Apple's new rule for AI apps: Kindroid now blocks nude uploads on iPhone

Kindroid, the companion app known for its long memory and custom voices, now checks every image uploaded in its iPhone app and blocks the ones with explicit nudity. Kindroid says this is not its choice: Apple, it says, now requires it of every AI app on the App Store. This page sets out what Kindroid announced, what Apple's published rules actually say, and which apps have left the App Store this month.

What Kindroid announced

At 4:51 p.m. Eastern on October 27, a member of the Kindroid team posted "Image uploads on iOS: an Apple requirement for all AI apps" on r/KindroidAI, Kindroid's official subreddit. The account carries Kindroid Team flair and has posted Kindroid's announcements before. In it, Kindroid says Apple told it that every AI app on the App Store must check images users upload, including private ones, and block explicit nudity.

What the iPhone app now checks, when you upload:

• avatars for your Kin, and your own avatar and personas
• photos used as references for selfies, videos and calls
• images you send in chat

What Kindroid says is unchanged:

• images uploaded before the change
• the Android app and kindroid.ai on the web, and images uploaded there still show in the iPhone app
• swimwear, lingerie and other suggestive images that are not explicit

Kindroid's advice to people who upload often is to do it in a web browser, then return to the app. The post covers uploaded images only; it says nothing about text chat. Kindroid's own update log, last revised on October 18, had not mentioned the change by the evening of October 27, and its App Store app was still on version 1.70 from August 18, so the check appears to run on Kindroid's side rather than through an app update.

Why Kindroid says it had to

Kindroid writes that it spent a couple of weeks in talks with Apple, including its senior leadership. Apple, it says, described heavy pressure on the App Store from the press and advocacy groups over deepfakes, and said its policy is to enforce checks on user-uploaded media in generative AI apps. Kindroid says it argued that social networks and messaging apps with uploads face nothing this strict; Apple, in Kindroid's account, called that a fair point but would not take the risk while scrutiny of AI content is at its peak. Kindroid acknowledges that enforcement looks uneven across the App Store and says other apps will be held to the same rules sooner or later. Apple has not commented on Kindroid's post.

What Apple's rules say

Apple announced the change on its developer news page on October 16, under the title "Strengthening App Review Guidelines against nonconsensual intimate imagery and bait-and-switch apps", and updated the App Review Guidelines the same day. We compared guideline 1.2, the user-generated content rule, with the copy the Internet Archive saved on October 11:

	Before October 16	From October 16
Which apps it covers	Apps with user-generated content or social networking services	Apps that let users "create, generate, upload, share, or otherwise contribute content", naming social media, user-generated content platforms and AI content creation apps
Harms it names	Intellectual property infringement, anonymous bullying	Adds nonconsensual intimate imagery
What apps must have	A filter for objectionable material, reporting, blocking, contact details	Unchanged
What happens if they don't	Apple asks for removal and a plan, and may pull the app	Adds that failing to put safeguards in place, or to fix violations after notice, may breach the Developer Code of Conduct

Apple's announcement says the rule now explicitly covers nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery made with AI tools, as content apps must proactively prevent and remove. The same update added guideline 2.5.19, which bans hidden or undocumented features, such as an app that passes review and then switches on a "nudification" feature.

The published text does not say "block all nudity in uploads". It asks for a filter for objectionable material, and for years it has let an app show mature content from a web service only if that content is hidden by default and switched on through the app's website. The upload check Kindroid describes is what it says Apple told it directly, not a line in the guidelines.

Which apps left the App Store this month

Two AI chat apps disappeared from the App Store in October, and both were still gone when we checked their US pages at 10:23 p.m. Eastern on October 27:

• PolyBuzz, on October 15, the day before Apple's announcement. Neither PolyBuzz nor Apple has said why. What we know about PolyBuzz.
• Chai, on October 22. Its founder says the iPhone app is unavailable while Chai improves it. What Chai has said.

Neither company has linked its removal to the October 16 rules, and Apple does not usually explain removals. Kindroid's App Store app is still listed. Earlier removals, including Muah AI and Talkie, are in our table of shutdowns and store removals.

What it means if you use a companion app on iPhone

If your app lets you upload photos, expect more of them to add a check like Kindroid's, and keep the web version in mind as the place where uploads are unaffected. Text roleplay is not part of what Kindroid announced. We have added the change to the Kindroid review and to our change log, and we will add any other app that announces a similar check here, with its date.