My app is rejected under Guideline 2.3.6 because the Age Rating answer for "Messaging and Chat" is "No". The reviewer says the app includes messaging and chat. I want to understand what the guideline means before I change the answer. What the app does: It is a companion app for families of a martial arts school (a business). Parents sign in to see their child's schedule, billing, and so on. A signed-in adult can send a message only to their own school. They never choose a recipient and can never reach another family or any other user of the app. The school's staff reply from somewhere else (the school's website), not from inside this app. Teen accounts (ages 13 to 17) are created by the school at a parent's request. They have no messaging at all. The Messages tab is not shown to them, and our server refuses any message from them. The app uses the Declared Age Range API to meet Texas age assurance requirements. My question: Does a feature that only lets a user contact the business providing the service, and never another user of the app, count as "Messaging and Chat" for the Age Rating? Or does that capability apply only to user-to-user communication? I had understood the capability to mean users messaging other users. If the answer is that any in-app message form counts, I will change the rating to "Yes". I just want to be sure I understand the definition, since the App Store Connect help text for that question is short. Has anyone been through this with a "contact the business" or support-style message feature? I asked the reviewer, but they pointed me here, since they "are not able to provide feedback on app concepts or features". Thank you.

Does messaging that only reaches the app's own business count as "Messaging and Chat" in the Age Rating?

My app is rejected under Guideline 2.3.6 because the Age Rating answer for "Messaging and Chat" is "No". The reviewer says the app includes messaging and chat. I want to understand what the guideline means before I change the answer.

What the app does:

It is a companion app for families of a martial arts school (a business). Parents sign in to see their child's schedule, billing, and so on.
A signed-in adult can send a message only to their own school. They never choose a recipient and can never reach another family or any other user of the app.
The school's staff reply from somewhere else (the school's website), not from inside this app.
Teen accounts (ages 13 to 17) are created by the school at a parent's request. They have no messaging at all. The Messages tab is not shown to them, and our server refuses any message from them.
The app uses the Declared Age Range API to meet Texas age assurance requirements.

My question:
Does a feature that only lets a user contact the business providing the service, and never another user of the app, count as "Messaging and Chat" for the Age Rating? Or does that capability apply only to user-to-user communication?

I had understood the capability to mean users messaging other users. If the answer is that any in-app message form counts, I will change the rating to "Yes". I just want to be sure I understand the definition, since the App Store Connect help text for that question is short.

Has anyone been through this with a "contact the business" or support-style message feature?

I asked the reviewer, but they pointed me here, since they "are not able to provide feedback on app concepts or features".

Thank you.