Apple's guideline 1.2 names intimate imagery. Guideline 2.5.19 names hidden features.
On October 16, Apple said guideline 1.2 covers nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI-made imagery. Guideline 2.5.19 forbids hidden features. The Verge reported it.
The short version
Apple's October 16 developer note says apps that host other people's content must proactively prevent and remove nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery generated with AI tools. The same day's changelog says guideline 2.5.19 restates a ban on hidden, dormant, or undocumented features that had lived under 2.3.1. The Verge reported the update. This page does not describe how such imagery is made.
Two guideline numbers, one Friday
Apple posted two developer notes on October 16, 2026. One says the company is strengthening the App Review Guidelines against nonconsensual intimate imagery and against bait-and-switch apps. It says guideline 1.2 now states that apps which host user-generated content, including AI content-creation apps, must proactively prevent and remove that imagery. The other note is a changelog. It says 1.2 was clarified, and that a failure to implement safeguards or to fix a violation after notice may violate the Developer Code of Conduct. The rule is a moderation duty on the developer. It is not a description of the imagery, and this page will not supply one.the privacy desk.
What 1.2 already required, and what the sentence adds
Apple's note says apps that host other people's posts already had to filter objectionable material, provide a way to report it, let users block accounts, and publish contact information. The new explicit sentence names nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery made with AI tools, as content those duties cover. Naming a category in a guideline is a scope change a developer can read. It does not, by itself, publish how many apps were removed under the new wording. The note argues the underlying ban on pornographic material is old. The changelog is what marks the wording as new on this date.the key stays with the holder.
2.5.19 is a hidden-feature rule
The changelog says guideline 2.5.19 is new as a number and old as a policy: hidden, dormant, or undocumented features had been covered in 2.3.1. The note says an app should not misrepresent itself during review and then reveal a harmful capability after approval. It says attempting to hide undocumented features, including by obfuscation, is grounds for removal and for ending the developer account. This brief stops at that duty. It will not describe techniques for hiding behavior, and it will not describe how to produce the imagery the guideline names.the paper.
The Verge confirms the Friday post
The Verge reported that Apple's updates require developers to prevent and remove nonconsensual sexual images as part of content moderation, and that a failure to do so sits under the developer code. A news account is how a reader who does not open developer.apple.com meets the change. The binding text is the guideline. If the article and the changelog ever diverge, the changelog is the list of edits and the guideline page is the rule.Futureweb.
A store rule is not a criminal statute
Removal from the App Store and from the developer program is the penalty Apple describes. That is a platform consequence. It is not a sentence in a court, and Apple's note does not claim it is. Developers who do not distribute through Apple's review are outside the mechanism this note can enforce. Users whose images are at issue are the people the duty is written to protect. The guideline does not give them a new private right of action by itself.the mobile desk.
Other changelog lines are not this story
The same changelog touches creative assets, music-streaming entitlements, and a clarification about apps that facilitate human trafficking or the exploitation of children. Those are separate bullets. This brief does not fold them into 1.2. The dependency here is the moderation duty for intimate imagery and the hidden-feature rule. A reader who needs the trafficking bullet should read the changelog, not a paraphrase that mixes penalties.
What this page will re-check
The guideline page if 1.2's wording moves again, and the news post if Apple publishes a count of removals under the new sentence. A later note that 2.5.19 replaced 2.3.1 entirely, or did not, would tidy the history. Translations, the changelog says, follow within a month. A translation is not a new rule. The short answer this page will stand on is this: Apple's October 16 developer note says apps that host other people's content must proactively prevent and remove nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery generated with AI tools. The same day's changelog says guideline 2.5.19 restates a ban on hidden, dormant, or undocumented features that had lived under 2.3.1. The Verge reported the update. This page does not describe how such imagery is made.commercial terms, a different text.
Who is in scope
Developers of apps that host user-generated content or that generate content with AI tools and ship through App Review. A local tool that never submits a binary to Apple is not in the review mechanism. The duty Apple states is on the developer who wants the store listing, not on a reader of this page. Asked directly, What is guideline 2.5.19? A new line that says an app must not include hidden, dormant, or undocumented features, and that its behavior should be clear to users and to review. The changelog says this clarifies a long-standing policy formerly covered in 2.3.1.
What stays specific
October 16, 2026. Guideline 1.2 names the imagery category and the duty to prevent and remove it. Guideline 2.5.19 names hidden features and points back at 2.3.1. Enforcement, in Apple's words, can include removal from the store and the developer program. The Verge is the other account. This page does not add a method. Asked directly, What does the October 16 note say guideline 1.2 now covers? Nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery generated with AI tools, as content that apps must proactively prevent and remove. Apple says pornographic material was already prohibited, and it names this as an explicit extension of that rule.
Sources
The reports this brief is filing. Futureweb did not republish them.
Questions
What does the October 16 note say guideline 1.2 now covers?
Nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery generated with AI tools, as content that apps must proactively prevent and remove. Apple says pornographic material was already prohibited, and it names this as an explicit extension of that rule.
What is guideline 2.5.19?
A new line that says an app must not include hidden, dormant, or undocumented features, and that its behavior should be clear to users and to review. The changelog says this clarifies a long-standing policy formerly covered in 2.3.1.
What consequence does Apple describe?
The changelog says failing to put safeguards in place, or failing to fix a violation after notice, may be a Developer Code of Conduct violation. The note says egregious or repeated cases can mean removal from the store and from the developer program. Those are Apple's enforcement sentences.
What does the note say was the bait-and-switch pattern?
An app that misstates its purpose during review and reveals a different, harmful capability only after approval. The note gives that pattern a name. It does not publish a detection method, and this brief will not invent one.
What is The Verge's role?
It reported the Friday changes and Apple's statement that developers must prevent and remove this category of imagery. It is a second account of the notes, not a separate rule book.