

16. Disclaimers and liability

• The Services are provided "as is" and "as available", to the extent the law allows.
• We are not responsible for content shared by users, or for goods and services sold by shops, sellers, schools and providers, except as required by law.
• To the extent the law allows, Howsit's total liability to you for any claim is limited to the amount you paid Howsit in the 12 months before the claim. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, or your rights as a consumer.

17. Indemnity

You agree to compensate Howsit for losses and costs arising from your breach of these Terms or of the law, or from content you share.

18. Suspension and ending your account

You can stop using Howsit and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or end your account if you break these Terms or the law, or if required by law. Money in your wallet that is yours (not promotional credit) will be returned to you — to your verified bank account or original payment method — after any amounts owed are settled, unless the law requires us to hold it.

19. Using Howsit outside India

• You must follow the laws of your country, including on content, payments, taxes and data. Where your local law gives you rights that cannot be waived (for example consumer rights in the European Union and the United Kingdom), nothing in these Terms takes them away.
• EU and UK consumers — right to cancel: you may cancel a purchase of a digital service within 14 days. When you start using a paid digital service straight away, you ask us to begin at once and agree that you lose this right once the service has been fully provided; for a subscription cancelled within 14 days you get a refund for the unused part.
• Sanctions: Howsit may not be used in countries, or by people, under comprehensive sanctions of India, the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom or the United States.
• Taxes such as VAT or GST are charged where the law of your country requires them.

20. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Please first contact our Grievance Officer — most issues are resolved there. Subject to that, the courts at Mayurbhanj, Odisha have jurisdiction. Nothing here takes away your right to approach a Consumer Commission under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Grievance Appellate Committee under the IT Rules, or the Data Protection Board of India — or, if you live outside India, the courts and authorities of your own country where your local law gives you that right.

21. Contact

Howsit (Registered as a Micro Enterprise under Udyam)
At/Po-Karanjia
Karanjia, Dist. Mayurbhanj
Odisha 757037, India

• Email: support@howsit.in
• Phone: +91 73377 66156
• Hours: Monday to Saturday, 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM IST