What is App Tracking Transparency?
App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is Apple's framework that makes iPhone and iPad apps ask permission before tracking a user across other companies' apps and websites. If the user says no, the app can't read the device's advertising ID, the IDFA.
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An app that wants to track a user across other companies’ apps shows Apple’s permission alert. The user allows it or doesn’t. The answer applies to that app, and it can be changed later in the phone’s settings. Apps can only show the alert once for each install.
Example: player u_48213 taps Get on Harbor Blocks on an iPhone in Texas at 2:06 PM and opens the game. The game asks to track. If they choose Allow, the game can read the IDFA and pass it to its measurement tool. If they don’t, the game gets a blank ID and has to rely on other signals.
Offers often confirm installs and later steps through the game’s measurement tool, and that tool matches better with the IDFA. Without it, an install can still count, but some games report less, so a user’s progress can stop showing up.
A click ID that travels with the user doesn’t need the IDFA. On Android the Play install referrer carries it, and the iPhone has no equivalent, which is why matching there is harder.
Before a new iPhone user’s first app install, the Hosted Offerwall shows up to two short screens: where the setting is, and that answering the game’s question is the user’s choice. It never shows Apple’s prompt, never points at Allow and never ties a reward to tracking. What each screen says: The iPhone install tracking guide your users see.
Questions
Can a reward depend on a user allowing tracking?
Apple's App Store guideline 5.1.2(i), read on 30 October 2026, says an app may not require users to enable tracking to receive monetary or other compensation. Read it against your own app. Store review stays your job.
Why do some users never see the tracking question?
An app can only ask when the phone's Allow Apps to Request to Track setting is on, under Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking. A user who switched it off never sees the question.