ShiftHawk

Terms of Service

Last updated: 22 June 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and ShiftHawk ("ShiftHawk", "we", "us"). ShiftHawk is an iOS and Android application that helps people who work shifts find shift swaps with their coworkers. It is built and maintained by practising physicians, and works for any shift-based workplace. Please read these Terms carefully — by using the app you agree to them.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By downloading, installing, or using ShiftHawk, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the app. You also agree to Apple's and Google's standard terms that govern apps distributed through their stores.

2. Description of the Service

ShiftHawk reads your work schedule and helps you discover possible shift swaps among your colleagues. It is local-first by default — the core of what it does happens entirely on your device:

  • You bring your schedule in however you have it — a calendar feed (an .ics link) from your scheduling provider, a spreadsheet (XLSX) export, a PDF, or a photo of a printed schedule.
  • For a calendar feed, your device fetches that calendar directly from the provider. A spreadsheet (XLSX) is read on your device; a PDF or a photo is read by an optional text-recognition step you choose to use (see below).
  • The swap-chain search — finding who could trade which shift with whom — runs on your phone.
  • When a swap looks workable, ShiftHawk drafts a text or email for you to review.

By default, ShiftHawk runs no server that receives your schedule. The everyday experience happens locally on your device, except your own outbound messages (which you send yourself) and calendar fetches (which go directly between your device and your provider). A small number of features you choose to turn on do use a backend, and only while you use them:

  • Team Schedule Sharing (optional) lets teammates you join up with see your availability. When you opt in, a limited, access-controlled slice of your schedule data is stored on our infrastructure (Supabase) and served through a relay (a Cloudflare worker) on your teammates' behalf. This is described in detail in our Privacy Policy, and it is off until you enable it.
  • Schedule Scan (optional) lets you read a PDF or a photo of your schedule using a third-party text-recognition (OCR) service that you select. The file you submit is sent to that processor to extract the text, and the result returns to your device. This is described in detail below in Section 4a and in our Privacy Policy, and it is off until you use it.

ShiftHawk works with calendar exports and schedule documents from scheduling tools such as Amion, QGenda, MedRez, ShiftAdmin, Symplr, and Lightning Bolt, as well as any standard .ics, XLSX, or PDF export. ShiftHawk is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of these providers. It simply reads the schedule export they already give you.

3. Eligibility

ShiftHawk is intended for people who work shifts and manage their own work schedules — in healthcare, emergency services, transportation, manufacturing, logistics, hospitality, retail, utilities, and any other shift-based workplace. You must be old enough to enter a binding agreement in your jurisdiction and authorised to use the calendar feed you connect. The app is a personal scheduling assistant for your own shifts — it is not an employer system, a credentialing tool, or an official scheduling authority.

4. Your Responsibilities

ShiftHawk surfaces candidate swap chains. It does not arrange, execute, authorise, or approve any swap. You remain fully responsible for the swap itself. In particular:

  • Verify every swap against your own workplace's rules and your scheduling authority. A swap that looks fine in the app may still go against your employer's policies, union rules, certification requirements, or local coverage rules.
  • Obtain all required approvals. Many workplaces require a manager, scheduler, or supervisor to sign off on a swap. ShiftHawk does not do this for you and does not contact your employer.
  • You own the contact data you enter. You are responsible for the accuracy of the colleagues' names and phone numbers you add, for having a legitimate reason to contact them, and for following your group's norms when you message them.
  • You send your own messages. ShiftHawk only drafts messages. You read and approve each one, then send it from your own SMS or email app. Send appropriately and professionally.
  • Confirm coverage. Until your scheduling authority has recorded a swap, the original assignment stands. Do not assume a shift is covered because the app drafted a message.

4a. Schedule Scan & Third-Party OCR (Optional)

If you choose to use Schedule Scan, ShiftHawk reads a PDF or a photo of your schedule with a third-party text-recognition (OCR) service. You select which service is used. ShiftHawk offers two options: a Basic reader powered by AWS Textract (Amazon Web Services), and an AI reader powered by Mistral AI. The file you submit is sent to the processor you chose solely to extract the text, which is then returned to your device. (A spreadsheet you import is read on your device and is not sent to an OCR service.)

