# Apple will rate AI girlfriend and boyfriend apps 18+ on the App Store > Source: > Published: 2026-11-03 07:18:00+00:00 Apple’s App Store illustration from its June 2026 report on the App Store ecosystem (illustrative). Image: Apple Any App Store app with an AI companion that “engages a user in sexual or romantic content” will get a minimum 18+ rating under new age-rating rules Apple [announced to developers](https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=yxkh08us) on November 2. From November 16, the age-rating questionnaire in App Store Connect adds two content descriptors that developers must declare: Shared Location, and Dating and Relationships. The second covers dating apps for real people as well as AI girlfriend and boyfriend apps, and it comes with an automatic 18+ floor. Every app on the store has to answer the new questions by January 12, 2027. ## What Apple is changing Apple defines the two new descriptors like this: - **Shared Location:** “Sharing of real-world location with another person or group.” - **Dating and Relationships:** “Features that enable dating or relationship connections between real people and/or a virtual companion that engages a user in sexual or romantic content.” Developers must make the declarations whenever they submit an app update or change their age-rating answers, so most active apps will meet the new questions with their next release. Apps that include Dating and Relationships “receive a minimum age rating of 18+”, Apple says. Shared Location “may not have an impact” on an app’s minimum rating in some regions. Brazil gets stricter treatment. Apple says local rules there require an A16 rating for Shared Location and an A18 rating for Dating and Relationships. Developers who think their app deserves a lower Brazilian rating, such as a location-sharing app built for parents and children, can ask Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) for an official rating, which then shows on the Brazilian App Store. ## Why AI companion apps are in the frame Apple’s wording names virtual companions directly, which brings the App Store’s many AI girlfriend, boyfriend and role-play chat apps into scope whenever they offer romantic or sexual conversation. Under the current system, described in Apple’s [App Store Connect help pages](https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/reference/age-ratings), a rating climbs with how often such content appears: frequent mature or suggestive themes mean 16+, frequent sexual content 18+. The new descriptor ties the 18+ rating to the feature itself, however often it comes up. Some of the best-known companion apps are already there. [Replika](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1158555867) and [Character.AI](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1671705818) both carry an 18+ rating on the US App Store. Character.AI, which cut under-18s off from open-ended chat in 2025, [filed for bankruptcy](https://madrobot.blog/2026/10/13/character-ai-bankruptcy-chapter-11-disney-20-million/) in October. xAI’s [Grok app](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6670324846) is rated 16+ in the US, with frequent mature or suggestive themes and sexual content or nudity among its listed descriptors; whether it moves to 18+ depends on what xAI declares about its companion features. None of the three companies has commented on Apple’s change. Apple’s post doesn’t say how App Review will check the declarations, or what happens to an app that answers wrongly. ## Built on last year’s age-rating overhaul The new descriptors build on Apple’s [July 2025 overhaul](https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=ks775ehf), which added 13+, 16+ and 18+ to the existing 4+ and 9+ ratings and brought in required questions on in-app controls, capabilities, medical or wellness topics and violent themes. At the time Apple reminded developers that they “must consider how all app features, including AI assistants and chatbot functionality, impact the frequency of sensitive content appearing within your app”. In some countries the 18+ label now does more than inform. Since February 24, 2026, Apple has [blocked users in Australia, Brazil and Singapore](https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=f5zj08ey) from downloading apps rated 18+ unless they have been confirmed as adults, a check the App Store carries out automatically. In those three countries, a companion app that declares the new descriptor will need an age-confirmed account to download. Elsewhere, including the US, UK, Canada and Germany, the rating appears on the app’s listing and feeds Screen Time’s content restrictions, which parents can use to hide apps above a set age on a child’s iPhone or iPad. The change is Apple’s second move this autumn against sexual AI content, after [new App Review rules](https://madrobot.blog/2026/10/16/apple-app-store-rules-ai-nudify-apps-bait-and-switch/) told AI apps to stop making fake nudes. It also lands as companion chatbots face growing legal pressure over children, from [New York’s new law](https://madrobot.blog/2026/10/28/hochul-new-york-ai-chatbot-law-teens/) barring romantic AI companion features for under-18s, to [eight states suing OpenAI](https://madrobot.blog/2026/10/14/eight-states-sue-openai-chatgpt-children-safety-iowa-kansas-nebraska/) over ChatGPT’s safety and [39 attorneys general](https://madrobot.blog/2026/10/16/character-ai-bankruptcy-39-states-attorneys-general-chat-data-child-safety/) asking for Character.AI users’ chats to be protected in its sale. ## Why it matters Apple is putting AI romance in the same box as dating apps: adults only, on every App Store storefront. For companion app makers it means a smaller audience on iPhone and, in Australia, Brazil and Singapore, an age check before anyone can download. It also shifts the burden onto developers to say honestly what their chatbots do. *Sources: [Apple Developer, “Upcoming: New age rating content descriptors in App Store Connect”](https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=yxkh08us) (November 2, 2026); [Apple Developer, “Updated age ratings in App Store Connect”](https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=ks775ehf) (July 24, 2025); [Apple Developer, “Age requirements for apps distributed in Brazil, Australia, Singapore, Utah, and Louisiana”](https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=f5zj08ey); [App Store Connect Help, age ratings](https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/reference/age-ratings); App Store listings for [Replika](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1158555867), [Character.AI](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1671705818) and [Grok](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6670324846).*