Apple has been in trouble lately due to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). EU articles required the company to allow users to use third-party applications. The company had until March 7 to complete this and make changes to the app store.
The expected news came today. Apple announced that it will make fundamental changes to its App Store policies in order to comply with EU articles. The changes will come with the new version of iOS 17, iOS 17.4, and will only be available in European countries.
Users in Europe will be able to download applications from third-party platforms
A statement came from the company before the release of the first beta version of iOS 17.4. The press release states that the new version will make changes across iOS, Safari and the App Store, and that these changes will be specific to EU countries. Of course, the biggest change is happening on the App Store side, as expected.
In the statement, Apple promised that the App Store would be opened to “alternative application markets.” This means that developers will be able to offer iOS applications on different platforms. This means that users in the EU will not only be connected to the App Store, but will be able to download applications from different places.
Apart from this, the technology giant will not receive commission from applications distributed outside the App Store. At the same time, a committee will not be requested for alternative payment systems that will be allowed. Developers will be able to integrate payment methods that allow the user to make a purchase entirely within the application. In addition, they will be able to contact websites where they can make payments. Let us add that even if there is no board, accounts will pay a “Basic Technology Fee” of 0.50 euros per upload.
Developers will be able to create their own application markets as long as they meet Apple’s criteria such as security, customer service and user experience. In addition, when a developer in the EU submits his application to Apple, he will have the opportunity to choose the App Store or an alternative market. However, these stores will need to go through security and closure processes. So, just like Mac applications.
App Store committees are being dropped
Apart from this, it was announced that the 30% committee, which the developers complained about a lot, was dropped. Now the commission received from iOS applications in EU countries will be 17%. If they use Apple’s own in-app purchasing system, they will have to pay an additional 3%. The 15% rate in the program offered to small businesses decreased to 10%. There is also a 3% payment on purchase here.
Changes to Safari
Safari offered in the European Union is also among the things that have been changed due to the law. iOS users could already set their default browser to something other than Safari. However, Apple also offered a new option to comply with DMA. This option will be available to users who open Safari for the first time in iOS 17.4. Here they can choose whether they want to make Safari or another browser the default.
In addition, full versions of browsers such as Google Chrome and Firefox will now be available. Apple previously only allowed WebKit, which forms the basis of Safari. However, it did not allow Chromium and similar applications, which form the infrastructure of Chrome. This prevented us from accessing all the features of other browsers. With the new change, users living in the European Union will not encounter these problems.
Apple says it won’t make many of these changes outside of Europe
The company answered the question “Will these changes come outside the EU?” He also answered the question. The company says that such a thing will not happen for now. The reason is that they are not safe for their users. According to the company, these changes, which were introduced solely to comply with the EU article, could lead to many things, from frauds to malicious software. So Apple still believes that their policy is the “safest” one.