Apple will rate every dating app 18+, and AI companions that flirt are included
From 16 November, App Store developers must say whether their apps offer dating, AI romance or live location sharing. Dating and relationship apps, including flirtatious AI companions, will carry a minimum 18+ rating, with every app due to comply by 12 January 2027.
Apple is changing its dating app age rating rules, and the result is simple: any app built for dating or relationships will be rated 18+ at minimum. In a notice to developers on 2 November 2026, the company said that from 16 November its App Store Connect age rating questionnaire will ask two new questions, one of them about “Dating and Relationships”.
The definition is broader than Tinder and Hinge. Apple’s wording covers features that connect real people for dating or relationships “and/or a virtual companion that engages a user in sexual or romantic content”, which brings AI girlfriend and boyfriend apps under the same rule.
What Apple is changing
Every app on the App Store gets its age rating from a questionnaire its developer fills in. From 16 November, developers must also declare whether their app includes:
- Dating and Relationships: matching or relationship features between real people, or a virtual companion offering romantic or sexual content. These apps receive a minimum 18+ rating.
- Shared Location: sharing a real-world location with another person or group. Apple says this may not change an app’s minimum rating in some regions.
Developers have to answer when they next submit an update or edit their questionnaire, and all apps must have the declarations done by 12 January 2027. Ratings will therefore shift app by app over the next two months rather than overnight. Brazil gets its own treatment: local rules there require an A18 rating for dating and A16 for shared location.
What the dating app age rating means for UK and US users
For adults, very little changes. An age rating is not an age check: nobody will be asked for ID because an app is now 18+. Dating apps already require users to be adults in their own terms, and many run their own verification.
The bigger effect is on teenagers’ phones. Ratings are what Apple’s parental controls filter on, so on an iPhone where Screen Time limits apps by age, an 18+ dating or AI companion app will not install without a parent’s say-so. That matters most for AI companions, which Apple now names explicitly in the rule. It also fits a wider push: New York has just signed a law that stops AI chatbots claiming romantic relationships with minors from 1 January 2027.
The rule is about labels, not behaviour. It does not stop an adult-rated app from being reached through a browser, and it does not prove that the people, or bots, you meet inside an app are who they say they are.
What to do now
- Parents: check Screen Time on your teenager’s iPhone. Set an app age limit under Content & Privacy Restrictions and turn on Ask to Buy through Family Sharing, so new ratings actually take effect.
- AI companion users: an 18+ label says nothing about privacy. Read how the app stores and shares your chats; our guide to the best AI companion apps covers what each one keeps.
- Daters: treat a rating as a shop-window label. Our usual safety rules for meeting matches still apply.
Sources
Cover photo: Goran Ivos / Unsplash
