App Store Policy Changes 2026: Your 60‑Day Plan

There are several App Store policy changes 2026 that aren’t optional, and they touch product, growth, and compliance all at once. Apple has new age rating requirements and fresh guidance on data sharing with third‑party AI, while Google has tightened how apps can use its Age Signals data. In the EU, fee structures for linking to external payments are shifting, and Japan’s rules now enable distribution outside Apple’s store—under new safeguards. If you run subscriptions, youth experiences, or any high‑ARPU flow, you need a crisp plan for January and February.

What actually changed—and when?

Here’s the short version of the dates that matter for shipping in Q1 2026. Treat them like release gates, not trivia.

Apple age ratings update: Apple has updated age rating values and questions. You need to answer the new questions for each app by January 31, 2026 to avoid interruptions when submitting updates. Ratings under the new system surface on devices running the 26‑series OS releases.

U.S. linking and anti‑steering: In the United States, Apple updated its rules in 2025 to allow buttons and links that take users to your website for purchases. That relief still comes with rules (clear disclosures and consistent UX), but the broad shape is stable: you can link out, and Apple can’t block you for doing so.

EU fees and external payments: For EU users, Apple introduced a more granular fee model in 2025 that moves away from per‑install fees for some developers toward a commission on external transactions. A 5% Core Technology Commission (CTC) is slated to replace parts of the earlier alternative‑terms install fee, with transitions beginning around January 1, 2026. If you run EU linking or alternative distribution experiments, your P&L modeling should reflect that.

Japan’s Mobile Software Competition Act: As of December 17, 2025, Apple announced changes for Japan that open alternative app marketplaces and allow external payment options under safety requirements. Teams localizing for JP should plan marketplace and payment testing alongside additional user protections.

Age and safety in U.S. states: New state laws (e.g., Texas) push more robust age flows and parental consent. Apple is supporting age‑related compliance with updates to account creation prompts and APIs for consent re‑requests. If your app serves minors or families, expect stricter reviews of your gating and consent UX.

Why this matters for product and revenue

Two reasons: conversion physics and review friction. Whenever Apple or Google touches payments, linking, or age gates, three metrics move—purchase completion rate, refund/chargeback risk, and time‑to‑approval. A slightly clumsy link‑out design can crater conversions; a misaligned age declaration or AI data sharing prompt can delay your binary by days. Q1 is a bad quarter to relearn these lessons.

Think through a simple example. You add an external purchase link for U.S. users and shift EU users to a web checkout with new fee math. The upside is lower effective take rate on some transactions. The downside: every additional tap, warning, or modal knocks points off your completion rate. You need clockwork‑level UX and instrumentation to know if your blended margin actually improves.

App Store policy changes 2026: the developer’s checklist

Use this as a sprint‑planning skeleton. It’s opinionated, because that’s how you get it done in 60 days.

1) Age and consent: update your gates

• Refresh age questions in App Store Connect before January 31, 2026. If your content or UGC features changed since last submission, re‑answer and document reasoning in your release notes.

• Implement an in‑app age gate that’s specific, reversible, and logged. Specific: ask for age or birth year, not just a checkbox. Reversible: allow a user to correct mistakes. Logged: keep an audit trail keyed to user ID for support and compliance.

• For Android, honor Google’s Age Signals API boundary. Data from Age Signals should only be used to tailor the experience in the app that receives it, not for cross‑app profiling or measurement. Update your data flow diagrams accordingly.

• Add a parental consent re‑request path. When your app’s data sharing or key features change, you should be able to trigger a clean, localized consent flow without forcing a reinstall.

2) AI data sharing: declare it, gate it, log it

• If your app sends any personal data to third‑party AI providers, add a specific disclosure and permission step. Be explicit about categories (e.g., voice clips, images, transcripts) and purpose.

• Keep offline mode and on‑device options. For sensitive features (e.g., transcriptions), offer a local‑only fallback. App Review teams reward thoughtful privacy affordances, and users appreciate the choice.

• Instrument “share to AI” events and store consent timestamps. If a user revokes consent, hard‑stop the outbound calls.

