How to market a dating app: the store rules that shape it

Apple does not allow overtly sexual or pornographic material, and says this includes “hookup” apps and other apps that may include pornography or be used to facilitate prostitution, human trafficking or exploitation. Google Play does not allow apps that promote services that may be read as providing or soliciting sex for compensation, and names compensated dating or arrangements where one person is expected to give another money, gifts or financial support, “sugar dating”, as an example. So the way you describe the app in the store, in ads and on your website is part of whether it can be listed at all: say who it helps people meet and how, not what the stores would read as a service they ban.

Apple requires apps with user-generated content or social networking to include a way to filter objectionable material, a way to report offensive content with timely responses, the ability to block abusive users, and published contact information. It also says apps that end up used mainly for random or anonymous chat, Chatroulette-style experiences, objectification of real people such as “hot-or-not” voting, threats or bullying do not belong on the App Store. Google Play requires users to accept terms of use before they create content, an in-app system to report objectionable content and users, and a blocking function wherever users can message each other one to one, plus action on reported content. Since the stores require them anyway, show them on your listing and website instead of hiding them in settings, as long as what you show matches what the app does.

Apple says app icons, screenshots and previews must adhere to a 4+ age rating even if the app itself is rated higher. Google Play does not allow depictions of sexual nudity or sexually suggestive poses where the subject is nude, blurred or minimally clothed, and lists adult or sexual keywords and explicit text in the store listing among its violations. For a dating app that rules out the most obvious imagery. Screenshots that show the real product, such as profiles, matching, the chat and the safety controls, fit both stores; the sizes are in screenshot sizes and the keyword rules in App Store keywords.

Google Play’s Families policy lists apps that provide dating services among its common violations for apps that target children, and says social apps whose main focus is chatting with people you do not know or chatting anonymously must not target children. In practice that means declaring an adult target audience in Play Console and keeping the listing and ads aimed at adults, since Google says imagery and wording that could be seen as targeting children can affect its assessment of the audience you declared. The Kids side of the same rules is covered in how to market a kids app.

Censuus ranks apps by the real visit traffic they draw on the web, so a dating app’s website traffic counts. You can see how social apps rank in the social networking category. Adding your app is free on the submit page, and it can rise on the visits it earns. Sponsorship raises placement and adds a followed link to your website; details are on the sponsor page. For the store tools themselves, see how to promote an iOS app and how to promote an app on Google Play. We do not promise downloads or store rankings, and this guide is not legal advice.