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Apple

Apple Backtracks on Removing EU Home Screen Web Apps in iOS 17.4 (9to5mac.com) 29

Posted by msmash from the change-of-heart dept.
Apple is reversing its previous decision to remove support for Home Screen web apps in iOS 17.4 for EU users. Apple's statement: Previously, Apple announced plans to remove the Home Screen web apps capability in the EU as part of our efforts to comply with the DMA. The need to remove the capability was informed by the complex security and privacy concerns associated with web apps to support alternative browser engines that would require building a new integration architecture that does not currently exist in iOS.

We have received requests to continue to offer support for Home Screen web apps in iOS, therefore we will continue to offer the existing Home Screen web apps capability in the EU. This support means Home Screen web apps continue to be built directly on WebKit and its security architecture, and align with the security and privacy model for native apps on iOS.

Developers and users who may have been impacted by the removal of Home Screen web apps in the beta release of iOS in the EU can expect the return of the existing functionality for Home Screen web apps with the availability of iOS 17.4 in early March.
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Apple Backtracks on Removing EU Home Screen Web Apps in iOS 17.4 More

Apple Backtracks on Removing EU Home Screen Web Apps in iOS 17.4

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  • Some believe that PWAs are not that important. However, this is really a chicken and egg problem. PWAs could actually be great if companies like Apple would have supported them better. It is clear that Apple has no financial interest to do so. Excluding PWAs from working in the EU on Apple hardware would have likely killed PWAs. After all, if you cannot deploy your web app cross platform what would be the point? This would have been hellish for developers to keep separate versions of PWA and mobile apps. I

  • oh suddenly it is possible? (Score:3)

    by ljw1004 ( 764174 ) on Friday March 01, 2024 @01:08PM (#64282488)

    Apple earlier claimed

    Addressing the complex security and privacy concerns associated with web apps using alternative browser engines would require building an entirely new integration architecture that does not currently exist in iOS and was not practical to undertake given the other demands of the DMA and the very low user adoption of Home Screen web apps.

    I wonder which part of Apple's earlier statement was incorrect? (personally, I'd say "all of it"...)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      Well, they "compromised" their position by declaring WebKit and only WebKit will be allowed to provide PWA functionality.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        Well, they "compromised" their position by declaring WebKit and only WebKit will be allowed to provide PWA functionality.

        Except that it won't. The more I think about it, the more certain I am that if a third-party browser delivered outside of Apple's App Store came up with its own out-of-band mechanism for getting push notifications that didn't use Apple's push notification server (or added an extra layer of browser-specific logic on top of Apple's push notifications, then the browser could implement PWAs in a way that would be almost functionally indistinguishable from the WebKit ones.

        Basically, they'd save a bookmark, but

        • Push notifications have nothing to do with PWAs.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            In iOS, PWAs support push notifications. That was one of the things that were going to go away if they moved to bookmarks.

            • Every web site supports that. And everyone disables it, when the question from the browser pops up.
              So? What is your point?

              Has nothing to do with PWA or home screen icon.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by dgatwood ( 11270 )

                Every web site supports that. And everyone disables it, when the question from the browser pops up. So? What is your point?

                Has nothing to do with PWA or home screen icon.

                PWAs on iOS, when saved to the home screen, support badging on their home screen icon.

        • Yep, like on Android, every app can take over the screen and pretend to be your banking app. Hence why many people never side load some shady third party App Store. Apple does it correct now, if you want a third party (eg corporate) App Store, you need a manifest that describes to the user that it will take over your phone or alternatively enter developer mode. Not sure why the EU wants to change it, but even Samsung and Google lock down other app stores behind developer mode and layers of security.

    • Nothing was incorrect.
      That is why only Safari and other WebKit based browsers will support them for now.
      The question if a web site is displayed as an icon on the home screen has nothing to do with being an PWA or not anyway.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shmlco ( 594907 )

      They originally stated that they couldn't guarantee PWA security and privacy if those PWAs ran under third party browsers, which could occur if one of those browsers was set to be the default browser under the new rules.

      They fell back to allowing PWAs to exist, but only under the Safari/WebKit sandbox as they did before.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      It's possible because PWAs are still running under Safari.

      In other words, PWAs will run exactly the same in 17.4 as they did in 17.3, using Safari.

      When they broke, PWAs would run under whatever your default browser is. If you changed it to Firefox, it would run on Firefox with it's Gecko engine.

      All Apple did was revert it so PWAs run using Safari, like they always have, even if you use Firefox. If Firefox created the PWA icon, Safari would take over.

      That's all that's happened.

      As for the security issues, thi

      • I can destroy your whole block of text argument with two simple questions: are you saying that the app store review process sucks and would allow such a malware app? Would a popup or similar asking if you're sure you want to allow malware app to take control of pwa mechanism (this ignores that even in Android, browsers can't access each other's private data)
  • This should make the users of PWAs happy.

    Now both of them will have a nice day.

  • Apple lawyers apparently had an actual look at the situation and then recommended a Kowtow...

    • You seem to be misreading this. What apple is saying now is without doubt the best outcome for users who have no intent of switching away from safari, a decent outcome for users who want to use a different browser but accept using safari for web apps only, and in complete disagreement with the EU ruling.

      So web apps will stay until the eu says that apple canâ(TM)t do this, and then they will disappear. Maybe the EU will decide to give Apple a fine of 1000 euros a year and apple just pays it.

      • Most people have been (correctly) blaming the EU for their overreach. My opinion is that with the elections coming up and the screws being turned on the EU about regulatory capture, suppression of democracy by the Germans (last century repeating again) leading to massive backlash from every low and middle income brackets in Europe, someone called Apple and assured them they werenâ(TM)t going to pursue a literal reading of the law (yet).

        • Seems like everyone here cheered when EU forced them to unbundled WMP and IE. Now people are cheering on being locked down.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by guruevi ( 827432 )

            Because we all saw where that went. EU kicked out the burgeoning Linux government projects and accepted Windows-N in return. Regulatory capture creates monopolies.

    • No, in typical apple style its a half-assed backtrack.
    • EU lawyers apparently had an actual look at the situation and then recommended that Apple could continue what they were doing the whole time, instead of following the letter of the EU law.

  • The lord give'th and the lord take'th away. How do you like them Apples?..or fig leaves, inquires the sinister snake in the grass...

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