Apple admits: Home screen web apps are being discontinued in the EU

No, this is not a temporary issue in iOS beta. Apple is officially retiring the Home Screen Web App, also known as Progressive Web Apps (PWA), for iPhone users in the EU.

Apple confirmed Thursday that iOS will no longer support PWAs for users in the European Union. The company announced this news in an update to its developer support page regarding the EU and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Mashable was tipped off to the changes on his Apple support page by an iOS developer and researcher. misk.

According to Apple, the move is a direct result of the DMA, a new EU regulation that requires companies like Apple to open up their core platforms to third parties to foster competition.

Apple supports PWAs on iOS through its proprietary browser engine, WebKit, which is primarily used in the Safari browser. Under DMA, Apple must allow home screen web apps built on alternative web browsers without requiring Safari or WebKit. Apple claims that this could allow malicious web apps to access users’ devices, so the company decided to remove his PWA support completely.

“Using an alternative browser engine to address the complex security and privacy issues associated with web apps would require building an entirely new integration architecture that doesn’t currently exist in iOS, and would require building an entirely new integration architecture that doesn’t currently exist in iOS, and would require DMA to address the complex security and privacy issues associated with web apps. Given the very low adoption rate, it was not practical to “increase the number of web apps on the home screen,” Apple said. “Therefore, to comply with DMA requirements, we had to remove the home screen web app functionality in the EU.”

Apple’s DMA changes are getting worse

Last week, iOS developers in the EU started noticing: PWA support removed in latest beta At the time, some developers claimed that certain home screen web apps continued to work, but certain features, such as web push notifications, stopped working. With varying degrees of usability, are the problems faced by PWAs the result of beta release issues, or is Apple preparing his web apps for DMA compliance in the EU? Some people questioned whether it was still in progress.

Apple has now confirmed that it is indeed preparing PWAs for DMA compliance By removing them completely.

This latest DMA-inspired change by Apple will likely expose the company to further criticism from developers.apple App Store changes To allow iOS apps not approved by Apple to be distributed on alternative marketplaces, knocked round by other tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, and Spotify.

Many, including Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, believe that the EU regulation, which aims to give consumers and developers alike more choice, is ironically designed to give Apple more revenue and control. It is stated that it was distorted for the purpose of doing so.

Apple claims that the removal of PWAs will only affect a small number of users, who will still be able to access their web apps via websites within their mobile web browsers.

You can read Apple’s full statement regarding the removal of the Home Screen web app in the EU below.

To comply with the Digital Markets Act, Apple has undertaken a significant amount of engineering work to add new features for developers and users in the European Union. This includes over 600 new APIs and a wide range of developer tools.

The iOS system has traditionally provided support for home screen web apps by building directly on WebKit and its security architecture. This integration ensures that home screen web apps are managed to align with the native app security and privacy model on iOS, including storage isolation and forcing system prompts to access features that impact per-site privacy. It means that.

Without this type of isolation and enforcement, a malicious web app could read data from other web apps and regain their permissions to access your camera, microphone, or location without your consent. There is a possibility. The browser may also install her web apps on your system without your knowledge or consent. Addressing the complex security and privacy issues associated with web apps using alternative browser engines requires building an entirely new integration architecture, which currently does not exist in iOS and requires DMA and other requirements and the very low adoption rate of DMA by users made it impractical to do so. Home screen web app. Therefore, in order to comply with DMA requirements, the home screen web app functionality had to be removed in the EU.

EU users can continue to access websites directly from their home screen through bookmarks with minimal impact to functionality. This change is expected to impact a small number of users. Still, we regret that this change, made as part of our efforts to become DMA compliant, may impact home screen web app developers and users.