iOS 27.2 is out with a new EU tracking prompt. What changed for your app, and what didn't

What shipped on October 26

Apple released iOS 27.2 and iPadOS 27.2 on Monday, October 26. Most of the coverage is about Siri languages, but there's a change in it that every app showing ads, or measuring ads, in Europe needs to look at: a new version of the App Tracking Transparency prompt for users in the EU.

Apple told developers about it on September 16. As part of what it called "agreements with select European competition authorities," apps in the EU can use an alternative version of the system prompt, starting with this release. In Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Romania, Apple says "due to legal requirements," only the alternative version is available.

Now that the update is out, people in those countries will start seeing it as soon as they install it and open an app that asks. If your app asks to track, it's worth an hour this week.

What changed

The prompt itself. The alternative prompt has different formatting and wording, and it can include a text button labeled "Additional Information." According to Apple's privacy guidance, as quoted by The Mac Observer, that button lets you explain in your own words what data you want to link with other companies' apps, sites or offline sources, for advertising or measurement, or what you'd share with a data broker.

Who sees it. In the five countries above, every app that asks uses the alternative prompt. Elsewhere in the EU, you choose which version to show.

How often you can ask. For EU users, the release notes say ATT now supports "reprompting on a yearly basis." Apple's guidance says you can ask again one year after the person's previous answer in your app, whether that answer was yes or no.

The name of the switch. In the EU, the Settings option "Allow Apps to Request to Track" is renamed "Allow Apps to Request to Link Your Activity Across Companies."

The API name, if you adopted it in beta. The 27.2 release notes list a rename. In Swift, the new call is now requestTrackingAuthorization(preferExpandedInterface:...). In Objective-C, it's requestTrackingAuthorizationPreferringExpandedInterface:.... If your team wired up an earlier beta name, the build will tell you, but check before your next release goes out.

What didn't change

When you have to ask. Apple's developer post is direct: "The requirements for when you must seek permission to track users will remain the same." Nothing here makes tracking without permission acceptable, and nothing adds new cases where you must ask.

The user's way out. If someone turns off the Settings switch, no app can show either prompt, and the yearly re-ask doesn't happen.

Everywhere else. Outside the EU, the prompt and the one-time ask work the way they did.

What Apple hasn't said. Apple doesn't name the competition authorities or the specific legal requirements behind the five-country list. Anything more specific you read about which law requires it is somebody's inference.

What to do in your app this week

Find out whether you ask at all. Plenty of apps include an SDK that triggers the prompt without anyone on the product team remembering why. Search the codebase and your ad and analytics SDKs' docs.

Write the Additional Information copy. This is the real opportunity. It's the first time the system prompt gives you room to explain, in plain language, what you'd link and why. Write it like you'd explain it to a customer at a counter: what you collect, who sees it, what the person gets. Have legal read it, then have someone outside the team read it and tell you what they think it means.

Test in the five countries. Use a test device set to each region and check that the alternative prompt appears, that your copy displays, and that your pre-prompt screen, if you have one, still makes sense next to it.

Split your consent numbers by country. Opt-in rates may move in the five required countries first. If you report one EU number, you won't see it.

Check the layout while you're there. Not related to tracking, but in the same release notes: on iOS 27.1 and later, a UIView's default layout margins are zero. A view controller still supplies its system minimum margins, and a subview has to set preservesSuperviewLayoutMargins to true to inherit them. If a screen suddenly looks cramped on newer devices, start there.

If you show your own screen first

Many apps show their own explanation screen before the system prompt, so people know what's coming. That screen was designed around the old prompt, and in the five countries it now sits in front of a different one.

Read the two together, in order, on a real device. If your screen promises something the system prompt doesn't mention, or uses different words for the same idea, people notice the mismatch and tend to decline. If the Additional Information copy now explains the details well, your own screen can probably get shorter.

Also check what happens after a no. Some apps keep nudging people with banners or settings reminders. With a yearly re-ask available in the EU, it's a good moment to take those out and let the system handle the second question, once, a year later.

Finally, tell support. When someone in Germany writes in asking why the tracking message looks different, the person answering should know it's Apple's change and be able to explain what your app does with the answer.

The re-ask is a product decision

The yearly re-prompt will tempt some teams to ask everyone again on the first anniversary. Think about it before you do. A second chance to ask is also a second chance to be told no, by someone who now remembers you.

A better approach is to decide what has changed in a year that would make the answer different. Maybe you've added a feature that genuinely depends on measurement, or you've changed how you share data and can explain it better. If nothing has changed, asking again is just asking again.

Whatever you choose, write it down: who gets re-asked, when, and with what explanation. When someone from privacy or legal asks how the app handles the new rule, you'll have an answer in one paragraph instead of a search through the code.

If you'd like help reviewing how your app asks for consent, or with the release work around iOS 27.2, our mobile applications team does exactly that. Talk to us.

Related work: Sutton Place.