Apple revised its App Review Guidelines on 16 October 2026, tightening the rules on harmful content and on apps that mislead reviewers. The changes are aimed at AI nudification tools and at apps that pass review looking harmless and reveal their real function only after approval.
Two edits do most of the work. Section 1.2, covering user-generated content, now says developers who fail to put proper safeguards in place, or who do not fix violations after being notified, may be breaching the Developer Code of Conduct. A new section 2.5.19 bans hidden, dormant or undocumented features and names code obfuscation. Breaking it means removal and possibly termination of the developer account.
Hidden functionality was already barred by 2.3.1, so the new wording is more explicit. Apple describes bait-and-switch apps as ones that misstate their purpose in review and surface harmful capabilities, nudification among them, after approval. Section 5 also now says apps that facilitate human trafficking or child exploitation will be removed and blocked from alternative distribution.
The update follows a run of embarrassments. The Tech Transparency Project found dozens of nudify apps on the store in January, and an April follow-up said search suggestions and ads were steering people to them. In July, San Francisco officials ordered Apple to remove eight apps able to produce nonconsensual intimate imagery, and a 9to5Mac investigation found gambling platforms posing as games and utilities that showed themselves only to Brazilian IP addresses. Separately, Grok was used to create sexualised images of women and minors, and Apple privately warned xAI it could be removed.
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