You can follow maliciously or you can follow while keeping the feature set full.
And only allowing PWA to run on WebKit probably runs afoul of the rules as written, and since PWA requires low level access Apple was in the situation where Google, Mozilla or Microsoft could create backdoors in iOS. They were left with little choice.
But Android does do PWA with different browsers…so I guess incompetence or laziness from Apple? And how is the usbc?
Android PWAs from other browsers suck (I know from experience) and the USB-C speed is the same as most Android phones.
They did not from the start though. So almost like it's requiring a full new API with many modifications to make it happen takes time and they just spent a year making a browser engine API so other engines can be used.
There are no requirements in the DMA that require them to block this. You don't see Google do this on Android, or Microsoft do this on Windows, for the very reason that there simply are no rules that would require anything of the sort. This is just Apple being a little child.
Again; they did absolutely not have to do this to comply with any laws. There is no law that says a browser cannot support PWAs.
PWAs aren't "integrated into the OS itself" any more on iOS than they are on any other OS. Heck, if anything, the OS integration on iOS and its derivatives if by far the least integrated of any of them due to the severe lack of APIs in Webkit to actually fully support PWAs.
They we're forced to not require Webkit and PWAs use Webkit.
With the second beta of iOS 17.4, Apple disabled much of the functionality of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) in the European Union. There was some speculation that it could be a temporary change or a bug related to some of the updates to the app ecosystem in Europe, but Apple has confirmed that PWAs were intentionally removed and won't be returning.
In an update on the Developer website (via 9to5Mac), Apple explains that users in the EU will not have access to Home Screen web apps due to the support for alternative browser engines and the accompanying security risks and work required to implement a new solution.
According to Apple, Home Screen web apps are built on WebKit and its security architecture, and are designed to "align with the privacy and security model for native apps on iOS." Storage isolation and system prompts to access privacy functions on a per-site basis are crucial.
Without isolation, Apple claims that malicious web apps could read data from other web apps and gain access to a user's camera, microphone, and location without user consent. To fix these security issues, Apple would need to build a new integration architecture, which it says is not practical because of the other Digital Markets Act requirements and because Home Screen web apps aren't used by many people.
iPhone users in the European Union can access websites directly from the Home Screen through a bookmark, but PWA features won't be available. Web apps on the Home Screen will be forced to open in Safari (or another default browser) rather than in a dedicated window, there isn't support for long-term local storage, and notifications won't work.
Apple says that the changes are a direct result of DMA compliance, and will affect only a "small number of users." The company also says that it regrets the impact the change will have on developers of Home Screen web apps and iPhone users.
The update to Home Screen web apps comes alongside many other changes to the App Store in the European Union, with Apple allowing alternative app marketplaces, alternative payment methods, different browser engines, and more.
Article Link: Apple Confirms iOS 17.4 Disables Home Screen Web Apps in the European Union
A bizarre comment. The voting public of each EU country has absolutely no say as to the decision making process of the EU Council. So yes, it's a one way street for the lowly EU Apple consumer.
So why are you a customer of theirs?
So... they aren't required to block it, is what you're saying. PWA's on every other OS can use whatever engine the browser that created that PWA uses. If another browser with another engine wants to create a PWA, there shouldn't have been any technical limitation that stopped that browser from doing so, nor would that block Safari from continuing to serve the PWA's it created. There is absolutely no reason for iOS to work differently from any other OS in this regard. PWA's created with Webkit could just have remained as such.
They didn't want to spend "millions in engineering" to *checks notes* do nothing? Browsers can just support PWA's. There is nothing stopping them from supporting that, that's just nonsense.
I'd like to point out that even after a user opts to use a different default browser, PWA's created through Safari could still just continue to work through Safari. PWA's are a feature of the browser, they aren't just shortcuts. A PWA created on Windows with Edge can still just open in Edge even if the default is Firefox (who doesn't support that at all on desktops). The same goes for iOS. Multiple browsers can simultaneously create PWA's on any OS and they don't need to be the default on any of them either.