3) External payment linking: design for trust and speed

• Button copy and placement: Use neutral, action‑oriented text like “Manage subscription on the web.” Keep it close to pricing, not buried in settings.

• Pre‑navigation modal: One clear sentence telling users they’re moving to your secure website, with a visible cancel option. Avoid fear language. Use OS default fonts and accessibility sizes.

• Return path: If the user bounces, bring them back to the exact screen they left, with state intact. Tracking param handoff should not leak personal data; keep your campaign IDs opaque and short‑lived.

4) EU and JP business logic: separate it

• Segregate pricing and revenue recognition by region. The EU’s commission logic and Japan’s alternative marketplace support deserve their own feature flags, server‑side configs, and dashboards.

• Write a one‑pager for Finance: assumptions on commission rates, expected attach, and fraud controls. If you haven’t modeled support load for refunds and failed web checkouts, do that now.

5) App Review packet: cut rejections before they happen

• Provide a reviewer demo account and a short screencast. Call out where age, AI, and payment choices live. Note the jurisdictions where features differ.

• Declare every externally visible link and data flow in your notes. This sounds tedious. It saves days.

The P.A.C.E.R. framework: ship policy‑proof features reliably

I coach teams to run policy work like a performance release. P.A.C.E.R. is a simple loop your squad can finish in two sprints.

• Policies: Write a one‑page brief per store and market (U.S., EU, JP). Capture dates, fee math, and review expectations in plain English.

• Age: Audit gates, consent, and parental flows. Test for under‑13, under‑16, and adult paths; screenshot each path on iOS and Android.

• Commerce: Prototype the link‑out UX and the fallback IAP path. Benchmark end‑to‑end time from price tap to confirmation page, target under 20 seconds on median devices.

• Engineering: Feature‑flag region logic, create configuration toggles for fee structures, and centralize all disclosures in one component library.

• Reporting: Add dashboards for conversion, refunds, parental consent rates, and review times. Set alerts for anomalies after rollout.

Design patterns that avoid conversion cliffs

Let’s get practical. These small choices add up.

• Two‑column price presentation: Show “In‑app” and “Web” with the same base price and any fees plainly described. Avoid anchoring bias by leading with whichever path is simplest for the user, not the cheapest for you.

• Inline age affordances: When a feature is age‑restricted, say why. “Voice chat is off for your age group.” Include a link to learn more for a parent.

• Consent receipts: After a user grants AI data sharing permission, show a one‑line receipt with the toggle to revoke. This sets expectations and reduces support tickets.

• Graceful degrade: If your web checkout fails, don’t dead‑end. Offer to complete in the app (where permitted) or save to a cart with a reminder.

How to prove compliance without slowing velocity

Put compliance artifacts where engineers live. A /docs/policy folder in the repo with the current briefs, test plans, and screenshots. A GitHub issue template for policy tasks that asks for: affected regions, copy reviewed by legal, telemetry plan, and a rollback plan. Attach the screencast you’ll reuse for App Review.

For growth teams, add cohort flags so you can A/B test link‑out copy and modals without mixing EU and U.S. users. If you can’t isolate by region and store build, you’ll spend all week arguing with your analytics dashboards.

People also ask

Do I have to adopt new EU commissions if I keep only Apple’s in‑app purchase?

If you sell exclusively via Apple’s IAP on the standard terms, your fee structure remains Apple’s standard for those transactions. The moment you rely on external payments or alternative terms in EU markets, model the applicable commissions and service tiers and revisit your pricing. Keep the logic server‑side so you can adjust when Apple or regulators clarify details.

Can I link to my website without paying Apple a fee in the U.S.?

Today, apps in the U.S. can include buttons or links that direct users to a website for purchases. Apple can’t block you from providing the link, and you don’t owe Apple a commission on purchases that occur off‑platform. That doesn’t mean “anything goes”—clear copy, privacy‑safe tracking, and good UX still affect review outcomes and conversion rates.

What’s the difference between Age Signals on Android and a traditional age gate?

