Apple Adjusts EU App Tracking Transparency Prompt: Five Countries Get the New Version, a Renamed Setting, Yearly Reprompts

On September 16, 2026, Apple posted an update on the Apple Developer News page: the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) system prompt in the European Union will get an alternative version. Apple describes these changes as part of "agreements with select European competition authorities," but does not name any authority, and does not say which law this update is based on.

This article was checked on September 18, 2026, against the full text of this Apple Developer News announcement and the "User privacy and data use - App Store" support page it links to. This site has not installed the new system software and does not describe the on-screen interface, and offers no instructions for evading tracking or countering advertising. Every rule below is what Apple's official pages currently state; the actual screens and effective dates follow whatever version Apple publishes when the time comes.

What Apple Told Developers on September 16

The announcement is posted on the Apple Developer News page, titled "Updates to App Tracking Transparency in the European Union," and the page is dated September 16, 2026. The announcement itself is a single paragraph that ends with a link to the "User privacy and data use - App Store" support page; the details of the change are written in that page's section on the European Union, not in the announcement itself. Both of this article's sources are these two pages.

The change centers on the prompt itself: beginning with iOS 27.2 and iPadOS 27.2, developers will have the option to use an alternative version of the App Tracking Transparency system prompt. Neither page gives a rollout date for iOS 27.2 or iPadOS 27.2, and this change is written only for these two systems -- neither page says whether macOS, tvOS, watchOS, or visionOS will follow suit. A version number is not a date, and that is worth stating up front.

The change actually comes in two parts: first, the prompt itself has an alternative version in the EU, one that is the only version available in five countries; second, EU developers can show the prompt again a year after a user's last response, whether that response was to accept or reject. The two parts are independent of each other, and the next two sections cover them separately.

The Alternative Prompt, and How Five Countries Differ

Apple explains that the alternative prompt has "modified formatting and language," and gives developers the option to add a text button labeled "Additional Information." The button lets developers surface more detail about their request -- that is, linking user or device data collected from their own app with data collected from other companies' apps, websites, or offline channels, for targeted advertising or advertising measurement, or sharing user or device data with a data broker. Apple does not spell out the prompt's full wording in text; the support page embeds a screenshot next to this passage, and this article does not describe the on-screen interface.

The same page's FAQ adds two more points: EU developers can also use this button to offer more granular consent options in order to comply with local privacy laws or other applicable legal requirements, but whatever appears behind the button is entirely the developer's own responsibility. And until the user grants permission in the prompt, developers still cannot obtain the device's advertising identifier, or otherwise collect and use the app's user or device data as described in the prompt. In other words, one more button does not mean one more way around the prompt.

Apple states that "due to legal requirements," developers in five countries -- Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and Romania -- can only use the alternative prompt, with no option to keep the current version; in EU countries outside these five, switching to the alternative version is the developer's own choice. Apple again does not name which law, or say why these five countries.

One thing worth noting: when permission is required has not changed. Apple states in the same passage that "the requirements for when you must seek permission to track users will remain the same" -- what changes is only what the prompt looks like and what words it uses to ask, not the threshold for whether to ask at all.

A Renamed Setting, and Reprompting After a Year

The second change is in a device setting. Apple states that users can turn off a setting so they will not be asked again; that setting is currently named "Allow Apps to Request to Track," and Apple says it has been renamed to "Allow Apps to Request to Link Your Activity Across Companies" in the EU.

The same passage also states a flexibility given only in the EU: developers can, via the same system prompt, ask again a year after the user's last choice in that app, regardless of whether the user originally chose to accept or reject. Apple's own wording is "you can reprompt" -- that is permission granted to the developer, not a prediction that the user will definitely be asked again; and if the user has turned off the device setting mentioned above, they will not be asked again. The support page does not say whether this kind of reprompting is allowed outside the EU.

Apple also lists four technical documents for developers, two of them marked as new: one is the new authorization-request method that pairs with the Additional Information button, and one is a usage-description field that pairs with Markdown formatting; the other two are the existing authorization-request method and usage-description field. The two "new" labels mean the alternative prompt corresponds to a new set of programming interfaces.

What Has Not Changed

The first thing that has not changed was already mentioned in the previous section: the rule for when user permission is required stays the same. Apple explains, on the same page, that starting with iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, developers who want to track users or access a device's advertising identifier need to obtain the user's permission through the App Tracking Transparency framework; that starting point has nothing to do with this EU change, and the EU's alternative prompt is still asking about the same thing, just in a different way.

The second thing that has not changed is what happens after a user declines. Apple states that unless the user grants permission, the device's advertising identifier value will be all zeros, and developers may not track the user in the way described above; this statement does not distinguish between the EU and other regions, and the announcement does not say it has changed.

The third thing that has not changed is the App Store review guidelines. The support page's FAQ states that under App Review Guidelines 5.1.2(i), an app may not gate functionality on agreeing to be tracked, and may not offer an incentive in exchange for consent; and under App Review Guidelines 5.1.1 (iv), apps must respect the user's permission settings and not attempt to manipulate, trick, or force people to consent to unnecessary data access. The September 16 announcement does not mention either guideline.

What Apple Has Not Said, Including Whether It Mentions Taiwan

This Apple announcement does not name any "European competition authority," and does not say which law this update is based on -- it only cites "legal requirements" for why the five countries can only use the alternative prompt. The support page's FAQ does name EU privacy laws -- it cites ePrivacy and GDPR as examples -- but that is in the context of developers using the new button to comply with local privacy laws, not as the basis Apple gives for this update. This article therefore does not guess which authority or which law.

The pages also do not spell out the alternative prompt's full wording in text, only stating "modified formatting and language" and the label on one button; neither page gives any figures on changes in consent or refusal rates. Apple has not published any, and we have not tested this ourselves, so there is no way to compare how the old and new versions affect advertising or user choices.

As for Taiwan: neither page contains the word "Taiwan," and the description of the change is limited to the European Union. As checked through September 18, 2026, both pages this article read are in English only. This can only be read as the official announcement not covering Taiwan and not addressing Taiwan specifically -- it cannot be read as saying whether or not the same change will come to Taiwan. That is something Apple has not written, and this article does not answer on Apple's behalf.

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