Apple's new App Store rules take aim at AI nudify apps and hidden features

For the people targeted, the harm starts with one ordinary photo. An app turns it into a fake intimate image, and that image can travel far faster than any apology. This week, Apple changed its App Store rules to say plainly that apps must work to stop this.

The update to Apple’s App Review Guidelines, posted on 16 October, is the company’s clearest written line yet on Apple nudify apps. It matters because researchers spent much of this year showing that such apps were still easy to find on both big app stores. A written rule is a start. The real test is how quickly it is enforced.

Apple names AI intimate images as a risk apps must stop

The main change is to Guideline 1.2, which covers apps where people create, upload or share content. It now lists “nonconsensual intimate imagery” as a risk, next to copyright theft and anonymous bullying. MacRumors and 9to5Mac report that this explicitly includes images made with AI tools.

Apple says the rule covers social media apps, user-generated content apps and AI content creation apps. They must work to prevent such images and remove them. The safeguards Apple already required stay in place: a filter for objectionable material, a way to report content, a way to block abusive users, and published contact details.

Developers who lack these safeguards, or who don’t fix problems after notice, can be treated as breaking Apple’s Developer Code of Conduct. That can lead to removal from the store.

A separate rule for features an app keeps out of sight

The same update adds Guideline 2.5.19. It is not the nudify rule, though some blogs have reported it that way. According to the new text quoted by 9to5Mac, it bans “hidden, dormant, or undocumented features”, so everything an app can do should be clear to users and to Apple’s reviewers.

MacRumors reports that trying to hide such features inside an app’s code is grounds for removal and for ending the developer’s account. Apple says this moves an old policy into a rule of its own. In practice, it targets “bait-and-switch” apps that pass review looking harmless, then switch on something else.

A third change sits in Guideline 5, the legal section. Apps found to help human trafficking or child exploitation will be removed and also blocked from alternative distribution. In the EU, that means other app marketplaces and web downloads, so a banned app can’t simply move.

Why the pressure built this year

In January, the Tech Transparency Project found 47 nudify apps on Apple’s App Store and 55 on Google Play, with more than 705 million downloads combined. Apple told CNBC it removed 28 of them. In July, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sent cease-and-desist letters over eight apps on Apple’s store and five on Google Play.

The law is moving too. In the US, the Take It Down Act has required platforms to remove such images within 48 hours of a valid request since May. Britain and the EU are working on bans on nudification tools, but final approval was not confirmed when we checked. No source links Apple’s update directly to these laws.

If you or someone you know is affected

The new rules apply in every country where the App Store runs. If you see an app that offers to “undress” photos, you can report it to Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com. Report the content inside the app as well, and block the account sharing it. In the US, you can also ask the platform hosting a fake image of you to remove it under the Take It Down Act.

For parents, the quiet lesson is that a harmless-looking photo or face-swap app may hide more. Rule 2.5.19 should make that harder, but it is still worth checking what apps your children install. You can find more of our app coverage in the apps and software section.

Clear words on paper, with enforcement still to prove

On balance, this is a meaningful step. Naming AI-made intimate images in the rules removes any doubt about where Apple stands, and blocking the worst apps from every route closes a real gap.

The harder part is what the rules don’t say. Nudify apps were already against Apple’s rules in principle, yet researchers kept finding them, sometimes through the store’s own search suggestions. Developers also ask how 2.5.19 will treat ordinary feature flags and tests that change an app after review. Apple hasn’t said yet.

Our reading is that the likelier outcome is fewer nudify and deepfake apps on Apple’s store, with the harder cases moving into general AI tools. For the people already hurt, a policy page is small comfort. Fast removal is the promise worth holding Apple to.