It came as a surprise when Apple chose to make PWAs, Progressive Web Apps, much less functional in iOS 17.4.
Apple may be in trouble again
“Beta 2 of iOS 17.4 has been released and it reveals that with the update Apple is making web apps much less attractive compared to full apps. Among other things, web apps do not open in their full window that can take advantage of the entire screen – instead, “Open them in a Safari window. In other words, what should be dynamic 'apps' now contain nothing more than browser shortcuts,” we said at the time. Local storage is also not possible.
Later, Apple followed up and explained why Shortcuts was made less useful:
“In fact, the reason for this has to do with opening up version 17.4 to alternative browser engines. Apple explains that it had to create “an entirely new integration architecture that does not currently exist in iOS.” This aims to solve “complex security and privacy issues associated with web applications that use Alternative browser engines.” Furthermore, Apple explains that this is simply not practical due to DMA legislation, plus there are very few people using PWAs, according to Apple which says it had to remove support in order not to violate DMA legislation. .
Naturally, the European Union has recognized these changes, and warns that it will find out what is happening, according to the Financial Times. The EU asked Apple for more information and also asked app developers “who can provide useful information for our evaluation.” We are following up on the case further.
“Web specialist. Lifelong zombie maven. Coffee ninja. Hipster-friendly analyst.”
