Newsletter
Apple has just released iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4, which includes many of the changes needed to comply with the EU’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA). That also includes sideloading, but only in the European Union, unfortunately.
In the EU, Apple is allowing users to install apps from alternative app marketplaces, install web browsers with alternative browser engines, manage their default web browser the first time they open Safari, use alternative payment options for apps in the app store with the external purchases badge, and some of these options will require developer support.
These are some pretty big changes for Europeans, particularly the sideloading and web browser changes. Prior to this, every web browser available on the iPhone was technically Safari with a wrapper. Since everything has to use the Safari browser engine. But now Firefox, Chrome, and Edge can use their own engine to power their browsers, but only in the EU. Of course, sideloading is also a pretty big feature, and there are many of app marketplaces preparing for this change, that is now available to everyone in the European Union.
New Emoji and big changes to Apple Podcasts
Apple is releasing a ton of new emoji in this update, which includes a new mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and shaking heads. There are also 18 people, and body emojis add the option to face them in either direction.
For Apple Podcasts, there are a few significant changes here. First up is transcripts. So you can now follow an episode with text that highlights in sync with the audio in English, Spanish, French, and German. The Episode text can be read in full, searched for a word or phrase, tapped to play from a specific point, and used with accessibility features.
The update is available now for every iPhone and iPad that supports iOS 17. It’s a pretty significant update, actually, weighing in at about 1.71GB in size, on the iPhone 15 Pro.