Age Signals is a platform signal you can use to tailor the experience inside that one app. A traditional age gate is your app’s own declaration. Use both: the platform helps you start in the right mode; your gate confirms and lets users correct mistakes or update age as they move across life stages.

Do I need to change anything for Japan if I’m not using alternative marketplaces?

If you continue distributing via the App Store and Apple’s standard payments, you still need to review content, age flows, and safety protections—especially for younger users. If you experiment with alternative distribution or payments in Japan, treat it like a new store integration: separate flags, checkout telemetry, and fraud handling.

A 10‑day sprint plan you can start Monday

Day 1–2: Kickoff and policy briefs. Assign owners for age, commerce, and AI. Finalize your regional matrix (U.S., EU, JP).

Day 3–4: UX copy and flows. Build the link‑out modal, consent receipts, and inline age explanations. Localize to your top five locales.

Day 5–6: Instrumentation. Add events for age gate entries, parental consent, link clicks, and purchase confirmations. Define KPIs.

Day 7: App Review packet. Record a 90‑second screencast and write the reviewer notes.

Day 8–9: QA by region. Device matrix testing (two iPhones, one iPad, two Android tiers). Screenshot evidence for your briefs.

Day 10: Canary release. Ship to 5–10% in one region. Watch refunds, conversion, and crash‑free sessions for 48 hours before global rollout.

Metrics that prove you did it right

• Link‑out completion rate: web checkout conversions divided by link clicks. Healthy starts at 60%+, great is 75%+ with one‑tap wallets.

• Time‑to‑purchase: median seconds from price tap to confirmation. Under 20 seconds keeps abandonment lower.

• Consent stability: percentage of users who maintain AI data sharing enabled after 14 days. If revocations spike, your disclosure is vague or scary.

• Review velocity: average business days from “Waiting for Review” to “Ready for Sale.” Healthy is under three days with clean notes; seven days means you’re missing context or hitting repeated queries.

Common ways teams trip the wire

• Mixing fee models in a single country build and forgetting to segment analytics properly. You can’t assess margin if you don’t isolate cohorts.

• Over‑collecting for age verification. If the law doesn’t require sensitive ID, don’t ask for it. Use the platform guardrails and parental consent APIs where available.

• Burying the external link. If your link is hidden or misleading, reviewers will question intent and usability. Treat link‑out like a first‑class path and design it well.

• Calling an AI API before consent. It’s easy to fire a warm‑up call that still includes personal data in headers or prompts. Gate every outbound call behind a consent state check.

When to link out vs. keep IAP

In low‑AOV, high‑frequency purchases, the friction of a web checkout can outweigh the fee savings. In high‑AOV annual subscriptions or B2B tiers, the math often favors a clean web flow with one‑tap wallets and good recovery. Run a simple model: effective fee vs. drop in conversion. If your web flow is 10 points worse at closing, you need at least that much fee relief to break even. Don’t forget support and refund handling time.

What to do next

• Update age ratings in App Store Connect this week. Put a calendar hold for January 31, 2026.

• Ship the AI data‑sharing consent toggle and receipt. Make it obvious and reversible.

• Implement your link‑out UX and test in one market. Measure conversion end to end before scaling.

• Segment EU and JP logic behind server‑side flags. Keep your dashboards region‑aware.

• Prepare a reviewer packet and a canary rollout plan. Save future‑you days of rejections.

If you want a deeper, region‑by‑region rollout plan, our earlier briefing on what to ship by Q1 2026 covers the broader context and timelines. For Android‑specific monetization impacts, see our analysis of Google Play’s new linking fees. If you’re upgrading web stacks alongside mobile, our Next.js 16 + React 19 upgrade plan helps keep your checkout fast and safe across platforms.

Need a partner to pressure‑test your plan?

We help teams ship complex policy changes without slowing growth. From copy reviews and consent flows to fee modeling and alternative distribution pilots, we’ll get you from memo to release candidate in two sprints. See what we do and reach out via our contact page—we’ll review your current build and give you a concrete migration path within 48 hours.