Apple has heard complaints: reversing one of its iOS changes in Europe

As we have known for some time, huge changes are on the horizon for… iPhonesince iOS 17.4 It will bring its ups and downs European Uniondue to the new DMA bill.

You can read all the changes in our detailed article by clicking here, but in short, Apple will for example need to allow iOS App Stores and third-party app stores, as well as sideloading of apps. These changes will bring Apple's operating system closer to the Android philosophy, because for the first time in history someone will be able to download applications officially hosted outside the official App Store to their iPhone.

However, one of the most controversial changes announced by Apple was… Remove PWAs. especially, iPhones in Europe will stop supporting Progressive Web Apps, which stopped many of the applications and services you use, such as Xbox Cloud Gaming. In fact, Tinder, Pinterest, Uber, and many other platforms also had PWAs. These are web applications that a person can add directly to the home page of their iPhone, when they visit several websites that contain progressive web applications, instead of installing their regular application.

These apps use Safari's rendering engine and theoretically act as websites, but have the ability to handle native iPhone functionality, for example sending notifications, showing badges in the menu, having their own storage, etc. One of the most popular web apps is Facebook Gaming, as the service attempts to circumvent Apple's hefty fees in this way.

Apple has dropped the ball on the EU for deciding to scrap PWAs, emphasizing that web apps in the past have used Safari's WebKit technology and so the company can ensure they have equivalent performance and security to their regular native iOS apps. However, since EE will force Apple to support alternative browser engines as well, the company claims it opens the window so “malicious apps can read data from other web apps and exploit vulnerabilities to access the user's camera, microphone, or location.” Without giving consent.” For this reason, Apple has decided to stop supporting them completely.

Finally, Apple has listened to user and developer feedback, so PWAs are here to stay. More details via its official support website Announce:

Previously, Apple announced plans to remove Home Screen web apps in the EU as part of its DMA compliance efforts. The need for removal is due to complex security and privacy concerns associated with web applications and support for alternative browsers, which may require the creation of a new integration architecture that does not currently exist in iOS.

We've received requests to continue support for web apps on iOS, so we'll continue to offer the current feature in the EU. This means that web apps on the home screen will continue to rely directly on WebKit and its security architecture, meaning they will be in line with the security and privacy model that also applies to native apps on iOS.

Finally good, so all is well for PWAs in Europe.