Making Tech Headlines · Page 3
Apple Wants Dating Apps to Put Humanity on the Label
· New York time
Apple says developers must declare whether their apps enable dating between real people, AI companions, or both, so the company can apply the appropriate age rating. The requirement gives the App Store a way to distinguish between services based on the kind of relationship they offer. For developers, the declaration puts a basic product question into the rating process. A service built around human matches and one offering AI companions may look similar on a screen, but they are not promising the same kind of interaction. Apps that combine both will have to account for both categories. The change also reveals how much work the word dating is doing in the app economy. It once suggested that another person was somewhere behind the profile. Now the store needs a separate field to establish whether that assumption belongs in the description. The industry has spent years improving filters for age, location and interests. Apple is adding a more fundamental question before any of those preferences come into play: is the potential companion a person or software? It is a remarkably basic disclosure for an industry that has made matching into a sophisticated technical enterprise. The next great romance feature may be the box that explains who is capable of showing up.
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