Terms of Use
Last updated: August 11, 2026
Welcome to Hymnal. By using it you agree to these terms. They’re short, in plain English, and boil down to: sing, be decent to the people you’re singing with, and respect the people who wrote and published these hymns.
The service
Hymnal is a free, non-commercial project run by an individual. It’s offered as-is: features may change, and the service may be interrupted, suspended, or discontinued at any time. We’ll always try to treat your data with care (see the Privacy Policy), but a free community service can’t promise perfect uptime or fitness for any particular purpose, and we disclaim warranties to the fullest extent the law allows. To the same extent, we aren’t liable for damages arising from your use of the service.
Acceptable use
- Don’t disrupt sessions — a session is someone’s gathering. Nicknames and hymn additions you contribute are visible to everyone in the room; keep them lawful and free of abuse.
- Don’t guess or enumerate join codes, probe access controls, or otherwise try to reach sessions or data you weren’t invited to.
- Don’t scrape, bulk-download, or republish the catalog. Browse and share hymns freely as the interface offers; automated harvesting is not what this is for.
- Don’t resell or commercialize access to the service.
We may suspend or remove access, sessions, or submitted content that violates these terms.
Hymn texts and copyright
Hymnal takes copyright seriously — the people who write and publish hymns make the singing possible. The full hymn texts displayed here are, to the best of our determination, in the public domain. Where a text’s status is unknown or the text is under copyright, we don’t display it — instead we show the hymn’s details and link out to another site that carries the words. Hymn metadata comes in part from Hymnary.org, which we credit with thanks.
Rights holders: if you believe Hymnal displays a text in error — including where the wording we print reflects a copyrighted altered or revised version from a particular hymnal, even though the underlying hymn is public domain — email gethymnalapp@gmail.com with the hymn and the basis of your claim. We will review promptly and remove any text we can’t verify as public domain, or reprint the hymn from a different public-domain source.
What you contribute
Some things in Hymnal come from the people using it: nicknames and hymns added to a session’s queue. By contributing, you confirm you have the right to share what you submit and you give us permission to display it within the service. We may remove any contribution at our discretion.
Leader accounts
Leaders sign in with an email link. Keep control of your email account — anyone with access to it can lead your sessions. You’re responsible for the sessions you run.
Changes
If these terms change, the new version will be posted here with an updated date. Using Hymnal after a change means you accept the updated terms.
Contact
Questions: gethymnalapp@gmail.com.