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Strengthening App Review Guidelines against nonconsensual intimate imagery and bait-and-switch apps October 16, 2026 The App Review Guidelines are a core part of the safe and trusted experience that the App Store strives to offer users around the world — and the foundation of that trust is clear standards that are consistently enforced. As outlined in our App Review Guidelines, pornographic material has long been prohibited on the App Store — this includes apps that generate nudity or sexually explicit imagery, such as “nudification” apps that create sexually explicit images of real individuals without their consent. Apps that host user-generated content are required to filter objectionable material, give users a way to report offensive content, and let users block abusive accounts. Apps containing hidden or undocumented features are also prohibited on the App Store, including apps that misrepresent their purpose during review and only reveal harmful capabilities — such as “nudification” — after approval, a tactic commonly known as bait-and-switch. We want great apps and the innovative developers behind them to succeed on the App Store, and as new risks and novel user experiences emerge, we evolve our App Review Guidelines to maintain the trust of users and developers alike. Today we’re publishing updates that strengthen and extend the existing App Store protections, continuing to build on our long-held standards for privacy, quality, and safety. For complete details, see the App Review Guidelines. Changes 1.2: Content moderation requirements now explicitly cover nonconsensual intimate imagery — including imagery generated using AI tools — as content that apps must proactively prevent and remove from their platforms. Developers who fail to implement adequate safeguards — or don’t remedy violations after notice — risk violating the Developer Code of Conduct and being removed from the App Store. 2.5.19: This rule clarifies our longstanding prohibition on apps misrepresenting what they do during the App Review process and then changing after approval — for example, adding features or functionality that weren’t included in the version of the app that was submitted to App Review. Apps found engaging in this conduct are subject to removal from the App Store and removal from the Apple Developer Program. Section 5: The App Store has always prohibited apps that facilitate human trafficking or the exploitation of children (including child sexual abuse material). When we find instances of apps containing such content, we remove them from the App Store. We’ve updated Section 5 of the App Review guidelines to make clear that apps with such content will be removed from the App Store and blocked from alternative distribution. We’re committed to keeping bad actors off the App Store, with established processes in place to review and act on apps that violate our guidelines. Last year, we prevented over 150K apps with safety issues from reaching customers and terminated over 193K developer accounts for engaging in fraud and abuse. These violations trace back to malicious actors — in some cases coordinated fraud operations — working to conceal harmful content that only becomes active once an app is approved, and as their tactics evolve, we continue to evolve our own tools and resources to prevent and catch this kind of behavior even faster. We do not hesitate to remove apps, and terminate the developers behind them, when they violate these guidelines.
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