I have created a cute watchOS virtual pet. It is "Made for Kids" and allows no external links/communication without a math gate in either the iOS companion or the main watchOS app. Customers have requested the ability to share their pet with their friends, and to be able to see their friends pets alongside their own in the both apps. Is this acceptable under "Made for Kids", as long as I use DeclaredAgeRange and PermissionKit for non adult users prior to allowing them to share or receive a share? As this is quite a complex feature I don't want to start it without an idea of how likely an update to be accepted. If this is not acceptable, is the solution to remove "Made for Kids" and increase the age rating?

I am reporting what appears to be a serious integrity flaw in Safari under iPadOS 26.3 (and lower) that materially undermines the reliability of Screen Time parental controls. This is not merely a UX inconsistency but a functional contradiction within a system explicitly marketed and positioned as secure parental control infrastructure. Device / Environment Device: iPad Air M3 13" (2025) OS: iPadOS 26.3 Safari (system version) Screen Time enabled with active restrictions Child account (10 years old) Background We deliberately chose an Apple device for school use based on the expectation that Apple’s system-level parental control mechanisms — especially Screen Time — are robust, tamper-resistant, and technically consistent. Screen Time is configured with: App limits Downtime Parental controls enabled with limited web content restrictions (school requirements prevent strict blocking) Safari enabled (mandatory for educational use) further parental control restrictions Because aggressive website blocking would interfere with legitimate school activities, monitoring Safari browsing history is a central supervisory mechanism. When Screen Time is active: Clearing the entire browsing history via Safari is correctly blocked. Clearing history via system settings is correctly blocked. The system explicitly communicates that deletion is not permitted due to Screen Time restrictions. This behavior establishes a clear user expectation: Browsing history is protected against manipulation. The Issue Despite the above safeguards, individual browsing history entries can be deleted easily and silently through the address bar suggestion interface. This creates a structural contradiction: Full deletion is blocked. Selective deletion — which is arguably more problematic — remains possible. Steps to Reproduce Enable Screen Time with restrictions that prevent deletion of browsing history (for example on a student device with a child account). Open Safari and visit any website. Confirm it appears in Safari history. Tap the Safari address bar. Type part of the URL or page title. Safari suggests the previously visited page below the address bar. Swipe left on that suggestion. A red “Delete from History” button appears. Tap it. Actual Result The entry disappears immediately: No Screen Time PIN required No authentication request No warning No restriction triggered No parental notification No audit trace visible Deletion occurs silently and irreversibly. Expected Result When Screen Time is configured to prevent browsing history deletion: Individual entries must not be deletable Deletion must require Screen Time authentication Anything else defeats the protective purpose of the restriction. Real-World Impact In practical use, this allows minors to selectively sanitize browsing history while preserving a seemingly intact record. In our case, this method is widely known among classmates and routinely used to conceal visits to gaming or social media platforms during school hours. The technical barrier to exploitation is negligible. This results in: A false sense of security for parents A discrepancy between advertised functionality and actual system behavior A material weakening of parental control integrity When a system explicitly blocks full history deletion but permits silent selective deletion, the protection mechanism becomes functionally inconsistent and unreliable. Given that Screen Time is publicly positioned as a dependable parental control framework, this issue raises concerns not only about implementation quality but also about user trust and reasonable reliance on advertised safeguards. Request Please classify this as a parental control integrity and trust issue. Specifically: Disable individual history deletion while Screen Time restrictions are active OR Require Screen Time passcode authentication for deleting single entries Screen Time is presented as a secure supervisory environment for minors. In its current implementation under iPadOS 26.3 and before, that expectation is technically not met. This issue warrants prioritization.

