Apple to Rate AI Companion Apps 18+ Starting November 16

Apple will require an 18+ App Store age rating for any app that includes dating or relationship features, including a virtual companion that engages a user in sexual or romantic content, the company told developers on 2 November 2026.

The new “Dating and Relationships” content descriptor appears in the App Store Connect age rating questionnaire from 16 November. Developers must make the declaration when they submit an app update or change their questionnaire, and Apple says all apps must complete the new questions by 12 January 2027. Apps that include the feature “receive a minimum age rating of 18+.”

The wording is not limited to matches between real people. It explicitly covers “a virtual companion that engages a user in sexual or romantic content.” That pulls romanceable chatbots and AI girlfriend apps into the same minimum rating band as adult dating services, even when romance is only one mode inside a broader character-chat product. Roleplay clients with an iOS listing sit in the same frame if they offer romantic or sexual companion play.

A store rating is not an age check. Apple did not say it will start verifying the age of every person who downloads one of these apps. The immediate effect is that affected titles will be labelled 18+ and will be harder for under-18 accounts to find or install, subject to existing parental controls and local rules. Many companion apps already carried a mature rating; the change makes the 18+ floor explicit for this category and ties it to a yes-or-no descriptor on every future update.

Apple is also adding a separate “Shared Location” descriptor for apps that share a user’s real-world location with another person or group. That declaration “may not have an impact on their minimum age rating in some regions.” In Brazil, local rules require an A16 rating for Shared Location and an A18 rating for Dating and Relationships, with a route to request an official rating from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

TechCrunch and The Verge both reported the developer notice on 3 November, and both flagged the particular impact on AI companion apps. For this directory, the dates that matter are 16 November, when the questionnaire changes, and 12 January, when every App Store listing is supposed to have answered it.