Apple has confirmed that it has disabled the Progressive Web Apps (PWA) feature on the iPhone home screen in the European Union. The company explains that this is a necessary measure to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which requires Apple to support alternative browser engines on iOS.
PWAs Web apps that can be installed on the iPhone home screen and act like native apps. They can use features such as offline access, push notifications and camera access. However, Apple explains that these features rely on the WebKit engine and security architecture designed to protect the privacy and security of iOS users.
Web applications are over in Europe
Apple claims PWAs are allowed‘Using other browser engines poses serious security and privacy risks’because malicious web applications can access data and permissions of other web applications without the user’s permission. Apple also says that implementing a new integration architecture to support other browser engines would be impractical and unnecessary because home screen web apps are not widely used by browsers.
As a result, iPhone users in the European Union will no longer be able to install or use PWAs on their home screens. They will still be able to access websites via bookmarks, but they will need to open them in Safari or another default browser. They will also lose the benefits of PWAs, such as offline access, push notifications, and camera access.
Apple says this change is a direct result of DMA. Aims to create a fair and competitive digital market in the EU. DMA also requires Apple to allow other app stores, other payment methods, and other features in iOS. Apple says it respects DMA but regrets the impact it will have on developers and users of home screen web apps. The change was seen in the second beta of iOS 17.4, which is expected to be released as the final version in a few weeks.
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