GuideApr 3, 20265 min read

App Store age ratings: required metadata you should not guess

Apple age ratings are required, app-wide, and now documented across newer and earlier OS rating systems.

App Store age ratings are required app information. Apple uses the answers in App Store Connect to assign ratings that support parental controls and region-specific requirements.

What affects the rating

Apple's current questionnaire covers content descriptors, in-app controls, and capabilities. That includes areas such as user-generated content, messaging, unrestricted web access, advertising, medical topics, mature themes, violence, and chance-based activities.

Important current detail

Apple notes that age ratings can vary by OS version. It now documents newer age range values for devices running iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, tvOS 26, visionOS 26, and watchOS 26 or later, alongside earlier OS rating behavior.

Release checklist

  • Review features that expose users to external content.
  • Check chat, browser, UGC, ads, gambling, and health claims.
  • Revisit the questionnaire after major product changes.

Source notes

Apple's age rating docs confirm that the field is required, that the questionnaire drives Apple global and regional ratings, and that unrated apps cannot be published on the App Store.

Y

Written by Yassine

Indie dev. Built lokal because translating App Store screenshots by hand was eating my launches. Reach out at hi@lokall.app.

Try lokal on your screenshots.

Translate into every language in seconds.