Title: App stuck in Kids Category review loop — never intentionally published as Kids Our education app has been on the App Store since 2020 under the Education category. We recently submitted an update and it keeps getting rejected under Guideline 1.3 - Kids Category. The problem: we have never intentionally published our app under the Kids Category. Our current App Store Connect configuration is: Age Categories and Override: Not Applicable Calculated Age Rating: 4+ Primary Category: Education Secondary Category: Games No "Made for Kids" designation is selected anywhere. Here is the timeline: Feb 13: Rejected — "You have selected the Kids Category for your app" — asked us to add parental gates for links, purchases, etc. Feb 18: Rejected again — "Your app does not appear to be designed for kids aged 11 and under" — told us to resubmit without Kids Category designation. We replied with screenshots showing "Not Applicable" is selected and asked what else needs to change. Feb 19: Rejected again — "Your app was previously approved for the Kids category" — told us to resubmit under a new App ID. We replied explaining that we never published under Kids Category and that creating a new App ID would mean losing years of reviews, ratings, and user history. Feb 20: Same rejection, same template response about Kids Category. We have scheduled a Meet with Apple appointment but it is not available soon. Meanwhile our update is blocked. Our questions: Has anyone experienced a similar situation where their app was flagged as "previously approved for Kids" when it was never intentionally submitted under that category? Is there a way to verify which version (if any) was approved with the Kids designation? We cannot find this information in App Store Connect. Has anyone successfully had this flag removed without creating a new App ID? If we did have to comply with Kids Category guidelines, would that remain a permanent requirement even though "Not Applicable" is now selected? Any advice or similar experiences would be appreciated. We have been going back and forth with the review team for over a week and the responses do not address our specific situation.

Hi! Our app has been rejected several times now. We first selected the "made for kids" category because that was the age recommended by apple. Everything went fine at first but now, two updated later, we are starting to get rejected. We unchecked the made for kids box but even after that we are still not getting approved. We have tried to explain our issue to apple support but they aren't giving us any good answers. Is there any way to resolve this issue? We are really in the need of help.

Hi Community, I'm excited to share R Helper, a speech practice app I built with accessibility as the core focus from day one. App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/speak-r-clearly/id6751442522 WHY I BUILT THIS I personally struggled with R sound pronunciation growing up. It affected my confidence in school and job interviews. That experience taught me how important accessible practice tools are. R Helper helps children and adults practice R sounds with full accessibility support. ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES IMPLEMENTED VoiceOver - complete navigation and feedback Voice Control - hands-free operation Dynamic Type - scales to large accessibility sizes Reduce Motion - respects user preference Dark Mode - user controllable High Contrast compatibility Differentiate Without Color THE CHALLENGE Most speech practice apps ignore accessibility. I wanted to change that and prove that specialized educational apps can be fully accessible. KEY FEATURES Works 100% offline, no internet needed Zero data collection, privacy first Generous free tier with all accessibility features included 10 story missions with gamification 7 languages supported including RTL for Arabic LESSONS LEARNED Accessibility is not hard when you prioritize it from the start. VoiceOver labels and hints make a huge difference. Testing with accessibility features enabled is essential. Standard SwiftUI components handle most accessibility automatically. Reducing motion significantly helps users with vestibular issues. TECHNICAL DETAILS Built with SwiftUI, targets iOS 17 and up. Universal app for iPhone and iPad. Fully offline using CoreData and local storage. No third party analytics, privacy focused. QUESTIONS FOR THE COMMUNITY What accessibility features do you find users request most? How do you test accessibility features efficiently? WHATS NEXT I'm currently working on expanding the word library, adding more story content, improving haptic feedback Thanks for reading. Nour

We have a STEM learning app for kids, and I've been exploring ways to get it listed under the Education Ecosystem Partner (K–12) collection on the App Store. I couldn’t find a clear pathway or guidelines for eligibility. Could you please point me to the relevant documentation or let me know if there's someone I should reach out to for this?

"If your app includes any links outside the app, or offers any in-app or other purchasing opportunities, make sure these are behind a parental gate" Super Awesome and Kidoz are proving with a parental gate on ad click and they also claim that all ads are manually approved (another criteria for ads in Kids apps). So these two are the only ad networks we can use moving forward. Or we can use ad networks like Admob as well? I dont intend not to be in Kids category - so leaving Kids category is not a choice.

We're using RealityKit to create a science education AR app for iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS. In the WWDC25 session video "Bring your SceneKit project to RealityKit" https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/288 at 8:15, it's explained that when using RealityKit, RealityView should be used in all cases, whereas in the past, SceneKit required SCNView, SceneView, or ARSCNView, depending on an app's requirements. Because the initial development of our app on iOS predates iOS 18's RealityView, our app currently uses ARView to render RealityKit AR content on iOS and iPadOS. Is it recommended that we migrate to RealityView, or can we safely continue using our existing ARView implementation? We'd prefer to avoid unnecessary development cost. If migrating from ARView to RealityView is recommended, what specific benefits should we expect from this transition? Thank you.

I am creating a prototype with the new Screen Time API introduced by Apple. The issue I am facing is, Applications installed in child device is not showing in parent device with FamilyActivityPicker. It is showing in Child device and apps can be shielded from child's device. Can some one describe, how to list the apps in parent's device. Both Device are running in iOS 15.3. Both falls in same family group Child is under 13 yrs old Screen Time enabled in both device and parent device can see child in Screen Time.

