Apple requires an 18+ rating for AI companions with sexual or romantic content

Apple told developers that from 16 November 2026 App Store Connect will carry new content descriptors for age ratings, including one called “Dating and Relationships”. Any app that declares it receives a minimum age rating of 18+. Apple’s definition 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”. The notice is dated 2 November and is addressed to developers; it does not use the term “AI” or name any app.

The declarations are answered by developers themselves in the age-rating questionnaire. Apple said they must be provided when an app update is submitted or the questionnaire is changed, and that all apps must have them completed by 12 January 2027.

The post also adds a “Shared Location” descriptor, which Apple said may not change a minimum rating in some regions. It gives Brazil as a separate case: local regulations there require an A16 rating for Shared Location and an A18 rating for Dating and Relationships, and developers who think their app qualifies for a lower rating, for example location sharing designed for parents and children, can apply to Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security for an official rating. Apple presented the descriptors as meant to ensure that ratings “accurately reflect” an app’s features and comply with local regulations.

The rule reaches AI chatbots through the “virtual companion” wording rather than a separate AI category, and it turns on the content a companion engages in, not on what kind of app it is.

The change follows other moves on companion chatbots and minors. New York had signed restrictions on unsafe companion features for minors days earlier, and China’s companion-AI rules took effect in July. Apple’s rating applies at the platform level, to apps distributed through its store.