Giving a choice for people to choose means giving them freedom. But sometimes, the freedom is not the 'freedom' people expect.
In response to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple announced that it would allow "alternative" browser engines to run on its iOS devices in the Europe Union. What this means, third-party web browsers on iOS devices in Europe can be built with engines other than Apple's WebKit.
What this means, browsers like Google Chrome can finally use its own engine, which is Blink. All Chromium-based browsers, like Arc, Samsung Internet, Opera, Vivaldi, Yandex Browser and more use Blink, meaning that they too can use the engine instead of WebKit for their browsers on iOS.
Others, like Microsoft Edge can use EdgeHTML, and Mozilla Firefox can use Gecko.
In other words, Apple's decision allows browser makers to have more control of their browser, allowing them to be fully functional on iOS without any of the limitations that come along with WebKit, which in turn allows them to provide the experience they've always wanted on iPhones.
But this time, despite may seem like a welcome change, things don't actually look like what it seems.
Read: Apple Announces Changes To IOS, Safari, And App Store To European Union: Not Its Idea
According to Apple, iOS 17.4, which is currently in beta, allows iOS apps — both "dedicated browser apps and apps providing in-app browsing experiences" — to use non-WebKit browser engines in the European Union.
Apple even laid out the steps needed for browser makers to follow, including specific criteria, "timely security updates to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities," and other "ongoing privacy and security requirements," in order to get this Web Browser Engine Entitlement.
The change is the first time for Apple, and has been awaited for far too long.
Better late than never, but the change is making it extremely difficult for others to follow.
Mozilla spokesperson Damiano DeMonte said that he is "extremely disappointed" with the way things turned out.
“We are still reviewing the technical details but are extremely disappointed with Apple’s proposed plan to restrict the newly-announced BrowserEngineKit to EU-specific apps,” DeMonte said. "The effect of this would be to force an independent browser like Firefox to build and maintain two separate browser implementations — a burden Apple themselves will not have to bear.”
Mozilla argues that rolling out the changes only in the EU will make it more difficult for browsers to juggle different versions.
"Apple’s proposals fail to give consumers viable choices by making it as painful as possible for others to provide competitive alternatives to Safari," DeMonte added. "This is another example of Apple creating barriers to prevent true browser competition on iOS."
And according to Chrome’s vice president and general manager Parisa Tabriz, "Apple isn’t serious about supporting web browser or engine choice on iOS. Their strategy is overly restrictive, and won’t meaningfully lead to real choice for browser developers."
She agrees with Mozilla’s previous statement, which said that the change 'forces' Firefox to "build and maintain two separate browser implementations" given that alternative browser engines are just for the EU.
Strong agree with @mozilla. @Apple isn’t serious about supporting web browser or engine choice on iOS. Their strategy is overly restrictive, and won’t meaningfully lead to real choice for browser developers. https://t.co/GBA8ucR7NU
— Parisa Tabriz (@laparisa) February 2, 2024
The problem here is that, the change only affects users in the EU.
This is an issue because Apple iOS users in Europe only account to around 10% of all iOS users the company has.
What this means, the change that is only enforced to the European market is making it difficult for smaller companies, like Mozilla, to adapt.
That being said, Google and Microsoft should be two of the few companies able to commit the engineering resources to this effort.
Mozilla isn’t the only developer critical of Apple’s updated rules, which also extend to game streaming apps, alternative app stores, and sideloading.
Epic Games, for example, called the updated terms a "horror show," while Spotify said the changes are a "farce."
Meta criticized that Apple's rule in opening up its App Store and allowing developers to use their own payment systems, among other things, is "so onerous."