Apple plans continue to support web applications in the European Unionthe tech giant said in an update on its developer support page.
The twist comes later EU regulators said they had taken the first steps in the investigation why Apple was considering ending support for web apps in the EU.
Apple said it was making the change to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to market competition in the EU more balanced by preventing large companies from abusing their market power.
Apple initially said the need to remove web apps from the home page, known as Progressive Web Apps, was due to complex security and privacy issues related to building a new integration architecture that doesn’t yet exist in iOS.
Apple said it will now continue to support the Home Screen web apps that were removed during the EU beta release of iOS. They said they will continue to offer Home Screen web apps in iOS once they “receive requests” for it.
To align with the security and privacy model for native apps on iOS, Apple said its home screen web apps will continue to be built directly on Webkit within its security architecture.
“Users in the EU will be able to continue accessing websites directly from their home screen via a bookmark with minimal impact to their functionality,” Apple said in a statement. “We expect this change to affect a small number of users. However, we regret any impact this change — which was made as part of DMA compliance work — may have on home screen web app developers and our users.”
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Web-based apps have the ability to deploy and launch from the iPhone’s home screen, while also sending push notifications and storing memory independently of the web browser.
“Developers and users … can expect the return of existing functionality for web apps on the Home screen with the availability of iOS 17.4 in early March,” Apple said in its update.