In recent months, Apple has been forced to make changes to the way its walled garden works thanks to pressure from the European Union (EU) and its Digital Markets Act (DMA). And the latest development could have a massive impact on how you use and download all the best iOS apps onto your iPhone if you live in the EU.
For one thing, you’ll soon have far more choice over the default apps that are used to open certain files on your iPhone. Right now, Apple already lets EU users change their default apps for web browsing, email, contactless payments and app purchases, but that’s soon going to expand to cover much more.
In a post on the Apple Developer website, Apple explained that EU users will soon be able to change their default apps for “dialing phone numbers, sending messages, translating text, navigation, managing passwords, keyboards, and call spam filters.” That’s a massive increase and should give you much more freedom to set up your iPhone the way you want it.
You’ll be able to set new default apps for messaging, phone calls, password managers, spam call filters, and keyboards in an iOS 18 update later this year. For everything else, you’ll need to wait until spring 2025.
Apple is also changing how users are able to pick a default web browser. In iOS 17.4, EU users would see a pop-up window showing a randomized list of available browsers. Now, this list will appear if you have Safari set as your default browser (but not if anything else is the default), and Apple is adding a description next to each app choice. This pop-up will appear on every Apple device you have. There’s more information about this change on Apple’s website.
More freedom to delete
The alterations don’t stop there. Not only will you soon be able to change your default apps, but you’ll even be able to delete some of Apple’s core apps that have remained a key part of iOS for years.
For instance, Apple will allow you to remove the App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari apps from your iPhone once these changes have come into effect. Previously, you’ve only been able to remove these apps from your iOS Home Screen, not delete them entirely.
The App Store is an interesting example, because deleting it would previously mean you’d have no way of getting new apps – or of redownloading the App Store itself after deleting it – hence why Apple always made it an essential app. But with the rise of third-party app stores on iOS, that’s apparently no longer such a strong concern. As a failsafe, Apple will enable users to redownload the App Store app from the Settings app, just in case.
Clearly, these are some pretty major changes. Yet they’re only rolling out to users in the EU for now, with no news as to whether they’ll be enforced anywhere else. If you live in the EU, though, your iPhone could soon be more customizable than it’s ever been before.
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