Terms of Use

Effective date: 16 September 2026 · Applies to the Explia mobile app (iOS and Android)

1. About these terms

These terms apply to the Explia mobile app (the “app”), published by Stéphane Hirondelle, independent publisher (postal address available on request at the contact e-mail below) (“we”, “us”). By installing or using the app you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the app. The app is free and requires no account; an optional subscription, Explia Plus, is described in section 8. Your use of the app is also subject to the terms of the store you downloaded it from (Apple App Store or Google Play).

2. What Explia is

Explia makes the scientific literature indexed in PubMed easier to read for the general public. It lets you search studies by topic or with a question in your own words, shows a reliability badge based on the type of study, offers a plain-language summary generated automatically, and always gives one-tap access to the original abstract and to the PubMed page. It is an information and education tool, in the spirit of a library: it is not a medical tool.

3. Not medical advice

The app describes what researchers observed (“this study found…”); it never gives an opinion about your situation. Nothing in the app — a study, a summary, a reliability badge, a search result — is a diagnosis, a dosage, a treatment recommendation or personal advice, and nothing should be read as such. A single study, even a reliable one, is rarely the whole picture: results can be contradicted by later work. If you notice something worrying in your health, or in someone else’s, talk to a health professional.

4. Sources and attribution

All studies come from PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health. Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The NLM does not endorse or recommend this application. Explia is an independent application, with no affiliation, partnership or sponsorship of any kind with the NLM, the NIH or PubMed.

• Bibliographic data and abstracts are displayed as PubMed provides them. They may contain errors or omissions that come from the source, and they can change (corrections, updated indexing). Abstracts and full texts remain the property of their authors and publishers; full texts opened from the app are subject to the publishers’ or PubMed Central’s terms.
• Articles that PubMed flags as retracted are excluded from search results. If you open one through a direct link, a red banner tells you, and no plain-language summary is produced.
• Studies carried out on animals or in the laboratory are flagged with a banner, because their results often do not apply to humans.
• The reliability badge is an automatic classification based on the publication type recorded by PubMed (for example a review of many studies, a randomised trial, an observational study). It is a helpful indication of the type of evidence, not a judgement of the quality of a particular study.

5. Automatic (AI) summaries and translations

Plain-language summaries are generated by an artificial-intelligence model from the English abstract of the article, without human review. Each summary carries this label: “Summary generated automatically from the scientific abstract. It may contain errors: the original text takes precedence.” The same applies to translated titles and to the way the app turns your question into a PubMed search (“We’re looking for: …”), which may misunderstand what you meant.

Summaries can simplify, omit or, occasionally, misstate elements of the original. We make no promise that a summary is accurate, complete, or up to date, and you agree not to rely on it without reading the original abstract. Summaries may be unavailable at times (daily limit reached, AI service unavailable, article without an abstract); the original abstract and the PubMed link remain available.

6. Acceptable use

You may use the app for your personal information and education, and for your studies or work (students, journalists, professionals are welcome), within the law. You agree not to:

• enter personal information into the app (yours or anyone else’s), such as names, dates of birth or medical records — the search field is for topics, not people;
• use scripts, bots or any automated means to query the app or its server, to make bulk requests, or to bypass the daily fair-use limits;
• overload, disrupt, probe, reverse-engineer or attack the app, its server or the third-party services it relies on, or use them in a way that breaches NCBI’s usage policies;
• present a summary from the app as medical advice, or as the original study, when you pass it on;
• remove or hide the attributions, labels and notices shown in the app when you reuse its content.

Sharing a study from the app is welcome. If you reuse a summary elsewhere, please say that it was generated automatically by Explia and keep the link to the original on PubMed.

7. Fair-use limits and availability

To keep the app free, the number of plain-language summaries is limited: a free trial of 10 summaries per installation (section 8), plus a daily fair-use limit per user and overall that applies to everyone, subscribers included. The app depends on third-party services (NCBI E-utilities, the Google Gemini API, Supabase hosting) that we do not control: it may run in a reduced mode (for example, searching PubMed without summaries) or be temporarily unavailable. We may change, suspend or discontinue the app or any of its features at any time, and we do not guarantee that it will be available without interruption or free of errors.

