The short version. The app is free, and yours to use under Apple's standard app license. What you photograph and what you make with it is yours; I take no rights in it and I never see it. If you import a photo you didn't take, having the right to use it is on you. Lining up a shot means moving around while you look at a screen, so watch where you're going. The app is a creative tool, it comes as is, and California law applies.
1.Who's behind this
Vantage Point is made and published by me, Rob Killian, an individual developer in California, working under the name Bob's Noodle Factory. When these terms say “I” or “me,” that's who they mean. By installing the app, using this site, or signing up for the list, you're agreeing to these terms. If you don't agree with them, please don't use those things.
2.The app license
The app comes from Apple's App Store, and during the beta from TestFlight. Your use of the app is governed by Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement, the standard license that applies to App Store apps that don't ship their own. Under it I'm the licensor, and the app is licensed to you rather than sold. Beta builds are also subject to Apple's TestFlight terms.
On top of that, in my own words: the app is free to download and use. If a paid unlock arrives later, what works today stays free. You can use the app for personal or commercial work. Don't copy, sell, or redistribute the app itself, and don't take it apart to build a competing one. Apple's license says the same in longer words.
3.Your photos and what you make
Every photo you import, every photo you take in the app, and every picture you export belongs to you. I claim no license to it, no right to use it, and no right to look at it. The app is built so that none of it reaches me. Outputs carry no watermark, and you can publish, print, sell, or post them however you like without asking.
4.Other people's photos
The app is happiest with an old photo, and old photos often belong to someone else: a family member, a library, an archive, a photographer. If you import a photo you didn't take, you're responsible for having the right to use it and for following any terms that came with it. The app doesn't check that for you, and it can't.
Two useful facts. In the United States, a photograph published before 1931 is very likely in the public domain by age, though an archive can still set terms on its own scans. And crediting the source is always right, whatever the copyright status. That's what I do with the historic photograph on this site, and it's what I'd ask of you.
The same goes for pairs you post in the community: post what you have the right to post.
5.Look up
Lining up a shot means moving your feet while you look at a screen. Sometimes backwards. Sometimes near a curb, a trail edge, water, traffic, or other people. You are responsible for where you stand and where you step. The app can't see your surroundings and won't warn you. Look up often, stay off private property and anywhere else you shouldn't be, and never use it while driving or riding anything.
6.What the app can and can't promise
The app uses your phone's camera, GPS, compass and motion sensors to guide you back to a spot and to help line up two photos. All of those are approximate, and the result depends on the phone, the scene, the light, and how patient you are. It's a creative tool, and you shouldn't rely on it for surveying, measurement, evidence, or anything else where a few feet or a few degrees matter.
7.This website, the list and the community
Use the site and its forms for what they're for. Don't submit things you don't have the right to submit, don't try to break the forms, and don't harvest addresses. The email list is described in the privacy policy, and you can leave it any time.
The community lives on Reddit at r/VantagePointApp, so Reddit's rules and terms apply there along with the subreddit's own. What you post is yours, and it's public. As the moderator I can remove posts and members when that's what it takes to keep the place useful.
8.What's mine
The app, its design, its icon, its name, and the text and images on this site are © 2026 Rob Killian, except where I say otherwise. Vantage Point: Then & Now and the V mark are my trademarks; please don't use them in a way that suggests I made or endorsed something I didn't. The way the app works is the subject of a pending United States patent application. Apple, iPhone, iPad, App Store and TestFlight are trademarks of Apple Inc. Reddit, Kit, Notion and GitHub belong to their owners.
The historic photograph on this site, “Masonic Building, ca 1924,” comes from the San Leandro Historical Photograph and Document Collection and is credited wherever it appears. It isn't mine to license, so the copyright line above doesn't cover it.
9.No warranty, limited liability
The app and this site are provided as is and as available, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement, to the fullest extent the law allows.
To the same extent, I'm not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost photos, or lost profits, arising out of your use of the app or the site, and my total liability to you is limited to the amount you paid me for the app, which for a free app is nothing. Some places don't allow some of these limits, so some may not apply to you. Nothing here takes away rights you have under Apple's standard license or under laws that can't be waived.
10.Changes
If these terms change, the new version goes up here with a new date at the top, and if the change matters I'll say so to the email list. Every earlier version is in the site's public history.
11.Where the law sits
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California and of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. If we ever have a dispute, write to me first; I'd much rather fix it than fight about it. If that doesn't settle it, the state and federal courts in California have jurisdiction.
12.Contact
Questions about these terms or the app: Rob Killian, robkillian@gmail.com.