Apple's New App Category Classification: Social Media, Entertainment, Games, or Other
At WWDC 2026 Apple announced that every app must declare a category — Social Media, Entertainment, Games, or Other — through an updated age-rating questionnaire. It starts rolling out in July 2026. Here's what changes and how to choose.
What's changing
The age-rating questionnaire in App Store Connect gets a new required field that sorts your app into one of four buckets:
- Social Media
- Entertainment
- Games
- Other
Parents then use Screen Time to set a daily time allowance per category instead of allow/blocking apps one by one. So a household might give "Games" 1 hour a day and "Social Media" 30 minutes — and your app inherits whatever limit its category gets.
This is separate from the 4+/9+/13+/16+/18+ age-rating overhaul (which had its own January 31, 2026 deadline). The category is a new, additional field.
How to pick the right category
Choose the bucket that matches how people actually use the app, not how you market it:
- Social Media — user-to-user feeds, messaging, profiles, sharing. The most-throttled category in many households, so don't land here by accident.
- Entertainment — video, audio, reading, browsing content you consume rather than create.
- Games — anything with game mechanics, levels, or scoring.
- Other — productivity, utilities, health, finance, education, tools. Most B2B and utility apps belong here.
Misclassifying isn't just a compliance risk — putting a utility in "Social Media" because it has a comment feature could expose it to time limits it never deserved.
Don't forget the social-media disclosure
Alongside the categories, Apple is also requiring developers to disclose whether an app features social-media integration (login-with, sharing, embedded feeds). If your app has any of that, expect a new question to answer honestly — undisclosed social features are the kind of thing that surfaces in re-review.
What to do now
- Decide your app's category before July, based on real usage
- If you have multiple apps, map each one — don't auto-pick "Other" for all
- Flag any social-media integration honestly in the questionnaire
- Re-check after the update lands: the field may default to something you didn't intend
- If you're borderline (e.g. a tool with a community tab), pick the category that reflects the primary use, and be ready to justify it
After you ship: watch how users react
A category change like this tends to show up in reviews first — users complaining that the app got "blocked" or time-limited, or confusion about new parental controls. Catching that early lets you respond before it drags your rating down. AppStoreReview tracks your apps (and your competitors') across 175+ countries and alerts you the moment a 1- or 2-star review lands.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the new category classification take effect?
Apple announced it at WWDC 2026 and is rolling it out in July 2026 through an updated age-rating questionnaire in App Store Connect. You'll be asked to classify each app the next time you touch its age-rating answers.
Is this the same as the 13+/16+/18+ age-rating change?
No. The granular age ratings (4+, 9+, 13+, 16+, 18+) rolled out in 2026 with a January 31, 2026 response deadline. The category classification — Social Media, Entertainment, Games, or Other — is a separate, new field introduced at WWDC 2026 and tied to Screen Time, not to the age band itself.
Will my category affect downloads?
Indirectly. Parents can now set a daily time allowance per category through Screen Time instead of blocking individual apps. If your app sits in a category a household throttles, its usage can be capped even when the app itself is allowed — so the category you declare matters for engagement, not just compliance.