Since March, Apple’s Safari is no longer the iPhone’s default browser. Users now have the choice between several solutions, such as Google Chrome, Opera, Brave, Mozilla Firefox or even Vivaldi. However, this is only valid in the European Union, since it is a measure to comply with the DMA of commissioners Thierry Breton and Margrethe Vestager.
This has also been effective since iOS 17.4, which integrates the first draft of all the measures induced by DMA. However, it is very likely that Apple will be forced to reconsider a large part of it, which does not completely open the way to competition.
This could be the case regarding the default browser choice screen for European iPhone users. Safari’s competitors are indeed complaining about the way it has been implemented.
© [X] / Brave
Safari favored?
As usual when it comes to this type of affair, Apple is criticized for favoring its own applications and taking advantage of its dominant position. According to spokespersons for other browsers, the new choice screen would continue to favor Safari.
If you updated your iPhone to iOS 17.4 in the EU and are using Safari, you will normally be offered to choose a new default browser, from the 12 most popular ones in the App Store. However, this suggestion only happened when you opened Safari after the update, but not before.
According to Jon Von Tetzchner, CEO of Vivaldi, this is not the right place. He and Safari’s competitors would have wanted the default browser proposal to be made directly after the phone has been updated, like when you configure it for the first time.
Journalist William Gallagher of AppleInsider, who calls himself an Apple historian with 30 years of experience on the subject, thinks that “These companies just received a boost from Apple on every iPhone in the European Union. And yet some developers act like this is a bad thing. »
