Apple has begun disabling support for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) on iPhones owned by users in the European Union. Such apps have already stopped working in the region in all beta versions of iOS 17.4, and Apple has now officially confirmed that this was a deliberate move. With the release of the steel version of iOS 17.4, all users from the EU will lose application support.
In the developer section of its website, Apple said it had disabled “Home Screen web apps” for EU users because bringing them into compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) would require “an entirely new integration architecture ”, which would be “impractical” to implement with all the innovations in the region. One of the DMA regulations requires Apple to open the platform for browsers on alternative engines.
PWAs run “directly on WebKit,” Safari’s own engine, allowing them to “follow the security and privacy model of native iOS apps.” With the update to iOS 17.4, sites added to the Home screen turn into shortcuts that open a new tab in the browser, rather than standalone services with support for push notifications and displaying their presence in icons, a feature Apple added only last year.
Progressive web applications allow you to store data separately from the browser, which is convenient if you need quick access to a site and do not need to constantly log in. Some services, such as Facebook✴ Gaming, use the web app format to bypass the Apple App Store and its fees. With the advent of alternative browser engines on iOS in the EU, this format, according to Apple, began to pose a security risk: “malicious web applications can read data from other web applications, intercept their permissions to gain access to the user’s camera, microphone or location without his consent ” Browsers can also install web apps without the user’s knowledge, Apple added, although they’ve worked on Android for years across all browsers.
“We expect this change to affect a small number of users. However, we regret any impact this DMA compliance change may have on Home screen web app developers and our users,” Apple concluded. The company called “very low popularity” another reason for disabling support for this feature.
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