Apple now requires social-media age-rating answers: which apps should review them?

Event summary: Apple has added social-media capability questions to the App Store Connect age-rating questionnaire. From September 2026, the answers are required when submitting a new app or update to the App Store and when submitting an app for notarisation for alternative distribution. The test is not the category selected in App Store Connect. It is whether the product lets user-generated content be redistributed, amplified or interacted with through a social feed or similar discovery method. Products with communities, public UGC feeds, comments, likes, sharing or recommendation-led discovery should review their next submission now.

What Apple announced

Apple published the change on 9 July 2026 and made the new questions available immediately. It defines a social-media capability as the ability to redistribute, amplify or interact with user-generated content through a social feed or a similar discovery method.

Apps with such capabilities display a new Social Media content descriptor on their App Store product page. Apple also states that when a developer declares the capability but disables it for users under 13, the app will not be included in the Social Media Time Allowance category for those users. The declaration therefore needs to match the product's actual age and feature controls; changing an answer in the console alone is not an implementation.

Who is affected and when

Beginning in September 2026, responses are required for:

• a new app submitted to the App Store;
• an update submitted to the App Store; and
• an app submitted for notarisation for alternative distribution.

The review is not limited to products marketed as social networks. Education, utilities, commerce, membership, media and enterprise services may be in scope when they offer a public feed, community area, user posts, public comments, likes, reposting, sharing or similar discovery and interaction.

An app containing only publisher-authored articles should not be treated as social-media-capable merely because it has a news or content section. Private messaging, group chat and support conversations should be assessed against the actual discovery, amplification and interaction behaviour, using the current wording and definitions in App Store Connect.

Five actions before the next submission

1. Have product map the live capability

Record who creates content, who can see it, how users discover it and how they can interact. Review public feeds, comments, likes, reposting, recommendations, trending areas, topics, follows and sharing—not only navigation labels or store category.

2. Verify the under-13 boundary

If the company plans to declare that social-media features are unavailable below 13, verify age determination, account state, feature controls, content visibility and bypass routes. The questionnaire, live product, user terms and support guidance should tell one consistent story.

3. Approve the answer across product, operations and release ownership

Product understands the feature, operations sees how customers use it and the release owner submits App Store Connect information. These owners should approve one inventory together so that a feature described internally as “only comments” is not omitted from the submission.

4. Review the resulting rating and descriptor

Edit the age rating under App Information, save it and inspect ratings and content descriptions for the target territories. If the result is unexpected, reconcile the answers with product behaviour before changing the feature or submission evidence.

5. Add age-rating review to future release gates

A new public comment, UGC, recommendation, sharing or child-access capability should trigger another age-rating review. This is an ongoing release control, not a one-time September form exercise.

Delivery and acceptance implications

For a new product, the requirements should identify who creates content, its audience, discovery mechanics, permitted interaction, capability by age and operational handling of reports and restrictions. An existing app should start with the live version, build a capability inventory and compare every item with the App Store Connect answer.

Acceptance should go beyond saving the questionnaire. Test accounts should cover relevant age states and target territories, then verify feeds, search or recommendation, comments, sharing, restrictions and user messages. Retain the questionnaire evidence, app version, approver and review date so that a later product change can be assessed against a known decision.

Immediate review checklist

• The date of the next new-app, update or notarisation submission is known.
• Every public UGC, feed, discovery and interaction capability has a product owner.
• The App Store category is not being used as the sole test of social-media capability.
• Any under-13 declaration is enforced by actual product controls.
• Questionnaire answers, the live version, user information and operating process agree.
• Ratings and the Social Media descriptor have been reviewed for target territories after saving.
• New comments, sharing, recommendation or UGC will trigger reassessment.
• The submission record retains version, date, evidence and approver.

Common mistakes

“Our store category is not Social Networking, so this does not apply.” Apple explicitly bases the classification on capability regardless of the selected app category.

“Only social networks and short-video apps need to review.” Any product may expose discovery and interaction that redistributes or amplifies user-generated content.

“Selecting unavailable for under-13 users is enough.” The declaration needs real age and feature restrictions in the product.

“Once this submission passes, the answer never changes.” New content-discovery and interaction features can make a prior answer inaccurate, so release governance must revisit it.

Where the product also supports posts, comments and reporting, use What content-governance duties apply to a community posting platform? to separate age-rating submission work from ongoing content operations.

Primary sources

• Apple Developer: Age rating questionnaire now includes social media questions (published 9 July 2026; accessed 9 September 2026)
• Apple Developer: Set an app age rating (accessed 9 September 2026)
• Apple Developer: Age rating values and definitions (accessed 9 September 2026)

This update reflects Apple's official guidance available on 9 September 2026 and applies to App Store submissions and the alternative-distribution notarisation workflow described by Apple. Confirm territory-specific ratings and later requirements in the company's current App Store Connect questionnaire and governing Apple terms.