Apple Responds to DMA by Removing Web Apps from European iPhones

It's official. Apple will voluntarily deactivate Progressive Web Apps (PWA), these web applications capable of being installed on a smartphone, on its products in Europe. An announcement which follows comments from certain European users of the beta version of iOS 17.4, who could no longer access these applications and had then thought it was a bug.

Replaced with bookmarks on the home screen

Web apps work like native apps (windowing, notifications, local storage, camera access, etc.). But now, users will see a message asking if they want to open them in Safari, with no other options available. They are therefore reduced to simple shortcuts.

Apple explains this withdrawal by a requirement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the European Union, which comes into force on March 7 and aims to create a more competitive market for tech players. For the Cupertino company, the functionalities specific to PWAs depend on the WebKit engine, and that the integration of other navigation engines seems difficult to achieve. Which is not true, since they also work with other browsers using other web rendering engines, like Chrome or Firefox.

Apple justifies its decision as follows: “Addressing the complex security and privacy issues associated with web applications using other browser engines would require creating an entirely new architecture, which does not currently exist in iOS and was not practical to implement. undertake taking into account other requests from the DMA”. It highlights the fact that few people use web applications on the home screen, and the risk that certain malicious applications can access data and permissions without consent from the user.

Web applications, alternatives to the App Store

For Apple, this modification is a direct consequence of the DMA. With the application of this set of texts, Apple will have to end the monopoly of its App Store to authorize application stores. According to the App Store guidelines, PWA web apps presented themselves as alternatives to the App Store model.

A withdrawal which could therefore arouse some criticism, especially since the European Commission was flexible this week with the multinational, by exempting it from interoperability for its iMessage messaging. On the other hand, Apple has already been accused of malicious compliance, imposing new fees to dissuade developers from going to other stores. The changes among European iPhone owners should be visible in a few weeks, probably in early March when the iOS 17.4 update arrives.

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