I would hope otherwise. The browser in an App is so limited that heavily gimped for a lot of things and needs improvements. A big reason developers will jump off of them is because the built in webkit engine is really BAD.
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Apple Now Allowing Non-WebKit Engines in EU, Offering More Options for Changing Default Browser
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With all these changes incoming, including another version of iOS for the EU, I fear iOS will become a bug-fest.
What will this mean for developers? Do they need to make several versions of their apps, one with features available only for users in the EU, another for non-EU users?
How much fragmentation of features and user-experience will the EU rules bring? Do devs – and Apple – optimise apps & the experience for non-EU or EU users? I bet for non-EU users, so EU users will be left with worse user experience.
Chances are iOS (and the iPhone) in the EU will become an unmanageable mess for many users, ruining the hassle-free, it-just-works experience people are used to.
What will this mean for developers? Do they need to make several versions of their apps, one with features available only for users in the EU, another for non-EU users?
How much fragmentation of features and user-experience will the EU rules bring? Do devs – and Apple – optimise apps & the experience for non-EU or EU users? I bet for non-EU users, so EU users will be left with worse user experience.
Chances are iOS (and the iPhone) in the EU will become an unmanageable mess for many users, ruining the hassle-free, it-just-works experience people are used to.
I hope it will use whatever engine the user set as the default browser's.
Why unfortunately?
I am not a fan of marketplaces per se - many developers only have one app and that is work enough. But I can see why it was mandated because solo-sideloading could be tricky to manage updating.
Also, on the other hand, I think it makes a lot of sense for Google to have its own store, and Microsoft as well, etc. Most of the time, we don't just use one app of them and instead others at the same time. An employee of a company which uses either MS or Google apps can update their whole work suite just by opening one marketplace while everythign else is filtered out.
As much as I love Apple and Safari, I'm fed up with Safari's quirks and the way Apple blatantly refuse to follow web-standards. I think it's all for good because it means web-devs will have less desire to optimize specifically for Safari, so more and more websites might not work well with Safari and either Apple will fix Safari, or users will move on to the other browsers.
This hopefully finally gets them of their asses and start implementing all the missing APIs that other browsers have had for years...
To my understanding, it was how Safari is programmed, not the engine itself. Google's engine is dead fast (even people with Edge on Windows are very happy about it) but it's Chrome that may be inferior in RAM and CPU management.
But a lot has changed in that arena in the past two years.
If you want to break the market share of Google Chrome which, yes, is about to grow even more; someone needs to compete with Google's search service and offer a better browser.
There's no argument that Google Chrome is a good browser but there are other good browsers as well. They don't have the marketing drive though that google.com offers from being so popular. Most users do just fine with Safari and Edge and only uses Chrome because they use google.com or hear from the peers that they should be using Chrome. In some cases, many users don't even know refer to the browser as Chrome but as Google.
With AI coming on strong there might be a way to create a dent in Google's monopoly but the cards are stacked a bit as it's not like Google has been sitting on their thumbs.
Having a better browser from Apple, MS, or anyone else isn't going to cut it. There has to be a huge marketing angle or other pieces that play a role to turn this tide. It's not likely to be Apple as long as Google keeps paying them to be the default search engine.
There's no argument that Google Chrome is a good browser but there are other good browsers as well. They don't have the marketing drive though that google.com offers from being so popular. Most users do just fine with Safari and Edge and only uses Chrome because they use google.com or hear from the peers that they should be using Chrome. In some cases, many users don't even know refer to the browser as Chrome but as Google.
With AI coming on strong there might be a way to create a dent in Google's monopoly but the cards are stacked a bit as it's not like Google has been sitting on their thumbs.
Having a better browser from Apple, MS, or anyone else isn't going to cut it. There has to be a huge marketing angle or other pieces that play a role to turn this tide. It's not likely to be Apple as long as Google keeps paying them to be the default search engine.
I actually don't expect most people to opt for using option browsers over Safari that much. Some problematic sites work better with Safari then say Firefox on IOS. This will be an incentive for Apple to keep working on Safari to update/improve its performance/functionaity. Perhaps they will allow a user agent setting for iOS/IPadOS Safari so you can simulate other browsers now? Also I haven't had really any issues lately with the current Safari 17.3 with all the pages I access.
Or Safari just starts catching up adopting new web technologies when they're still new and not wait until they're old.
For all the sideloading debate and app store grumbling, this is the piece I have been most concerned about seeing fall.
We're all Chrome users now.
Thanks, EU. You handed Google a monopoly. I hope you have a plan for that.
Yep. People switch to Chrome (mostly) because Google keeps harassing them to switch in Google search.
Yep, like I said earlier. For a group that supposedly hates monopolies so much...they sure managed to accomplish a scenario that will create a massive one. They might want to get to work on stopping it before it gets too out of hand to control. In an effort to "fix" a "problem" that they saw...they laid the groundwork for a BIG one.
I do not remember a moment when Apple was the leading horse in web technologies. Just because something is different doesn't make it better.
The better browser will win, as it always was. Safari has had this userbase not because Safari was that good but because Apple mandated it for long enough.
They ask once, on their own website, which gives you a service in many ways is still best-in-slot. How would your life be without Google, how much more lifetime would you not have had if they didn't have their search and products?
Asking once to install their browser is more than fair.
Great. So we're now going back to the days when every app had its own integrated browser for some feature and we have all of the app size bloat now with every app, not to mention every time there is a security bug in the browser, I now have to update 50 apps because it embeds Chromium in some hidden way.
Good thing we have 1 TB storage to hold all this repetitive cruft.
Good thing we have 1 TB storage to hold all this repetitive cruft.
Fearmongering turned up to 11.
Yep. In attempting to curb Apple's control, the actual result will most likely be Google gaining additional share and leverage across multiple markets that they already dominate. Play Store, Chrome, Blink, Google ads and Google Search will likely all benefit.
IMHO most of us don't care that much when utilizing Safari on iPhones anyway. IPadOS and MacOS you would see a lot more browser usage because of the size of the display using desktop view. This has more to do with non-desktop view pages versus desktop view with your browser.
Calling the EU dictating while a certain former president if re-elected promised totaliarism and revanchism.
Also, the EU did nothing to Apple except tell them what the rules are in the EU house. Nothing more, nothing less. Russia and China have asked for far worse (including a glass-doored iCloud just for Chinese citizens) and I don't see the Apple defenders here criticizing that even once.
I suppose because Google Chrome on iOS up until now was just a Safari re-skin and devalued and can now score points with its own engine which is what Chrome was built to integrate with.
By expanding Google Play Services into the rest of the market that they don't already control through their agreements with android manufacturers.