Apple is changing its App Store rules for dating services, romantic features and location sharing. The policy requires apps with dating or romantic relationship features to carry an 18+ rating, and introduces content descriptors intended to better reflect what an app allows users to do.
Dating and romance features get an adult rating
Starting November 16, developers will be required to include new content descriptors so that an app’s age rating reflects its features. Apple says apps offering dating or romantic relationship features must be rated 18+, even though many major dating services already restrict their platforms to adults.
The change focuses on an app’s functions, rather than only on whether dating is its main purpose. That distinction could matter for apps combining romance with other tools or types of interaction: their additional features would not remove the requirement to identify dating or relationship functionality.
AI companions are part of the policy’s reach
Apple’s rule may also affect AI companion apps. These services can let users create characters described as friends, lovers, boyfriends, girlfriends or other fantasy figures. Some apps may be aimed at younger users, while offering romantic or sexual interactions among their features.
The policy applies to AI companions when they engage in “sexual or romantic content,” according to the announcement described in the source article. It therefore brings attention to a category of apps where relationship features may sit alongside other forms of interaction rather than being presented as a conventional dating service.
The scale of this category is reflected in a figure cited in the article: as of last summer, top AI companion apps across the Apple App Store and Google Play had been downloaded 220 million times globally. That figure covers downloads across both stores and indicates the wide reach of companion apps, without showing how many users are minors or how many downloads were for any particular app.
Location sharing will need to be identified
The new descriptors will also cover apps that share a user’s real-world location with another person or group. Apple’s announcement treats location sharing as a feature users should be able to identify when considering an app’s age rating.
That requirement has a privacy dimension. Sharing a location can expose where someone is, and users may not always understand that an app is sharing this information or with whom. Making the feature visible in an app’s content information may help users and families notice that capability before using it.
Brazil has a separate rating option
Apple noted an exception for family location-sharing apps in Brazil. Those apps can request an official rating from the government’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP/Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública), rather than being required to list them with the A16 rating, as local law requires.
The exception is specific to that country and to apps providing location-sharing features for families. Elsewhere, Apple’s announced requirements center on clearer content descriptors for dating, romantic relationships and location sharing, alongside an 18+ rating for apps with dating or romantic relationship features.
The changes follow Apple’s other efforts to protect minors, including the global rollout of age assurance technology and additional parental controls and child safety features. Together, the measures make app ratings a more explicit signal of features that may involve adult relationships or the sharing of sensitive location information.