Apple restricts dating apps and AI companions to users 18 and up

Apple told developers on Monday it is tightening App Store policies to keep minors away from online dating apps and AI companions that deliver "sexual or romantic content." The move sits alongside earlier child-safety steps, including the global rollout of Apple's age assurance technology and expanded parental controls.

The concrete change: every app offering dating or romantic relationship features must carry an 18+ age rating, even though most major dating services already limit their platforms to adults. Starting November 16, developers must add new content descriptors so an app's age rating actually reflects the features it ships.

The more consequential reach is AI companion apps — and apps where companion functionality is just one feature among many. Character.AI, Replika and similar services let users build AI friends, lovers, boyfriends and girlfriends and other fantasy characters, products often aimed at younger audiences. xAI, meanwhile, launched 3D animated AI companions last year with unlockable NSFW capabilities. Scale is already large: as of last summer, top AI companion apps across the Apple App Store and Google Play had logged 220 million downloads globally.

Apple is also adding a disclosure requirement around location. Apps must indicate whether they share a user's real-world location with another person or group as part of their functionality — a flag Apple frames around privacy risks when users don't realize location is being shared. There's a local exception: in Brazil, family location-sharing apps can seek an official rating from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security instead of being lumped into the A16 rating that local law otherwise requires.

What to watch next is how the descriptors get enforced in practice. Open questions: how Apple will judge hybrid apps where companion or dating features are buried inside broader products, whether NSFW-adjacent companion apps revise features rather than accept 18+ ratings, and whether the 220-million-download install base shifts toward Android as developers weigh the new gates. The Brazil carve-out also hints that more jurisdictions could seek their own rating rules for family location tools.