Apple’s romantic AI-companion rating change has staged declaration dates

Apple’s [November 2 announcement](https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=yxkh08us) puts virtual companions offering sexual or romantic content within Dating and Relationships, a category receiving a minimum 18+ rating. The test is the feature’s content, rather than whether an app uses AI. Shared Location is a separate descriptor with region‑dependent rating effects.

The descriptors arrive in App Store Connect on November 16, 2026. Developers must then declare features when submitting updates or changing the rating questionnaire; all apps must complete declarations by January 12, 2027. January 12 does not let an earlier update bypass the questionnaire. [Apple also describes](https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=yxkh08us) a way to request an official lower rating in Brazil for apps believed eligible. iPhone home screen, January 2016; archive platform context, not current rating or AI‑companion screens. Photo by [freestocks.org / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AIPhone_Home_Screen_%2823724266304%29.jpg), [CC0 1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). Resized and display‑cropped.