Apple, renowned for its iPhones and other premium products, is much more than a hardware company.
In a world where most people rely heavily on their smartphones for convenience, Apple recognizes that these devices hold a vast amount of personal information. This is where the company positions itself as a strong advocate for user privacy.
Apple, already a source of concern for many social media platforms, especially since the introduction of App Tracking Transparency, is now intensifying their worries.
With the release of iOS 18, Apple is changing how apps can access users' contacts.
The company is introducing a more restrictive contact-sharing prompt, tightening control over user data.
In a newsroom post, Apple said that:
Previously, when an app like Instagram or WhatsApp would request access to users' contacts, users could either grant it access or deny it.
There was no other option.
But starting iOS 18, if an app requests access to users' contacts after an update, users can select exactly which contacts they're willing to share with the app.
Apple is introducing iOS 18 as an upgrade fully-packed with big, headline changes like new customization tools, upgrades to Photos, Notes, and Messages, a new Passwords app, and most notably, the Apple Intelligence features.
But apparently, this one smaller update is causing a lot of concern for social apps, and it’s a change designed to protect user privacy.
The change is minor, but for apps, like social media platforms, this permission tweak could pose a significant problem to them.
Social media apps utilize this contact sync as their key for growth.
It’s definitely how apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat were able to find their footing, by quickly connecting millions of iPhone users to people they already knew, and suggesting other users for them to follow.
That early momentum helped kick-start their viral growth.
In an increasingly saturated market, social media apps need contact sharing to quickly connect new users with their friends.
With this contact access permission, if a user grants a social media app access to only seven of their contacts, for example, the app can only attempt to connect with those seven, compared to previously having access to potentially hundreds or thousands of contacts.