To comply with the provisions of the Digital Markets Act, Apple is making additional changes to its app ecosystem in the European Union, updating the already-introduced default browser selection experience to allow EU users to set defaults for a wider range of apps, as well as removing core iOS apps like Messages and App Store.
While iPhone users in the EU can already have different default settings for the browser, email app, app marketplace, and contactless payments, Apple will now allow them to choose new default settings for phone, messages, password manager, keyboard, call spam filter, navigation, and translation. This means, for example, that EU users will be able to choose an app like WhatsApp instead of Messages as their default text messaging app, or set a mapping app like Waze as their default instead of Apple Maps.
Apple has not yet revealed details about how the new default settings for messaging apps, navigation, password manager, and more will work, but is expected to provide more information as the release dates for these features approach. The new default settings for Phone, Messaging, Password Manager, Spam Call Filter, and Keyboard will be available in the iOS 18 update scheduled for later this year. Meanwhile, the option to set different defaults for navigation and translation is expected to arrive in Spring 2025.
To accommodate the many new default apps that can be set, Apple is adding a “Default Apps” section to the Settings app, which will list all the defaults available to each user and make them easier to manage.
Apple will set the new apps as defaults while allowing users to remove core apps. The App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari apps will be removable, so essentially only Settings and Phone apps will be removable in the EU. If a user removes the App Store app, they can reinstall it from the Settings app if they want, but other apps can only be reinstalled from the App Store.
In iOS 17.4, EU users could choose their default browser from a list of the top 12 browsers randomly chosen in their country. In the upcoming update to iOS 18, the browser selection window will pop up again if users have Safari set as default. The new browser selection experience will include a descriptive statement about the browser and an option to set the default browser directly from the selection window. If a user selects a browser that is already installed on the device, it will open automatically; otherwise, a download icon will be displayed and the browser will open after downloading. Users will have to scroll through the full list of available browser options before making a selection.
Please note that the option to set a default browser will only be shown again to users who have Safari as their default, so if EU users have already selected Chrome, they won't see the selection window again in the iOS 18 update coming later this year. Users will also see the selection interface on all devices, not just one, and it will appear the first time they open Safari after updating. If you set a new default while Safari is on the user's home screen or Dock, the new default browser will replace the Safari icon.
If a user had previously set Safari as their default, they will also see the browser default popup when migrating to a new device.
The changes Apple is making apply to iPhone and iPad users in the European Union who apply the update to iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, and are not available in other countries, such as the United States.
More information about the changes can be found on Apple's developer site.