First double charge in a same item, i ask the game developer they accept my refund request, but i don’t know why apple rejected my request, they said i haven’t strongly support? how can i send him the support? there are no attach button allow me the send him the conversatio via email. Then suddenly charge me 2 times i haven’t buy item. i request refund they also rejected…why? i didn’t get anything from the game but i had pay already. who can help me to get back my money. totalHK188 miss charged. this is not fair they stole my money. i don’t know why the game developers accept my refund request, who gave apple the right to reject

Is there a way to check in code if a device is under Mobile Device Management? We want to show the users a different screen in the app if it is under device management. This is primarily for devices under Apple School Manager or something similar

Hi, so, we grabbed a couple of nice new watches the other week (Ultra for dad, SE for teenage son). Mostly cool and working together (calls, messages, maps, walkie talkies, etc, etc). All good. But then son said, "Dad, why can't I see my sleep stuff like you can..?". He was right, it wasn't working. Looking around a bit, it turns out that there are a bunch of things that are turned off or not available when pairing a kids watch with dad's phone. From the Apple page: "The following features and apps are not available: Medications, respiratory rate, irregular heart rhythm notifications, ECG, AF History, Cycle Tracking, Sleep, Wrist Temperature, Blood Oxygen, Walking Steadiness, Audiobooks, Remote, News, Shortcuts and the double-tap gesture". Now dev-me reacts to this situation with: "Ok, so let's just build a little standalone sleep app for son's watch. There must be lots of parents out there who would like the same thing". And there are also a bunch of other "family sharing" enabled apps that when you try and use them on kid's phone, say "iPhone requireed", i.e, they don't apparently work with just a watch hooked up to mum or dad's phone. So before I dive into that kind of project, which seems like an obvious fix path from a dev and a parents' point of view: does anybody know if this from Apple's point of view is a hardware, a software or a legal/age limitation? What's the basic framework/dev/design issue here? Is it something on the device(s) that prevents sleep data from even being collected on family/kids paired watches? (Therefore don't bother trying to build an app); I assume not becauses it's just a normal SE used by a kid; or Is it "just" that Apple hasn't wanted to make that available without a kids iPhone too (Therefore you could certainly build a standalone app to do what Apple hasn't wanted to do); or Netiher 1 nor 2, but Apple won't even allow Sleep data collection for kids for some legal/health data reason (Therefore don't bother trying to build the app).

Is there any good framework that can be used in educational app as Learning Management System (LMS). Should be full fledge for creating courseware for E Learning App. Should be compatible with all Apple Platforms. Any help or link will be greatly appreciated. As I didn't found anything that mentions designed for Xcode. All LMS belong to Web based apps.

Is there any good LMS framework that can be easily integrated to develop educational apps. It should have scoring, questionnaire, gamification , certificate generation etc. Any framework as easy as few lines of code and good payment structure would be good idea.

Hello, we are in the final stages of developing our app and want to ask for some clarifications. Our app is a non-commercial, educational and free project. It is created in Crimean Tatar language, which may be difficult for you to understand during the checking of application, because it is not available in online translators. Therefore, we want to get information in advance about all the things you need in order to successfully validate on your platform and make our app available to everyone. This is an audio guide about Crimea. The purpose of the app is to provide basic historical knowledge about the architecture and history of the Crimean Tatars. Crimean Tatars are the indigenous people of Crimea and this app is type of a local product. The app is created in the Crimean Tatar language, which is on the UNESCO list of endangered languages. By creating this product we are also trying to support the development of our language. We are very interested in opening access to the application as soon as possible, and we are open to contact and ready to provide the necessary information. Please can you tell us if there is anything else we need to provide when we submit the application for review?

I know how to set up a parental gate to keep a child user away from a web portal for parents or guardians. But is it even OK with Apple (or just in general) to open a browser from inside a kids app? I can think of two ways to do this: Launch a browser with UIApplication.shared.open(). This takes the user (presumably an adult) out of the app. Will Apple object to this? Use an in-app browser with WKWebView. (Wrapped in UIViewRepresentable because I'm using SwiftUI.) Option 2 has some problems with Google SSO, which is a requirement for me. Some details in stackoverflow 2016 and stackoverflow 2019 and gitHub. I can't figure out how to apply the solutions in those posts to the SwiftUI architecture or even the UIViewRepresentable.

