Apple's App Store age rating goes 18+ for romantic AI companion apps: what changes and when

On November 2, Apple told developers that its age rating questionnaire in App Store Connect gets two new content descriptors on November 16, 2026. One of them, Dating and Relationships, is defined by Apple as “features that enable dating or relationship connections between real people and/or a virtual companion that engages a user in sexual or romantic content.” An app that includes it gets a minimum App Store age rating of 18+.

The second half of that definition is the part about AI companions. A companion that engages you in romantic or sexual chat counts the same as a dating app, even with no real person on the other end.

The headlines say Apple is restricting these apps to adults. That overstates it for most readers. An age rating is a label worked out from the developer’s answers, and in the US, Apple’s adult age check applies only to new accounts in Texas. The label does real work in two places: on a child’s iPhone with a Screen Time age limit, and in the handful of regions where Apple now makes adults confirm they’re 18 or older before downloading an 18+ app.

The dates, and who has to answer

Date	What happens
November 16, 2026	The Dating and Relationships question, and a second one about Shared Location, appear in App Store Connect
From November 16	A developer must answer both when it submits an app update or changes its age rating answers
January 12, 2027	Every app on the App Store must have both declarations completed

Apple’s post names no apps. It also doesn’t say what happens to an app that misses January 12. When Apple added a set of required questions in July 2025, it told developers to answer by January 31, 2026 “to avoid an interruption when submitting your app updates in App Store Connect.”

Shared Location covers apps that share a person’s real-world location with another person or group. Apple says that answer may not change an app’s minimum rating in some regions. Brazil sets its own floors for both: local rules there require an A18 rating for Dating and Relationships and A16 for Shared Location.

Where the companion apps we track stand on November 7

We loaded the US App Store page of every companion app CrushRated rates that still has an iPhone listing. Six of the seven already carry an 18+ rating.

App	US App Store age rating, Nov 7	Minimum age in the app’s own terms
Character.AI	18+	13 (16 in the EEA and UK)
Janitor AI	18+	18
Kindroid	18+	18
Nomi	18+	18
Replika	18+	18
Talkie (listed as “Talkie Lab - AI Playground”)	18+	14 (15 or 16 in some countries)
Grok	16+	see profile

For the six already at 18+, a new 18+ floor doesn’t move the number on the store. Grok is the only one below it, and whether it moves depends on how X Corp. answers the new question. Our Grok profile covers what happened to its companion mode.

Character.AI and Talkie are the odd pair. Their own terms let 13 and 14 year olds sign up, while their US iPhone listings already say 18+. A teenager whose parent set a lower age limit in Screen Time already has to ask permission to download either one.

If you see 17+ instead of 18+, your device is running an OS older than iOS 26. Apple added the 13+, 16+ and 18+ ratings with iOS 26, replacing a scale that topped out at 17+, and Apple’s age rating reference lists separate ratings for OS versions earlier than 26. Apple’s public lookup feed still reports all seven of these apps as 17+.

Some apps we track aren’t on the App Store at all, so an App Store rating doesn’t reach them. EVA AI’s App Store ID returned no listing in the US, Canada, Australia or Germany storefronts on November 7, and its App Store page came back as not found, although evaapp.ai still links to it. It was listed on the US store when we checked on October 27. Chai, PolyBuzz, Paradot and Anima have been gone from the App Store since October. Candy AI, CrushOn AI, Nectar AI, OurDream AI and Secret Desires are web services; US App Store searches for those names on November 7 turned up only apps from other sellers.

What an 18+ rating does on an iPhone

On a child’s account, the parent picks an age limit under Content & Privacy Restrictions in Screen Time. When the child tries to download an app rated above that limit, the App Store says content restrictions are on and offers to ask a parent. The parent gets the request in Messages and can approve or decline it; an unanswered request expires after 24 hours. Ask to Buy is on by default for children under 13. Apple’s support page adds that a parent might have to approve an app again if it later moves to a higher age rating.

For adults, it depends on where the account is. Apple’s list of places where adults must confirm their age covers Australia, Brazil, Singapore, South Korea, the UK and, in the US, only Texas.

• Texas: since June 4, 2026, new Apple Accounts created in Texas fall under the state’s SB 2420. Adults must confirm they’re 18 or older for some services and actions. Users under 18 must be in a Family Sharing group, with Ask to Buy turned on for every download and in-app purchase, whatever the app’s rating, and parents can’t switch it off. The account’s age range is always shared with developers.
• Australia, Brazil and Singapore: since February 24, 2026, the App Store blocks downloads of 18+ apps until the user has been confirmed as an adult.
• Utah and Louisiana: for new Apple Accounts (Utah from May 6, 2026, Louisiana from July 1, 2026), apps that ask through Apple’s Declared Age Range API receive the user’s age category.

Confirming you’re an adult takes a credit card in your own name (debit and gift cards don’t count) or a scan of a driver’s license or other government ID. Passport scans work in some places, Texas among them, and a selfie check is offered in Australia, Brazil, Singapore and the UK. Apple says you only confirm once. You can check your status in Settings, under your name, then Personal Information, then Age Confirmation.

How this fits with state companion laws

The rating sits on Apple’s store listing, while state companion laws put the duty on the company running the chatbot. New York’s Chapter 368, signed on October 28, 2026, takes effect on January 1, 2027. From then, an operator can’t offer “unsafe AI companion features” to a New York user unless it has used age assurance to find that the user isn’t a minor. Texas’s SB 2420 points the other way, at app stores and developers, which is why Apple’s Texas changes exist.

Our laws page has the New York law, California’s companion chatbot laws and the other age-verification rules we track, with effective dates.

What to do now

If you’re an adult in the US outside Texas, you don’t need to do anything. If a companion app’s rating jumps to 18+ after November 16, that fits Apple’s rule that apps with Dating and Relationships get a minimum 18+ rating.

If you’re a parent, open Settings, tap Family, choose your child, then Content & Privacy Restrictions, and under Content Restrictions check the setting for apps. Any specific age limit below 18+ means 18+ companion apps need your approval, and a request lands in your Messages.

If you opened a new Apple Account in Texas on or after June 4, the App Store may ask you to confirm your age before you download an 18+ app. Have a credit card or ID ready.

Our take: for most adult users this changes a label and little else. The people who will notice are teens on phones with a Screen Time limit, and the few companion apps still rated below 18+, which will have to tell Apple whether they offer romantic or sexual chat.

How we checked this

On November 7, 2026 we read Apple’s November 2 developer post, its age rating reference page, its earlier developer posts on age requirements in Texas, Utah, Louisiana, Australia, Brazil and Singapore, and five Apple Support pages. We compared the November 2 post with the write-ups from 9to5Mac and MacTech. We loaded the US App Store page for each companion app we track, ran Apple’s lookup for the same app IDs, checked EVA AI in four storefronts, and re-read the age clauses in Character.AI’s and Talkie’s terms. We didn’t install the apps or test Apple’s age checks on a device.