Apple Sets 18+ Minimum Rating for Dating Apps and Romantic AI Companions, With Developer Declarations Due Jan. 12

Apple is putting a hard age floor under dating apps and romantic AI companions.

In a Developer News post on Monday, Nov. 2, Apple said it is adding two new content descriptors to the age rating questionnaire in App Store Connect, the web portal developers use to manage their apps. The questions are Shared Location and Dating and Relationships. They appear on Nov. 16.

What Apple is requiring

The Dating and Relationships descriptor covers features that enable dating or relationship connections between real people and/or a virtual companion that engages a user in sexual or romantic content. Any app that declares it gets a minimum rating of 18+.

That has practical effects. Per Engadget's account of the policy, apps rated 18+ will not appear in the App Store for users under 18 whose parents or guardians have set content restrictions on the device. An underage user who can see such an app and tries to download or buy it must give Apple proof of adulthood.

The Shared Location descriptor asks whether an app lets users share their real-world location with another person or group. Apple said it may not change an app's minimum rating in some regions.

Brazil is the exception Apple spelled out. Local regulations there require an A16 rating for location-sharing apps and an A18 rating for dating and relationship apps. Developers who believe their apps qualify for less, such as a location-sharing app built for parents and children, can request an official rating from Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

The timeline

The questions show up Nov. 16. Developers must answer them whenever they submit an app update or change their age rating questionnaire. Apple said apps do not need a separate submission just to answer.

Every app, including ones that never update, must have both declarations on file by Jan. 12, 2027. That gives developers a little under three months from the announcement.

AI companions

Apple's post does not use the words "AI" and does not name any apps. The wording about a "virtual companion" is what pulls AI girlfriend and boyfriend products into the category. The trigger is what the companion does, not what the developer calls it.

A friendly, non-romantic chatbot is not described by the language. Apple also has not said how it will treat a general-purpose chatbot that users can steer into romantic roleplay, a gap noted by iGeeksBlog's analysis of the post.

The enforcement question

The system runs on self-reporting. Developers answer the questionnaire themselves, so the rating depends on what they admit to. Apple's post mentions no additional checks on those answers, and it does not say what happens to an app that misses Jan. 12.

Apple has dealt with this problem before. In August it pulled Kromix, an AI nudify app, and said the app appeared to have added prohibited features after it passed App Review. On Oct. 16, Apple added guideline 2.5.19, which bars apps from adding features after approval that were not in the reviewed version. Violations can bring removal from the App Store and the Developer Program.

The last questionnaire deadline, Jan. 31, 2026, came with the 13+, 16+ and 18+ tiers Apple added in 2025. That deadline carried a warning that app updates could be interrupted without answers. The new post carries no comparable warning.

Apple took a similar approach to social media this summer. A question added July 9 asks whether an app has social media features. Answers have been required since September, and apps that say yes get a Social Media label and a minimum 13+ rating. Those answers also determine which apps count toward the social media category in iOS 27's Time Allowances, the parental tool for capping time by category. Apple has not said whether the new descriptors will get a product page label or a Screen Time hook.

What changes for users

This is not a ban. Dating apps and romantic AI companions stay on the App Store. Adults see no change in what they can download.

What changes is the gate. Parents who use Apple's content restrictions get a clear category that keeps these apps away from minors. That lines up with a principle this outlet holds: parents, not platforms or apps, decide what their kids can access, and the platform's job is to give them accurate labels.

Whether the labels are accurate is the open question. The first test comes Nov. 16, when the questions appear. The second is Jan. 12, 2027, when every app must have its answers on file and Apple must show whether it will act on apps that don't comply.