Apple Declared Age Range: Texas and the Global API
Texas SB 2420 started applying to new Apple Accounts on June 4, 2026. Apple’s Declared Age Range API, Significant Change API, and consent notifications are how indie apps request an age category without collecting a birthday. Here is a practical path that also keeps the product page honest.
Quick answer
What is Apple’s Declared Age Range API and what changed in Texas in June 2026?
The Declared Age Range API lets apps request an age category so they can offer age-appropriate experiences without receiving a birthdate. After a court lifted an injunction on Texas SB 2420, new Apple Accounts in Texas became subject to age assurance and parent or guardian consent for downloads, In-App Purchases, and significant app changes starting June 4, 2026. Implement Declared Age Range, the Significant Change API under PermissionKit, StoreKit age-rating properties, and App Store server notifications for revoked consent. Test in sandbox.
- Declared Age Range is available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS and can be used worldwide
- Texas new accounts from June 4, 2026 need age assurance and parental consent flows
- Significant changes are your responsibility to identify and acknowledge
- Parents can revoke consent; App Store server notifications can tell you
- Product-page screenshots should match the experience a minor is actually allowed to see
On this page
Indie iOS teams did not ask for a fifty-state age-assurance map. They asked for a way to ship. Apple’s path is a system API: request an age range, do not collect a birthday, and treat significant product changes as events that may need parent acknowledgement.
On June 3, 2026 Apple announced that a court ruling had lifted an injunction on Texas law SB 2420. New Apple Accounts in Texas became subject to age assurance and parent or guardian consent for downloads, Apple In-App Purchases, and significant changes associated with an app, starting June 4, 2026. Parents can also revoke consent for an app they previously approved.
The four pieces Apple told developers to implement
| API or signal | Job | Indie takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| Declared Age Range API | Request an age category without a birthdate | Enable the capability and request the range at a real decision point. |
| Significant Change API (PermissionKit) | System acknowledgement for a meaningful app change | You decide what counts as significant; document the rule. |
| StoreKit ageRatingCode | Age-rating property on the App Store / StoreKit side | Keep in-app paywalls and ratings consistent with Connect. |
| App Store server notifications | Consent withdrawn on a child or teen device | Wire the notification type and have a disable path. |
This is not one toggle. Age range, significant-change sheets, rating metadata, and revocation are four separate integrations that have to agree.
Apple’s age-assurance Q&A says the Declared Age Range API is available worldwide, and people can decide whether their age information is shared. Regional laws such as Texas determine when extra obligations attach. Do not treat a Texas-only headline as “the API only works in Texas,” and do not treat a worldwide API as a worldwide legal opinion.
Sandbox first, then the product page
Apple’s next-steps list ends with sandbox testing. That is the unglamorous half of the work and the half that prevents App Review surprises. Confirm you can request a range, handle a declined share, present a significant-change sheet, and receive a revocation notification without crashing the first session.
- Request the range at account creation or first launch of a restricted feature, not on every screen.
- If the user declines, keep a working, limited mode. Do not dead-end the app.
- When you ship a significant change, trigger the system acknowledgement — do not invent a custom legal wall of text.
- On revocation, disable the features that required consent and recover gracefully on next launch.
What this does to App Store screenshots
A product page is still a promise. If screenshot one is a global teen hangout and your Texas or under-18 path is a locked journal, you will convert the wrong people and train App Review to distrust the listing. Pair this work with the related Time Allowances questionnaire if you have social capabilities: those answers already change age ratings and product-page descriptors.
| Situation | Show | Do not show |
|---|---|---|
| Core product is useful without social | The useful job in screenshot one | A party feed as the only identity of the app |
| Social is the product, 13+ or 18+ | The real social UI and a caption that states the audience | Child-coded illustration wrapping an adult network |
| Significant change in this version | The new capability as it ships, including any gate | Old screenshots that hide the change |
| Custom product page for a campaign | The same age-truthful UI with a tighter story | A looser promise than the default page |
Age APIs change who can use a feature. Screenshots should describe the feature as it exists for the people who can install and keep it.
Declared Age Range checklist for a small iOS team
Enable Declared Age Range
Add the capability and request a range at a decision point you can explain in review notes.
Define significant change
Write three examples that would trigger PermissionKit’s Significant Change API. Keep the list boring and real.
Hook revocation notifications
Configure App Store server notifications and test the disable path with a sandbox account.
Align age rating and copy
Check the Connect questionnaire, Time Allowances social questions, and product-page text against the same matrix.
Refresh screenshots from the gated UI
Export a truthful set in AppGrowthKit so search results and the product page do not advertise a path you just closed.
Declared Age Range questions
Does Declared Age Range only work in Texas?
No. Apple says the API is available worldwide and people can choose whether to share. Texas SB 2420 is a regional obligation that started applying to new Apple Accounts there on June 4, 2026.
Do I receive the user’s birthday?
No. The point of the API is an age category or range, not a birthdate for you to store.
What happens if a parent revokes consent?
Apple provides an App Store server notification for withdrawn consent on a child or teen device. You need a path that disables the features that required that consent.
Is this the same as Time Allowances?
No. Time Allowances are parent-managed daily limits and category buckets. Declared Age Range is an API for age-appropriate experiences and legal age-assurance flows. A social app may need both.
Sources, verified 2026-08-19:
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Age-appropriate apps still need age-honest screenshots
When a significant change or a restricted teen path ships, AppGrowthKit helps you recaption the real UI and export an App Store set that matches the session — not a trailer of features you just gated.
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