8. Explia Plus (subscription)

What is free, always. Searching, the results, the original abstract, the PubMed / PMC / publisher links, saved studies, followed topics and weekly alerts, expert mode and the safety banners. None of this is ever locked.

What is limited: the free trial. A free reader can see the plain-language summary of 10 studies in total on a given installation of the app (each study counts once, whatever the language it is read in; re-opening a study already read never counts again). The number left is shown under each summary and in Settings → Explia Plus. The count is kept on your device only and is not reset by “Delete all my data”. Once the trial is used up, the app simply shows the original abstract and says so; it never asks you to pay in order to read a study, and everything listed above stays available.

What Explia Plus adds. Unlimited plain-language summaries. Explia Plus is an auto-renewing subscription offered as two plans: yearly or monthly. The exact prices, in your currency, are shown by the App Store or Google Play before you confirm; they may vary by country and may change for future periods with notice through the store.

• Payment and renewal. Payment is charged to your Apple or Google account when you confirm the purchase. The subscription renews automatically for the same period at the price shown in the store unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.
• No store free trial. Explia Plus has no free-trial period in the stores: the free trial is the 10 summaries described above, before any purchase. Should a store ever offer an introductory period on a plan, the app would show it before you confirm, and it would turn into a paid subscription at its end unless cancelled before.
• Cancellation. You cancel in the subscription settings of your Apple account (App Store) or Google account (Google Play), not in the app; Settings → Explia Plus → “Manage my subscription” takes you there. Explia Plus stays active until the end of the period already paid.
• Refunds. Purchases are made through the stores, which handle billing and refunds under their own terms (Apple: reportaproblem.apple.com; Google Play: its refund policy). We cannot issue refunds ourselves. Where consumer law gives you a right of withdrawal, it is exercised through the store.
• Restoring. Explia Plus is linked to your store account, not to an Explia account (there is none). On a new device, or after reinstalling, use “Restore my purchases” in the app. A subscription bought on iOS does not transfer to Android, and vice versa.
• Processing of purchases. Purchases are verified for us by RevenueCat, which receives the store receipt and an anonymous identifier generated for your installation — never your name, e-mail or account (see the Privacy Policy).
• Changes. We may change the price of future periods or the content of Explia Plus with reasonable notice; the store will ask for your consent where required. What is free today (listed above) is not removed by these terms.

9. Intellectual property

The app — its name, logo, design, interface texts and code — belongs to us or to our licensors. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to use the app on devices you own or control, under these terms and the store’s terms. PubMed data, abstracts and full texts belong to their respective rights holders (authors, publishers, NLM); we claim no rights over them. You may use the plain-language summaries for your own information, within section 6.

10. No warranty and limitation of liability

The app and its content are provided “as is” and “as available”, without any warranty, express or implied, including as to accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose or uninterrupted availability. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any loss or damage arising from the use of the app or from reliance on its content — in particular for decisions about health taken on the basis of a summary or a study — nor for the unavailability of the app or of the third-party services it relies on.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, including for gross negligence or wilful misconduct, and nothing affects the statutory rights you have as a consumer.

11. Privacy

The app works without an account and without tracking. How it handles information is described in the Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when we add a feature. The new version is published at this address with its effective date; significant changes will be announced in the app or on its store listing. Continuing to use the app after a change means you accept the updated terms. If you do not agree, stop using the app and uninstall it.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by French law, and any dispute will be brought before the competent courts of France, without prejudice to the mandatory consumer-protection rules and the competent courts of the country where you live. If you are a consumer in the European Union, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country of residence, and you may be able to use a consumer-mediation service in your country.

14. Contact

Questions or a mistake spotted: contact@nutriflow-app.net. You can also use “Contact us” in the app’s Settings.