App Store age ratings: the questionnaire, and the September 2026 change

Two things you need to know if you are shipping soon. First, Apple's age rating questionnaire now asks whether your app has social media capabilities, and from September 2026 an answer is required to submit a new app or an update at all. Second, if you answer yes, your app gets a minimum rating of 13+.

Apple's exact wording, from its developer news post of 9 July 2026: "beginning in September 2026, responses will be required when submitting new apps or updates to the App Store, or when submitting apps for notarization for alternative distribution."

So this is not optional and it is not only for social apps. Every submission has to answer, including a calculator update.

Why Apple added this

The questions exist to feed Time Allowances, a parental control arriving in iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 that lets parents limit time by category rather than by app, across categories including Entertainment, Games and Social Media.

Entertainment and Games categories come from the primary or secondary category you already set in App Store Connect. Social Media does not. Apple decided it needs its own signal, "regardless of the app category selected in App Store Connect", which is why it became a question in the age rating questionnaire.

What counts as a social media capability

Apple's definition, verbatim: "the ability to redistribute, amplify, or interact with user-generated content through a social feed or similar discovery method". The June post adds "that visibly spreads content to many users".

That is broader than "is your app a social network". Read against your own product honestly:

  • A feed of other users' posts that anyone can see: yes
  • Likes, shares, reposts, or a discovery tab of other people's content: yes
  • One-to-one direct messaging with no feed and no amplification: probably not social media, but it is separately covered by the Messaging and Chat question
  • User reviews or comments attached to your own content: this is closer to the line, and worth thinking about rather than reflexively answering no
  • A private notes app with no sharing: no

The 13+ consequence, and the escape hatch

From Apple's June post: if you indicate your app or game includes social media capabilities, "it will be placed in the Time Allowance category for Social Media and receive a minimum age rating of 13+".

There is one alternative. If you indicate the capabilities exist but are disabled for anyone under 13, then your app "won't be included in the Time Allowance category for Social Media for users under 13". Apple states you will also need to use the Declared Age Range API, at a minimum, to check users' age ranges. In that case your other questionnaire answers determine the rating, and it can land below 13+. The app may still be grouped under Games or Entertainment based on its App Store category, and stays in the Social Media category for users aged 13 and above.

The questionnaire reflects this with two separate items: Social Media and Social Media Disabled for Users Under 13.

The trade is real. Claiming the under-13 exemption is a commitment to implement age checking, not just a checkbox. Ticking it without the Declared Age Range API in place is an inaccurate declaration.

The tiers

Apple's current rating values:

4+, 9+, 13+, 16+, 18+, and Unrated.

The 13+, 16+ and 18+ tiers were added in July 2025, replacing a scheme built on 12+ and 17+. Older operating systems still display the old values, and App Store Connect notes that ratings vary by OS version, showing 12+ and 17+ on OS version 26 and earlier.

Region-specific values exist alongside these: Australia has R 18+, and the Republic of Korea has its own set based on GRAC classifications.

Unrated is fatal. Apple states it plainly: "An Unrated app can't be published on the App Store." If a submission is blocked and you cannot see why, the questionnaire is the first place to look.

Every question, grouped

The questionnaire opens with in-app controls and capabilities, then moves to content descriptors.

In-app controls

  • Parental Controls
  • Age Assurance

Capabilities

  • Unrestricted Web Access
  • User-Generated Content
  • Social Media
  • Social Media Disabled for Users Under 13
  • Messaging and Chat
  • Advertising

Mature Themes

  • Profanity or Crude Humor
  • Horror/Fear Themes
  • Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References

Medical or Wellness

  • Medical or Treatment Information
  • Health or Wellness Topics

Sexuality or Nudity

  • Mature or Suggestive Themes
  • Sexual Content or Nudity
  • Graphic Sexual Content and Nudity

Violence

  • Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
  • Realistic Violence
  • Prolonged Graphic or Sadistic Realistic Violence
  • Guns or Other Weapons

Chance-Based Activities

  • Gambling
  • Simulated Gambling
  • Contests
  • Loot Boxes

There is also an Additional Information step carrying age category and override options, and an Age Suitability URL field.

The two questions most apps get wrong

Unrestricted Web Access. If your app can open arbitrary URLs in an in-app browser, that is unrestricted web access even if your app itself contains nothing objectionable. A WKWebView that only ever loads your own domain is not. A help screen with a link that opens any page the user types is.

User-Generated Content. Any content one user can see that another user made counts, including usernames, profile photos and comments. If you answer yes, App Review will expect the moderation obligations that come with it: a way to report content, a way to block users, and a stated policy. Answering yes without those is a common rejection.

Who can complete it

Apple's required role for setting an app age rating is "Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, or Marketing." Marketing is on that list deliberately, so the questionnaire does not need an engineer.

The deadlines, in order

31 January 2026 was the deadline for the previous wave. When Apple introduced 13+, 16+ and 18+ in July 2025, it also added required questions on in-app controls, capabilities, medical or wellness topics, and violent themes, and asked developers to answer them "by January 31, 2026, to avoid an interruption when submitting your app updates in App Store Connect." If your app has not shipped an update since then, expect to be asked.

July 2026 is when the social media questions became answerable. You can complete them now.

September 2026 is when answers become required to submit anything.

October 2026 brings a Korea-specific change: two content descriptors move from All to 12+, specifically infrequent profanity and crude humor, and infrequent mature or suggestive themes.

What to do this week

If you have a release coming, do this before you build:

  1. Open App Information → Age Rating and complete the questionnaire, including the new social media items. It takes ten minutes and removes a submission blocker.
  2. Decide the social media answer deliberately, against Apple's definition, and write down your reasoning. If a reviewer disagrees later, you want to know what you concluded and why.
  3. If you plan to claim the under-13 exemption, confirm the Declared Age Range API work is actually scheduled. If it is not, answer without the exemption and take the 13+ rating.
  4. Check the rating your answers produced. A jump to 13+ or 16+ changes who can find your app under Screen Time restrictions, and it is better to discover that in App Store Connect than in a support email.
  5. Re-check after any feature that adds a feed, comments, sharing, or an in-app browser. Age rating is not a one-time form; it is a property of the current build.

The honest caveats

Apple's questionnaire is self-declared and then reviewed. It has no automated verification, which means the risk is not that you fail a check but that App Review reads your app differently from how you read the questions. The two questions where that happens most are User-Generated Content and, now, Social Media.

Nobody outside Apple knows how strictly the social media question will be enforced, because it has not been enforced yet. What is documented is the requirement date and the 13+ floor. Everything about how Apple will treat a borderline feed in practice is inference, and this page will not pretend otherwise.

AppSubmit flags an incomplete or stale age rating as a submission blocker alongside the rest of the pre-flight checks, which is the same thing the Age Rating section of App Information tells you if you open it. The judgement call on what counts as social media is yours either way.

Last reviewed 2026-08-17. Apple and Google change their rules without notice, so check anything decision-critical against their live documentation.