TL;DR. Apple retired the 4+/9+/12+/17+ age rating tiers in favor of 4+/9+/13+/16+/18+, applied automatically to every app since 31 January 2026. A newer, separate requirement lands next: starting September 2026, App Store Connect requires an answer to a new social-media-capability question before it will accept a new app, an update, or a notarization request for alternative distribution — and answering “yes” without the under-13 carve-out sets a floor of 13+ regardless of your other answers. The age rating questionnaire lives on the App Information page and takes Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, or Marketing to edit, same as your keyword field and subtitle. It also has real ASO consequences most developers don’t check: Content & Privacy Restrictions on iOS let a user cap the App Store to a maximum age rating, and anything above that cap doesn’t show up in that account’s search or browsing at all.

Most indie developers fill out the age rating questionnaire once, at launch, and never revisit it. That was fine when the only consequence was a badge on the product page. It’s a worse habit now that Apple ties a submission gate to it.

What are the App Store age rating tiers in 2026?

Apple’s current tiers, effective on devices running iOS 26 and equivalent OS versions, are 4+, 9+, 13+, 16+, and 18+, plus Unrated for apps distributed outside the App Store. This replaced the older 4+/9+/12+/17+ scheme; devices on earlier OS versions still display a mapped version of the old tiers.

The change rolled out automatically — Apple recalculated every existing app’s rating against the new tiers rather than asking developers to redo the questionnaire from scratch. What did require action was a set of new questions covering in-app controls, capabilities, medical or wellness topics, and violent themes, which developers had to answer by 31 January 2026 to avoid interruptions submitting future updates. That deadline has already passed; if your account never got the warning banner, you’re clear on that part.

Do I have to answer the new social media question before September 2026?

Yes, but only if you’re planning to submit anything. Since July 2026, the age rating questionnaire includes a question about whether your app has social media capabilities — defined by Apple as the ability to redistribute, amplify, or interact with user-generated content through a feed or similar discovery method. Starting September 2026, App Store Connect requires an answer to submit a new app, submit an update to an existing app, or notarize an app for distribution on an alternative marketplace.

The answer has teeth: say yes without the under-13 exception, and the app gets a minimum rating of 13+ and lands in the new “Social Media” Time Allowance category Apple is introducing for parental controls in iOS 27. Say yes but confirm the social features are disabled for anyone under 13, and the app avoids the under-13 Time Allowance bucket — though the overall questionnaire still determines the actual published rating, which can land below 13+. Either way, an app with this capability gets a Social Media content descriptor on its product page. If your app has any comment thread, activity feed, or friend-content surface, don’t assume this doesn’t apply to you just because “social” isn’t in your category.

Which App Store Connect role can edit the age rating?

Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, or Marketing — Apple’s own documentation lists this exact four-role requirement for the age rating page, the same set that can edit your keyword field, subtitle, and screenshots. That’s a meaningfully wider list than the App Privacy questionnaire, which is locked to Account Holder, Admin, or App Manager only — Marketing can’t touch it. If you’ve scoped a contractor to Marketing for ASO work, they can legally answer the age rating questionnaire; they can’t answer the privacy one.

Does changing the age rating require a new app version?

In practice, often yes, even though nothing in Apple’s UI says so up front. Developers on Apple’s own developer forums — including responses from Apple engineers — have reported that the Edit control on the age rating section stays grayed out until you create a new version in App Store Connect. You don’t need to upload a new binary or submit that version for review; creating the version alone is enough to unlock editing, and the change can then be saved without ever submitting it. If your age rating page shows “View” instead of “Edit” and you have no update in flight, that’s very likely why — not a permissions bug.

Can an overstated age rating actually hurt discoverability?

Yes, and this is the part most ASO checklists skip. iOS’s Content & Privacy Restrictions, under Screen Time, let an account set a maximum allowed age rating for App Store content. Apple’s own guidance describes this as restricting which apps are permitted, not just which apps can be installed — accounts with a restriction in place don’t see apps above their cap when browsing or searching the App Store. That’s not limited to kids’ devices; plenty of shared family Macs and hand-me-down iPhones still have a restriction switched on from years earlier.

That means an inflated answer on the questionnaire — checking “frequent” instead of “infrequent,” or answering the social media question broader than your feature actually is — can quietly remove your app from search for every restricted account below that threshold, with nothing in App Store Connect telling you it happened. It’s worth treating the questionnaire with the same care as your keyword field, not as a one-time compliance form.

What to check before your next submission

  1. Open App Store Connect → App Information → Age Rating and confirm your answers still match what the app actually does today, not what it did at launch.
  2. Answer the social media capability question now, even if you’re not planning an update — it’s live in the questionnaire already and the September 2026 requirement won’t give you a grace window to fill it in later.
  3. If the Edit option is grayed out, create a new version (no binary, no submission needed) to unlock it.
  4. Confirm whoever owns this has Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, or Marketing access — and if they’re also supposed to own your App Privacy label, know that role doesn’t carry over.