On April 15, 2026, the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) published a report, co-released with Bloomberg, documenting that Apple and Google continue to host and actively promote AI "nudify" apps on the App Store and Google Play despite both companies' stated policies prohibiting such content. The investigation identified 18 nudify-capable apps in the Apple App Store and 20 in Google Play — 38 total — that collectively had been downloaded 483 million times and generated approximately $122 million in revenue over their lifetimes.

Why It Matters

The TTP report reframes the nudify debate from "what do we do about AI models" to "what do we do about the gatekeepers who distribute them." Apple and Google have long insisted they comply with platform-abuse rules reactively once reports are filed, but the TTP findings show that both platforms' own search and advertising systems amplified nudify apps to users — in some cases to users as young as 12 — without waiting for abuse reports. Expect this to become exhibit A in upcoming congressional hearings on platform liability, in EU DSA enforcement against app store gatekeepers, and in state-level expansion of deepfake statutes (Oregon, Washington, South Dakota, Minnesota all have active AI-companion or deepfake statutes that could reach app-store distributors). Watch for Apple and Google to announce new "nudify-class" app review policies in the next 60 days as a pre-emptive measure.

The report's most alarming finding: 31 of the identified apps carried ratings that permitted download by minors. TTP investigators documented that App Store and Play Store search autocomplete systems actively suggested searches including "image to video ai nsfw" and that ads for nudify apps appeared as the top result in roughly 40% of tested searches. In three cases, nudify app ads appeared as the single first result in Apple search queries. Following TTP and Bloomberg's disclosure, Apple removed 15 of the 18 apps and Google suspended several Play Store listings. Neither company explained to reporters how the apps passed review or why minor-rating approvals were granted. Digital Trends, Petapixel, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Breitbart, and Bloomberg all covered the findings on April 15–16.

The report lands in the middle of an active regulatory crackdown on AI nudification globally: the EU Parliament voted to ban AI nudification apps under the AI Act on March 18, the Dutch court ordered xAI's Grok to stop generating nudes on March 26, Minnesota's HF1606 advanced in late March creating $500K civil liability for nudification-app use, and the Ohio conviction of James Strahler II on April 8 became the first TAKE IT DOWN Act prosecution. The TTP investigation directly implicates the two companies — Apple and Google — whose app stores host the distribution channels that make these tools mass-accessible. It also arrives just weeks before the TAKE IT DOWN Act's May 19, 2026 platform compliance deadline for 48-hour notice-and-takedown systems.

Sources

Update — 2026-04-21

Initial entry — story first created.

Update — 2026-10-17

Six months later, the rulebook changes. On October 16, 2026, Apple published revised App Review Guidelines aimed at the nudify apps this story documented in April. Guideline 1.2 (user-generated content) now names nonconsensual intimate imagery next to IP infringement and bullying, and MacRumors and The Verge report it explicitly covers AI-generated imagery. Developers must now "proactively prevent and remove" such content. Per 9to5Mac, the new text says developers "who fail to implement appropriate safeguards or fail to remediate identified violations after notice may be considered in violation of the Developer Code of Conduct," which can lead to removal from the App Store.

Apple also added guideline 2.5.19, banning "hidden, dormant, or undocumented features." It names code obfuscation as grounds for removal and developer-account termination. Apple's announcement ties the rule directly to "bait-and-switch" apps that "misrepresent their purpose during review and only reveal harmful capabilities — such as 'nudification' — after approval." Section 5 now extends the ban on apps that facilitate human trafficking or child exploitation to alternative distribution outside the App Store. Apple's developer post said: "We do not hesitate to remove apps, and terminate the developers behind them, when they violate these guidelines."

These changes follow the TTP/Bloomberg findings covered here, San Francisco's July removal order, and the Grok deepfake scandal. Apple did not pull X or Grok, but it told senators it had threatened to remove Grok, and it approved an updated version after xAI added safeguards (The Verge; MacRumors).

What changed: We predicted in April that a new "nudify-class" review policy would arrive within 60 days. It took six months, but the language is tougher than a category ban. The practical effect reaches past nudify apps to the wider AI-companion and adult-adjacent app economy. A common way around Apple's sexual-content ban has been to ship a clean build for review and then switch on NSFW image generation or explicit modes server-side. Under 2.5.19, that tactic can now cost a developer its whole account, not just one app. Companion-app makers with image generation will need moderation they can document, rather than relying on post-approval feature flags.

New Sources

Update — 2026-10-21

TTP's third report: the teen test accounts got in anyway. On October 19, 2026, the Tech Transparency Project published its third nudify-app investigation of the year, shared exclusively with The Guardian. TTP set up four accounts registered as a 13-year-old U.S. boy, two on Apple and two on Google, with parental controls on for one account in each pair. All four could download dozens of nudify-capable apps, whether or not parental controls were on, and both stores showed nudify-app ads to the teen accounts. In total TTP found 135 apps that could strip clothing from photos or put faces into explicit AI video. Citing AppMagic, it puts their combined total at 5.5 billion downloads and $3.9 billion in revenue. The underlying problem is age ratings: both stores rely largely on developer self-reported ratings, so sexual apps are often rated as suitable for minors and get past parental filters. TTP also found apps kept working on the test phones after the stores removed them. The Guardian's lead case was a Pennsylvania mother whose daughter and five other girls were targeted by a classmate using an app called Movely.

TTP says Apple announced its October 16 guideline changes, covered in our previous update, three days after TTP asked it for comment. Apple said it prohibits nudify apps and removes developers who add such features after review. Google spokesman Dan Jackson said Google suspended violating apps and restricted related search terms.

What changed: The story has moved from whether these apps exist on the stores to whether age-gating works at all. The answer is that self-rated age tiers fail. That strengthens the case for app-store-level age verification, which would put the cost on Apple and Google rather than on individual adult-content sites. It also follows Florida AG James Uthmeier's October 15 suit against Discord, which attacks a platform for having weak age checks. Expect state attorneys general to cite TTP's numbers.

New Sources