Romantic AI companions and traditional dating apps now occupy the same App Store age-rating category, regardless of how a developer originally positioned the product. Apple’s developer documentation introduces two new App Store Connect declarations, “Dating and Relationships” and “Shared Location,” that will change how a wide range of apps are rated.
What the New Rating Category Actually Covers
Any app that includes a Dating and Relationships feature receives a minimum 18+ rating, with no regional exceptions for that category.
Any app that declares Dating and Relationships receives a minimum 18+ rating. Apple defines the category to include both real-person matchmaking services and virtual companions that engage users in romantic or sexual content.
That clause pulls AI companion platforms into the same App Store age-rating category as traditional dating services. The classification applies based on features present in the app, not on how the developer describes its primary purpose.
AI Companions Are a Central Part of This Change
The policy’s reach extends to AI platforms that allow users to build or interact with fictional romantic personas, not only to conventional matchmaking apps.
Products such as Character.AI and Replika, cited in reporting by The Verge and Yahoo Tech, allow users to build or interact with fictional companions including romantic personas. Whether a specific app meets Apple’s definition depends on its declared features, and Apple has not named particular products in its announcement.
Industry estimates, drawn from third-party reporting rather than Apple data, put leading AI companion apps at roughly 220 million combined downloads across the App Store and Google Play before the announcement; that figure should be treated as an approximation. A multipurpose AI app where romantic features occupy only one module could still fall within the category, depending on how Apple evaluates the declared capabilities.
Location Sharing Gets Its Own Disclosure, With Regional Twists
The Shared Location declaration is a distinct category that does not automatically impose an 18+ rating in every market.
The Shared Location declaration covers apps that transmit a user’s real-world position to another person or group. Unlike Dating and Relationships, it does not set an 18+ minimum in every region.
Brazil applies stricter local rules: Shared Location requires an A16 rating there, and Dating and Relationships requires an A18. Developers building parent-child location tools for the Brazilian market can apply for an official rating from Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security, known as MJSP. If that rating is approved, it appears on the Brazilian App Store in place of the default.
What Developers Must Actually Do
Compliance requires auditing every app module for qualifying features, not only the app’s headline function.
Developers must begin providing the new declarations when submitting app updates starting November 16, 2026. The full compliance deadline for all apps is January 12, 2027.
That means reviewing app functionality across every module. Developers whose apps include romantic chat as a secondary feature must assess whether Apple’s definition applies and update the age-rating questionnaire in App Store Connect accordingly. Because Shared Location ratings vary by region, a single global strategy will not satisfy every market’s requirements.
An 18+ Rating Is Not the Same as Age Verification
The policy changes Apple’s classification system and account-level access controls, but it does not require apps to independently verify that every user is an adult.
The new declarations change how Apple classifies apps within the App Store. They do not, by themselves, require developers to independently verify that every user is actually an adult.
Parents gain clearer signals about what category an app falls into. Whether that translates to meaningful protection depends on how Apple account settings and parental controls are configured, as well as whatever safeguards each individual app maintains.