  • You choose the processor, and the processor's terms apply to it. When you pick the Basic reader, Amazon's handling of the file is governed by the AWS Service Terms and AWS Privacy Notice. When you pick the AI reader, Mistral's handling is governed by the Mistral AI Terms & Privacy. ShiftHawk is not affiliated with either provider.
  • You are responsible for what is in the file you submit. A printed schedule can show other people's names and shifts alongside your own. You decide which PDF or photo to scan, and you confirm you are permitted to submit it for text extraction. Only the file you explicitly select is sent — ShiftHawk never scans your files or camera roll and never uploads anything on its own.
  • The file isn't kept. ShiftHawk does not store the raw PDF or image on its servers, and the OCR processor does not retain it beyond the processing call. The extracted text stays on your device as part of your schedule.

Schedule Scan is off until you use it, and each scan is a deliberate, per-file action you start yourself.

5. Scheduling Rules & No Warranty of Compliance

ShiftHawk applies sensible scheduling rules when it suggests swaps — for example, matching the same role, respecting a minimum rest period (in line with ACGME duty-hour rest standards for medicine, and common-sense rest for everyone else), avoiding same-day day-to-night flips, and honouring time-off blocks you mark. These are aids, not guarantees. They are not a substitute for your own judgment or for your workplace's rules.

The same applies to swaps spanning more than a single shift. ShiftHawk can suggest trades over a multi-day block or rotation range (a "Swap Unit" can be one shift or a whole block of days, including residency rotations and rotating fire/EMS/hospitalist cycles), and can line up swaps across different periods. These multi-day and cross-period suggestions are candidate aids only — the same as single-shift swaps. You remain responsible for verifying every day in the block against your own roster, coverage rules, and scheduling authority before you rely on it.

ShiftHawk does not assess workload, fatigue risk, scope of practice, or fitness for duty. You decide whether a swap is safe and appropriate. The service is provided "as is", and we make no warranty that any suggested swap complies with any law, regulation, accreditation standard, or workplace policy.

6. Subscriptions, Free Trial & Payments

ShiftHawk offers an auto-renewing subscription and optional in-app purchases. Billing is handled by Apple's App Store or Google Play, with RevenueCat acting as our subscription and in-app-purchase broker.

  • Subscription: $2.99 every 6 months, auto-renewing, with a 7-day free trial.
  • Optional consumable: an extra user slot for $2.99 (a one-time purchase).
  • Optional add-on: "ForeSIGHT" for $0.99 per month.

Your subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel a subscription, and turn off auto-renewal, from your App Store or Google Play account settings — not inside ShiftHawk. If you cancel during the free trial, you will not be charged.

Payments are final. ShiftHawk does not issue refunds directly; any refund is governed by Apple's or Google's refund policies, which you can request through their stores. RevenueCat and Apple/Google process the transaction and the payment-card data — ShiftHawk never sees or stores your card details. Prices may vary by region and over time; the price shown in the store at purchase governs.

7. Intellectual Property

ShiftHawk, including its name, logo, design, and the underlying software, is owned by us and protected by intellectual-property laws. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the app for your own scheduling. You may not copy, modify, reverse-engineer, resell, or redistribute the app except as permitted by law. The schedule data you bring in remains yours — this licence does not give us any rights over it. By default it never leaves your device; for the optional features that do use a backend (Team Schedule Sharing and Schedule Scan), we handle only the limited data those features need, as described in Section 2, Section 4a, and our Privacy Policy.

8. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

ShiftHawk is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the app will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any swap it suggests will be valid or approved.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, ShiftHawk and its maintainer are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss arising from: a missed or uncovered shift; a swap that was declined, disputed, or never approved; a scheduling error; an inaccurate calendar feed, spreadsheet, or PDF from your provider; text mis-read by a Schedule Scan OCR service; an availability slice shown through Team Schedule Sharing; or a message you sent. You verify everything before you act. Where liability cannot be excluded by law, our total liability is limited to the amount you paid for the app in the 12 months before the claim.

9. Termination

You may stop using ShiftHawk at any time by deleting the app, which removes its local data from your device (see the Privacy Policy for details). We may suspend or end your access if you misuse the app or breach these Terms. Because your data lives on your device by default, ending the agreement generally requires nothing to be deleted on our side. If you turned on Team Schedule Sharing, the limited data we hold for it is removed immediately when you turn sharing off, leave or are removed from the team, or delete your account — as the Privacy Policy describes.

10. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, note the change in the app. Continuing to use ShiftHawk after an update means you accept the revised Terms.

11. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware and the applicable laws of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be handled in the courts located in Delaware, unless local consumer-protection law gives you a different right.

12. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email [email protected] and a real person will read it.