Apple's new App Store rules target AI nudify apps and bait-and-switch tricks

The App Review Guidelines are the rulebook every app must pass before it reaches the App Store. Apple listed the changes in a developer news post and explained the reasons in a second one.

Here are the main changes:

• Rule 1.2 (user content): now names nonconsensual intimate imagery, including images made with AI tools, as content apps must proactively prevent and remove.
• Rule 2.5.19 (new): bans hidden, dormant or undocumented features, and names code obfuscation as a way of hiding them.
• Rule 2.3.14 (new): sets rules for the creative assets apps show on the App Store.
• Rule 3.1.1(a): folds the music streaming entitlement into the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement bullet.
• Section 5 (legal): apps that facilitate human trafficking or the exploitation of children are removed and blocked from alternative distribution.

Apple also added links to more documentation in the "Before You Submit" and "After You Submit" parts. Translations of the new text will reach the Apple Developer website within one month.

Rule 1.2 covers apps where people create, generate, upload or share content. The updated text now spells out who that includes: social media, user-generated content platforms and AI content creation apps.

The rule names three problems such apps create: intellectual property infringement, nonconsensual intimate imagery and anonymous bullying. To stay on the store, these apps must include:

• A filter: a way to stop objectionable material from being posted.
• Reporting: a way to report offensive content, with timely responses.
• Blocking: the ability to block abusive users.
• Contact details: published information so users can reach the developer.

The big picture: Apple's post says apps must now "proactively prevent and remove" this imagery. Developers who fail to put adequate safeguards in place, or who do not fix violations after notice, risk breaking the Developer Code of Conduct and being removed.

The guidelines describe the steps. Apple asks the developer to remove the content and share a plan to do better. The app may be pulled until it improves, and egregious or repeated behavior can mean immediate removal from the App Store and the Apple Developer Program.

It's an app that shows reviewers one face and users another. Picture a food truck that passes its health inspection with a salad menu, then starts serving something else once the inspector drives away.

Apple says some apps do exactly that. They "misrepresent their purpose during review and only reveal harmful capabilities, such as 'nudification,' after approval," the company wrote.

The new rule 2.5.19 says hiding undocumented features, through code obfuscation or other methods, is grounds for removing the app and terminating the developer account.

Code obfuscation means scrambling an app's code so it is hard to read. That can hide a feature from a reviewer looking inside.

Apple says the ban itself is not new. It was covered before by rule 2.3.1, and 2.5.19 now gives it its own clearer entry. According to Apple's post, it also covers apps that add features after approval that were not in the version App Review saw.

In real life If an app you downloaded as a simple photo filter suddenly starts offering to "undress" people in pictures, that is exactly the switch this rule targets. Report it through the App Store.

The past year brought a string of reports. 9to5Mac, which first reported the details of the update, lists several of them:

• January: the Tech Transparency Project found dozens of AI nudify apps on the App Store.
• April: a follow-up by the same group found App Store search suggestions and ads pointing people to such apps.
• July: a 9to5Mac investigation found dozens of apps posing as games and utilities that turned into betting platforms when opened from Brazilian IP addresses. Many were available to children.

Also in July, The Verge reported that San Francisco city attorney David Chiu demanded Apple and Google remove 13 apps that could make nonconsensual nude images. An Apple spokesperson told The Verge that Apple removed three of the apps in question and was terminating their developers' accounts.

Then there is Grok. The Verge reports that X users used xAI's chatbot earlier this year to create sexualized deepfakes without consent, including of minors. Protesters at Apple's WWDC event in June called for Grok, X and nudify technology to be removed from the App Store.

Apple did not pull X or Grok. MacRumors reports that Apple told xAI it would remove Grok if it kept allowing nude deepfakes, xAI added safeguards, and Apple approved an updated version.

Why it matters: MacRumors notes that the updated rule 1.2 names AI content creation apps and could apply to apps like Grok, among others. Apple's post names no specific app.

Apple shared its own numbers in the announcement.

By the numbers: last year, Apple says it prevented over 150K apps with safety issues from reaching customers. It also terminated over 193K developer accounts for fraud and abuse.

Apple says these cases trace back to malicious actors, sometimes coordinated fraud operations. They hide harmful content that only switches on once an app is approved.

"We do not hesitate to remove apps, and terminate the developers behind them, when they violate these guidelines," Apple wrote. The company says it keeps updating its tools to catch this behavior faster.

Two changes have nothing to do with AI images, but app makers will notice them.

Creative assets (2.3.14): creative assets are the images an app shows beyond plain screenshots and preview videos. They can appear across the App Store, including the product page header and search results.

The new rule says they must:

• Stay relevant: show the app's content, its features or its overall brand.
• Suit everyone: be appropriate for all audiences and follow the standard metadata rules.
• Avoid tricks: no misleading references to other apps and no unverifiable claims.
• Skip prices: no specific or discounted pricing.

External links (3.1.1(a)): Apple removed the separate bullet on the Music Streaming Services Entitlements. It is now part of the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlements bullet, and Apple clarified that such links may point to a permitted destination.

Section 5: Apple says the App Store has always banned apps that facilitate human trafficking or the exploitation of children, including child sexual abuse material. The new wording makes clear such apps are also blocked from alternative distribution, the ways of installing apps outside the App Store.

For more on Apple's platform and its other recent moves, see our Apple coverage.

• Safer store: apps that make intimate images of real people without consent are clearly banned, and AI tools are named in the rule.
• Reporting matters: the rules require report and block tools in apps with user content, and timely responses to reports.
• No action needed: these rules bind developers, so nothing changes on your iPhone today.
• For app makers: check your moderation, your product page images and any hidden features before your next submission.