We're trying to make our Content Filter solution work on Shared iPads. We leverage the Network Extension framework, more specifically the Content Filter Providers. On regular, 1:1 iPads, this works perfectly fine. However, on Shared iPads we see some weird behaviour. Upon logging in with a MAID everything initially seems fine. However, in about 5 to 10 seconds the user is automatically logged out and an error indicating "a connection to iCloud could not be made" is presented to the user. After investigating the logs it turns out this is caused by the fact that the network is unreachable. For example: Jan 19 00:33:04 cloudd(CFNetwork)[5867] <Error>: Task <F5DC7C46-422D-4265-A364-B3C859BF6291>.<1> finished with error [-1009] Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1009 UserInfo={_kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=50, NSUnderlyingError=0xefe89ffc0 {Error Domain=kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork Code=-1009 UserInfo={_NSURLErrorNWPathKey=unsatisfied (Path was denied by NECP policy), interface: en0[802.11], ipv4, dns, uses wifi, _kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=50, _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=1}}, _NSURLErrorFailingURLSessionTaskErrorKey=<private>, _NSURLErrorRelatedURLSessionTaskErrorKey=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=<private>, NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=<private>, NSErrorFailingURLKey=<private>, _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=1} Test device: iPad Pro (11-inch) running iPadOS 17.2 (21C62) My assumption: It looks like the filter providers start "too late". In the meantime the device is trying to reach the network, but since there is a Content Filter configuration in place all traffic is denied until the extension is started (and the completionHandler has been called with a nil error). I can see in the logs that, about 5 seconds after the home screen is visible, the Content Filter Providers are starting: ... Jan 19 00:52:54 neagent(NetworkExtension)[7086] <Notice>: Extension request with data extension <our filterData bundle ID> started with identifier 63576D2C-A484-4D07-9753-ADC99BFDB7A6 ... Jan 19 00:52:55 neagent(NetworkExtension)[7086] <Notice>: Extension request with control extension <our filterControl bundle ID> started with identifier 51D19516-C860-48B8-AB83-0F43D5F613CB ... Is my assumption correct? Are the Content Filter provider even officially supported by Apple on Shared iPads? Is there anything we can do to fix this issue?

Hey, I am looking into creating an app that sets limits on what apps can be use while in the apps focused mode. Something similar to Opal or Forest. I saw that the Screen Time API has similar utility for parental control apps, would I be able to use the API for an app tailored to adults with it remaining under guidelines?

This is the first application of our studio that wants to develop interactive books. Naturally, our application is a book, but it is not possible to publish it in EPUB format, as the reviewer advises to do, since it has many interactive functions that are designed to attract young readers. Our studio spent more than 4 months developing the application, 3D characters, entertaining animation, music, sounds, a convenient interface, and marketing materials were created. We told reviewers about all this, but we always get a refusal with the same wording. This is despite the fact that the Apple Store is full of interactive books that, for some unknown reason, were allowed. We do not understand such injustice. It also cannot be said that we copy existing applications and do not provide anything new. First of all, our book is a unique story, then we made our own design for the pages, which is significantly different from existing analogues, we specially wrote music for the book, which others do not do. Please tell me, if we add children's mini-games to the book, will this allow us to publish the application? Or will it be a waste of time? Since this will all also remain a book at its core. Does Apple really dislike children so much that they only allow children to read only printed books? Please advise what can be done. We really believe that we have created a cool interactive book that many people will enjoy if we are given the opportunity to publish it. If not, then difficult times will come for the studio, since we spent a lot of effort and money on development and do not even have the opportunity to show our work. This puts an end to all our plans. All because of the person who decided that the book should be in the book section, and the fact that it is full of interactivity does not bother him.

I am a beta tester on behalf of the College Board for the Bluebook app, which administers the digital SAT. For the first admissions year when most universities are no longer going test-optional, more university-bound sixth-form pupils sit the digital SAT. Some students who are sitting on the SAT could receive an unfair advantage due to them reverse-engineering the app using Ghidra and using that to make a duplicate version of the app which will show correct answers and/or disable Assessment mode to cheat on the exam. I need to know if it is possible, if the student has prior Computer science knowledge, and what is the procedure for doing the following: Disabling assessment mode through terminal function or another internal coding source Reverse engineering the Bluebook app, and recreating it through Xcode and editing the code to automatically fill out the correct answer Reverse engineering the Bluebook app, and recreating it through Xcode and editing the code to disable assessment mode as a whole Please tell me as this will give those who cheat a severely unfair advantage over those who studied hard for it