App Tracking Transparency: when to ask and how

Add NSUserTrackingUsageDescription to your target’s properties in Xcode with a purpose string that says what the data will be used for, then call requestTrackingAuthorization(completionHandler:) and read trackingAuthorizationStatus. The prompt appears only while the app is active: the system skips it and answers at once when tracking is restricted on the device, when the user has turned off «Allow Apps to Request to Track» in Settings, when another request is pending, or when you call it from an app extension. You choose when to ask, and the IDFA is returned only after the user allows it.

You may not gate features on tracking consent or reward users for allowing it, per App Review Guideline 5.1.2(i). You may explain before the prompt why you ask, as long as you are transparent about how the data is used. If a user declines, you cannot switch to another identifier such as a hashed email or phone number to track them. Fingerprinting is not allowed at all: deriving data from the device, browser, location or network to identify it can get the app rejected, including when an SDK in your app does it.

Apple holds you responsible for all code in your app. If an analytics, attribution or ad SDK tracks your users, you need the ATT permission as if you did it yourself, and the same applies to single sign-on from another company and to tracking inside a web view that is part of your app’s functionality. Check each SDK’s privacy manifest and documentation, and ask the vendor when it is unclear.

Apple is changing ATT in the EU under agreements with European competition authorities. Starting with iOS 27.2 and iPadOS 27.2, developers can use an alternative version of the prompt in the EU, with different formatting and wording and an optional «Additional Information» button; in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Romania only this version is available, shown as a full-page sheet that can display rich text from NSUserTrackingMarkdownUsageDescription. For EU users, you may show the prompt again one year after their last answer, whether they allowed or declined, unless they turned off tracking requests in Settings. When to ask for permission does not change.

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