Yep, Apple’s breaking iPhone web apps in the EU - eviltoast
  • Rimu@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    9 months ago

    PWA could have been awesome but Apple and Google would rather have apps in their stores where they can clip the ticket. Sad.

    • aluminium@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      *Apple

      Google for the longest time was (and still is) one of the biggest supporters of the idea. Chromium overall has the best support for PWAs and some of their Apps (like Google News or Photos) have very competent PWA versions.

    • THE MASTERMIND@feddit.ch
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      PWA could have been awesome but Apple and Google would rather have apps in their stores where they can clip the ticket. Sad.

      There fixed it for you

  • trollercoaster@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    9 months ago

    And the enshittification continues.

    But Apple makes overpriced ego boosting lifestyle products anyway, so anyone who thinks they need their crap deserves it.

    • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      21
      ·
      9 months ago

      The only reason I spend extra for Apple is the security.

      If the EU takes that, their entire business model is gone.

        • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          18
          ·
          9 months ago

          They make no money by requiring their web engine be used.

          What they get is a phone where they prevent apps from snooping around other apps and secretly taking over the camera and microphone.

          Here is a Wikipedia page that explains their long fight over encryption.

          The EU regs just eliminated all of this protection in the name of commerce, but the big winners are the spy agencies and hackers.

          • Cicraft@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            9 months ago

            You know you can just stick to the app store if you’re worried about that, right?

  • ben_dover@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    9 months ago

    In its post, Apple argues that web apps are built “directly on WebKit” — the engine used by Safari — allowing web apps to “align with the security and privacy model for native apps on iOS.” With the change to iOS 17.4, websites added to the homescreen now act only as bookmarks that open a new tab in your browser

    even if we play along with this bs argument, they could also have kept pwas enabled as long as a user is actually using webkit, and change the behaviour only if the web engine is changed. seems like a petty move to turn European iPhone users against pro-consumer laws. “the EU took our jobs webapps!”

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Apple is officially axing support for progressive web apps for iPhone users located in the European Union.

    While web apps have been broken for EU users in every iOS 17.4 beta so far, Apple has now confirmed that this is a feature, not a bug.

    In an update to its developer website spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple says it’s removing homescreen apps for users in the EU because bringing them into compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) would involve “an entirely new integration architecture” that’s “not practical” to build on top of the other changes it’s been forced to make.

    In its post, Apple argues that web apps are built “directly on WebKit” — the engine used by Safari — allowing web apps to “align with the security and privacy model for native apps on iOS.” With the change to iOS 17.4, websites added to the homescreen now act only as bookmarks that open a new tab in your browser, rather than (potentially) standalone services capable of doing things like sending notifications and showing badges, a feature Apple just added to web apps last year.

    Progressive web apps on iOS are also capable of storing data separately from your browser instance, which comes in handy if there’s a site you want quick access to and don’t want to keep signing in.

    “Still, we regret any impact this change — that was made as part of the work to comply with the DMA — may have on developers of Home Screen web apps and our users.” Apple cites “very low user adoption” of homescreen apps as another reason for the lack of support.


    The original article contains 399 words, the summary contains 272 words. Saved 32%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    9 months ago

    I have railed against Apple’s intolerable control over users since the iPhone launched, and I still see no problem with saying your special category of bookmarks-as-programs can stick to Safari. You can keep “webview” as your own thing, guys. The problem was always that other browsers were forced to use that… instead of being other browsers.

  • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    18
    ·
    9 months ago

    even though Android phones have offered web apps with different types of browsers for years.

    Notice they didn’t say “and there are no incidences of spy software gaining access to their phones because of the lower security”

    • N0ll@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      It’s a glorified website. I don’t see anyone being afraid of infecting their devices by simply visiting a url

      • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        15
        ·
        9 months ago

        You rely on the page generator to only generate pages.

        The EU is requiring Apple to let potentially bad actors loose.

        There is no way to prevent them from stealing your information or other back actions.

    • bulwark@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      “Tell me you don’t understand web apps without telling me you don’t understand web apps”

    • Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      If anything, it makes the iPhone safer. If only one website renderer is used, you only need to find a zero-day in that one renderer to potentially infect all iPhones. Now that other web engines are going to be permitted, attackers will have to contend with multiple web engines. And you as user can choose to use a smaller web engine like Gecko in order to decrease the likelihood of being successfully attacked.