Apple has tightened the App Store Review Guidelines to address AI-generated nonconsensual intimate imagery and apps that change behavior after they pass review. The company announced the update on its developer news page on October 16.
Stricter moderation under Guideline 1.2
Guideline 1.2, which covers user-generated content, now explicitly names nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery produced with AI tools. According to Apple, apps must proactively prevent and remove this kind of content. Developers who fail to put adequate safeguards in place, or who do not fix violations after being notified, risk breaking the Developer Code of Conduct and being removed from the App Store.
A clarified ban on hidden features
Guideline 2.5.19, titled "Hidden or undocumented features," clarifies an existing rule. Apple says apps that misrepresent their functionality during App Review, and then add features that were not in the version submitted, can be removed from the App Store and from the Apple Developer Program. The wording targets the so-called bait-and-switch approach, where an app looks harmless to reviewers and enables questionable functionality only after approval.
Section 5 consequences made explicit
In the Legal section, Apple says apps that facilitate human trafficking or the exploitation of children, including child sexual abuse material, will be removed from the App Store and blocked from alternative distribution. Apple's post notes that this prohibition has always existed and that the update spells out the consequences.
Context
MacRumors, which reported on the change, connects the update to "nudification" apps that create sexually explicit images of real people without their consent. It also points to an episode earlier this year in which Apple told xAI it would pull the Grok app unless the company stopped it from generating nude deepfakes. According to the report, xAI added safeguards and Apple approved an updated version. MacRumors says the new language could be aimed at apps like Grok, but that is the outlet's reading and not something Apple has said.
Neither Apple's post nor MacRumors' coverage gives a separate effective date for the revised guidelines. Apple has published the full updated text on its App Store Review Guidelines page, and developers whose apps allow users to generate or share images will want to review Guideline 1.2 closely.
For users, the practical effect will depend on enforcement: the rules give Apple clearer grounds to remove apps and, in the case of hidden features, to terminate the developer accounts behind them.
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