iOS 18: Browser Choice and Default App Controls in EU
Developers of browsers offered in the browser choice screen in the EU will have additional information about their browser shown to users who view the choice screen, and will get access to more data about the performance of the choice screen. The updated choice screen will be shown to all EU users who have Safari set as their default browser. For details about the changes coming to the browser choice screen, view About the browser choice screen in the EU.
For users in the EU, iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will also include a new Default Apps section in Settings that lists defaults available to each user. In future software updates, users will get new default settings for dialing phone numbers, sending messages, translating text, navigation, managing passwords, keyboards, and call spam filters. To learn more, view Update on apps distributed in the European Union.
Along with setting new apps as defaults, Apple will let users delete core apps. The App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari apps will be able to be deleted, so it’s essentially just the Settings and Phone apps that will not be able to be removed in the EU. If a user deletes the App Store app, it will be able to be reinstalled from the Settings app if desired, while the other apps can be reinstalled from the App Store.
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With iOS 17.4, EU users were able to select a default browser from a randomized list of the top 12 browsers in their country. In a future update to iOS 18, the browser choice window will pop up again if a user has Safari set as their default. The new browser selection experience will include a descriptive line about the browser, as well as the option to set a default browser right from the choice window. If a user selects a browser that is already installed on their device, it will open automatically, otherwise there will be a downloading icon and the browser will open after it’s downloaded.
Born too late to explore the seas, born too early to explore the stars, born just in time to… change the default messaging app on my phone thanks to government intervention?
What a time to be alive.
My realization in 2024 has been that the DMA fork of iOS is the best iPhone experience. We can finally use our phones like actual computers with more default apps and apps from external sources.
They did not give a damn when creating these screenshots. Wrong device for the screenshot, even the Dynamic Island is stretched.
The Apple ecosystem benefit:
- Let’s switch Safari to Kagi by default.
- Wait I need a safari extension.
- Wait it’s App Store only “to keep you safe”
- Wait it’s not my computer and I need to put my personal id on a work computer to get it.
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And you can’t do anything on iOS. You are stuck with the “official” list.
See also: MacStories.
Previously:
- DOJ Investigating Apple-Google Default Search Engine Deal
- Effects of the DMA’s Browser Choice Requirement
- DMA Compliance: Default App Controls and NFC
- DMA Compliance: Alternative Browser Engines
- Setting Default Apps in iOS 14
- Making an iOS Default Browser or E-mail Client
- iOS Default Apps and Competing With Built-in Apps
Update (2024-08-23): Nick Heer:
The way this works currently is the user taps on any app capable of being set as a default for a particular category, then taps the submenu for setting the default app, then picks whichever. If you want to set DuckDuckGo as your default browser, for example, you can do so from the Default Browser App submenu in DuckDuckGo, Safari, or any other web browser app you have installed.
I do not think this is particularly confusing, but I do think the version Apple is creating specifically for the E.U. is a far clearer piece of design. Not only is it what I would be looking for if I were trying to change a default app, it also tacitly advertises the ability to customize an iPhone or iPad. It is a solution designed to appease regulators and, in doing so, makes things better for users.
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If someone were designing visual interfaces for clarity, they would end up with the European version of these screens. Which makes me half-wonder — and half-assume — the motives for designing them the other way.
Open Web Advocacy (via Hacker News):
Today, in a step forward for user choice and browser competition, Apple has adopted 6 out of 11 of our recommendations to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act in relation to browser defaults and choice screens. In addition Apple has fixed two severe and deliberate deceptive patterns that we campaigned to fix including at the DMA’s workshop.
I wish they’d focus on getting rid of whatever is still blocking Chrome, Firefox etc from actually porting their web engines to full browser alternatives. Installing WebKit with a different coat on is not what I want.
Update (2024-09-10): John Gruber (Mastodon):
Thus, Safari gets treated differently. It’s not just another browser in a list of 11. It’s the only browser whose users will be forced to choose again even if they’ve already chosen it in iOS 17.4 or later. It’s the only browser whose users will be forced to choose again whenever they migrate to a new iPhone or iPad. What exactly is the point of forcing this screen per-device rather than per-user, other than to repeatedly irritate Safari users who own multiple iOS devices?
At what point do these restrictions punish Safari users who want to use Safari? I’d say the EC has crossed that point by forcing these rules on Apple.
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For 17 years, the iOS Home Screen has been consistently spatial. Wherever an app is placed on your Home Screen, it stays there. Now, obviously, the EC’s objection is that Apple has unfairly privileged Safari with default placement in the user’s Dock, and they are seeking to remove this privilege for any user who chooses a browser other than Safari on the choice screen. But surely some number of users will regret their choice. Or simply seek to open Safari while trying some other browser as their new default. But now, unlike the way iOS has worked for 17 years, the Safari icon won’t be where they left it. It’s also worth noting that apps in the iOS Dock don’t show their names, only their icons. There surely exist many satisfied Safari users who don’t even know what “Safari” is — they only know the blue-compass icon.
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So who benefits from being able to outright “delete” the Photos and Camera apps? As far as I can tell, only people suffering from OCD who are bothered that after removing them from their Home Screen, that they’re still listed in the App Library. It’s unclear to me whether users in the EU will be able to delete apps like Photos and Camera even if they don’t have any third-party photography apps installed, which would leave their iPhone in a state where there is no way to take new photos or view existing ones. This is performative regulation. None of this deletable apps nonsense increases competition; it merely increases the chances of profound user confusion.
The browser choice stuff seems like a legitimately tricky problem to solve well. It’s no surprise that after so many years of Apple being anti-competitive there’s no clean regulatory fix. The stuff about deleting apps just seems dumb.
The only people I’ve ever seen or heard complaining about iOS’ EU browser ballot are Americans who will never encounter it.
Apple implements vastly-more-intrusive/disruptive things in every single iOS update[…]
Previously:
