Apple to Remove iPhone-Apple Watch Wi-Fi Sync in EU With iOS 26.2

[surferfb]

Given what we know about this new API, the solution will not be that bad. Sure, you'll need to answer some prompts when you set up your Apple Watch for the first time. In exchange though the API will make it easier to configure new devices for your Wifi network. And if I interpret the docs correctly, you won't have to share all the credentials. There will be a picker and two sharing modes: perpetual and on-time.

I may be mistaken, but now that I have time to look into it I am not sure the WiFi API you’re referring to is related. That was announced while ago (maybe WWDC - think it was literally in the keynote?) and as far as I’m aware it’s not for sharing one WiFi network, not your WiFi history. The US will get it without an annoying, unnecessary prompt on Apple Watch that does nothing to improve competition. And now that I’ve looked into it I’m not so sure Apple won’t remove the credential feature.

But even if @bcortens is right, it doesn’t change my point. A prompt here, a selection there, a pick your search engine here, pick a browser there. And it won’t stop: soon the EU will demand Apple make you pick your default email app, default camera app, App Store, etc. Death by a thousand cuts.

I’m not going to fall on my sword over this one in particular but it is bad for user experience for literally no benefit for anyone. It’s why we shouldn’t have bureaucrats who tried mandating MicroUSB even after lightening and been released design software. They’re not qualified to do so and lack common sense and the ability to think through the consequences of their regulations.

 

[mihighil]

The EU has only made it harder to grow businesses, it's why it's pretty much creatively stagnant and has been for over two decades.

Couldn't care less about USB-C on my iPhone, if anything it just wasted money because I had to replace all my perfectly functional Lightning cables. Now I have a load of now useless Lightning cables that can't easily be recycled. Such a win. I can see why it would be useful to others, but didn't bother me at all.

Those powerful and efficient chips in your phone and laptop wouldnt exist without european companies.

 

[ToothBlueth]

Are EU users prepared for more features to be withheld from Apple devices if Apple decides it’s not worth the time and effort to make it equally accessible to all vendors, or heck, even develop it altogether?

Equality cuts both ways. Are you prepared to accept the bad alongside the good?

Is Apple willing to give up sales because of petty non-compliance? Other companies will be happy to jump in the vacuum they leave if they stop innovation (or don't launch them in Europe and other jurisdictions that will implement similar regulations).

 

[I7guy]

Is Apple willing to give up sales because of petty non-compliance?

It seems so.

Other companies will be happy to jump in the vacuum they leave if they stop innovation (or don't launch them in Europe and other jurisdictions that will implement similar regulations).

Assuming the value is equal. A steak at Ruth’s Chris is the same as a steak at Outback.

 

[spazzcat]

Oh they do all the time and the make tons on money on exactly this. All features in iOS, MacOS, iPadOS, App stores, are designed for supporting third parties (add developers) that themself earn money.

They also make money by providing these servers to developers. Give away my wifi data does not make them any money...

 

[Powerbooky]

The funny thing is that you bash the EU, but it protects users' rights in many areas and also standardises useful things. If it weren't for the EU, there probably still wouldn't be USB C on the iPhone.

Most of those consumer rights already existed in west European countries before the EU started the slow transformation into what we can call 1984. Don't forget, that same EC (EU) does not obstruct the surveillance/spying Windows 11 and the TPM chip is able to do. Unfortunately, most politicians are very very gullible and stupid when it comes to technology - they have no idea.

 

[Runaway Train]

Each time I purchase a new product here in the EU I see in the package some utterly meaningless insert - often an entire booklet running though every silly little regulation and compliance etc that complies with EU blah, blah. Incredible that people being paid good money to produce this meaningless garbage. I throw it away as I suspect most people do.

If you’ve ever driven my that monolith in Brussels as I have a number of times - yes the thing looks like something out of an Orwell novel. It’s staggering the things you are « not allowed to do » in the EU. It may have started out as a good idea, but it’s lost its way.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Those powerful and efficient chips in your phone and laptop wouldnt exist without european companies.

I assume you mean ARM? Was a UK company, actually.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

The reason it's hard to grow businesses in the EU is the shallowness of capital markets. That is indeed a problem. It's not lack of creativity. And btw: Europe's stocks have grown more than US stocks this year, despite not having Fantasy Multiples like Nvidia and Tesla.

Yeah one year of a marginal outperformance, absolutely radical.

Do the last ten or 20 years instead of a tiny cherry-pick, and tell me where you would have preferred to put your money.

 

[mihighil]

I assume you mean ARM? Was a UK company, actually

I mean ASML and zeiss, and while you're at it last i checked the UK is in Europe.

 

[CarlJ]

If it weren't for the EU, there probably still wouldn't be USB C on the iPhone.

The Lightning connector was built for a technological lifespan of about ten years (Apple said as much when it was introduced), using criteria gained from all their work (and workarounds with) the previous 30-pin connector. It was always going to be replaced eventually. As well, Apple was part of the working group that designed USB-C. At the most, the EU forced Apple to move the transition up a year or two - not a win, a changeover at any point was always going to result in a given amount of cabled being rebought and old ones discarded.

If the EU had gotten their way, we'd all be chained to the MicroUSB standard still. That's what they were originally insisting everyone had to use. I wish people would stop pushing this idea that "the EU is the only reason Apple adopted USB-C", because it's just wrong.

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

So ****ing dumb
I wish we could get leadership that actually understands technology and doesn’t write legislature that ends up making everything worse

Look I’m not naive, I understand there have to be repercussions or companies will never play ball but surely this **** should be looked on a case by case basis

It’s absolutely insane that Apple cannot add features without making sure every stupid third party can’t offer the exact same feature as well, at some point you gotta start drawing lines

Now we can’t even have our god damn Apple Watches learn new WiFi networks automatically?? Who the hell needs this to be stopped for the sake of fair competition?

Absolutely bonkers

 

[MilaM]

Now we can’t even have our god damn Apple Watches learn new WiFi networks automatically?? Who the hell needs this to be stopped for the sake of fair competition?

Nothing will change for your Apple Watch. This pause is temporary, until they add the new API to WatchOS. I bet by the end of the year everything will be as it was. As a bonus, your other Wifi devices (cars, cameras, watches, other gadgets) will be able to learn you Wifi credentials from your iPhone.

 

[jlc1978]

You're entire Wi-Fi history? You mean a list of Wi-Fi names you've connected to an unknown number of times at an unknown date and which you haven't deleted yet? Astronomical?

However, collecting wifi data allows companies going forward to use the data to cross reference, tack users and establish patterns.

It's not simple "other vendors". It's to a specific vendor I picked and bought a device from. Everybody would enter their Wifi passwords on the device anyway. Frankly, I'd love to have universal Wi-Fi password sharing rather than type that stupid long password into new devices. Everybody hates that, don't they?

Yea, I'm sure Meta is interested in making things easier and not getting even more user data.

And they can obviously just ask the user and make it opt-in and no problem. Or allow sharing only your home password.

Which, no doubt, would result in more complaints to EU regulators and claims Apple is not complying with the law.

Done. Nothing in the legislation is anti-privacy here. It just puts the decision in the hands of the customer instead of the platform owner.

The platform owner gets to decide what features to offer; in this case Apple has decided to not advantage Apple Watch users in order to comply with EU regulations.

 

[MikeX]

EU is the last man standing against big corporations. it is good for us, consumers. try to be a small country and ask something from apple or microsoft vs. EU asking them to be compliant.

Thanks to it we have free data roaming when traveling and a proper food regulation.

So, nag as much as you like, EU is a good thing.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

I mean ASML and zeiss, and while you're at it last i checked the UK is in Europe.

Bit of a stretch. Pretty much the same as a smelter claiming credit for erecting a building because they melted down the iron ore used in the girders.

The UK is part of continental Europe, yes. Part of the EU, thankfully not anymore.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

EU is the last man standing against big corporations. it is good for us, consumers. try to be a small country and ask something from apple or microsoft vs. EU asking them to be compliant.

Thanks to it we have free data roaming when traveling and a proper food regulation.

So, nag as much as you like, EU is a good thing.

Companies outside of the EU seem to do just fine. Consider how much the EU do to stifle innovation and new business investment as the real "last man standing" between success and not.

And oh yes of course, an entire political layer costing billions of euros every year is so worth it for your free data roaming. 🙄

 

[Techwatcher]

Europe can’t create their own tech companies so they try to feel important by creating dumb rules against successful American ones. Everyone is thinking it, I’ll just say it.

 

[Runaway Train]

EU is the last man standing against big corporations. it is good for us, consumers. try to be a small country and ask something from apple or microsoft vs. EU asking them to be compliant.

Thanks to it we have free data roaming when traveling and a proper food regulation.

So, nag as much as you like, EU is a good thing.

Is it really? 30,000 lobbyists roaming the halls of those EU buildings.

Food regulation? Really. Look who just signed off on Mercosur (sure cheap food, bypassing the so-called regulations, shipped across the ocean in containers polluting the whole way) ….in the name of. ….competition!.

 

[Selena Agna]

Europe can’t create their own tech companies so they try to feel important by creating dumb rules against successful American ones. Everyone is thinking it, I’ll just say it.

Define "everyone".

 

[turbineseaplane]

EU is the last man standing against big corporations. it is good for us, consumers. try to be a small country and ask something from apple or microsoft vs. EU asking them to be compliant.

Thanks to it we have free data roaming when traveling and a proper food regulation.

So, nag as much as you like, EU is a good thing.

This is a really valid point.

When firms get of a certain size and scope, consumers basically have no power, which is where it’s ended up already with a lot of these tech firms and especially in the United States.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Is it really? 30,000 lobbyists roaming the halls of those EU buildings.

Food regulation? Really. Look who just signed off on Mercosur (sure cheap food, bypassing the so-called regulations, shipped across the ocean in containers polluting the whole way) ….in the name of. ….competition!.

Can you please tell us who’s doing food regulation in the way you like?

The US basically bows completely to industry, real people be damned, and apparently the solution to everything is to take a pill from whatever pharmaceutical company has bought out regulators.

 

[I7guy]

This is a really valid point.

When firms get of a certain size and scope, consumers basically have no power, which is where it’s ended up already with a lot of these tech firms and especially in the United States.

That’s why the ability to buy a competitors product is important and why Apple isn’t a monopoly.

 

[jlc1978]

And oh yes of course, an entire political layer costing billions of euros every year is so worth it for your free data roaming. 🙄

What often gets overlooked in the "free roaming" is that it is often capped so you don't get unlimited free data if you are outside your normal service area; unlike say in the US where you can move and keep the same number and you get the same data/text/phone as you did in your old service area. No need to change numbers if you move 2000 km away.

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

Nothing will change for your Apple Watch. This pause is temporary, until they add the new API to WatchOS. I bet by the end of the year everything will be as it was. As a bonus, your other Wifi devices (cars, cameras, watches, other gadgets) will be able to learn you Wifi credentials from your iPhone.

Yeah to be honest you’re right, it’s not that big a deal that’s also why it pisses me off, it’s because it’s such a trivial thing.

Like, you can’t tell me this is a huge competitive advantage for Apple that needed to be stopped ASAP

I’m more pissed off about iPhone mirroring honestly, that’s a feature I would use all the time and it’s still disabled because Apple needs to roll out an API that’s very likely to remain unused (remember when Spotify cried about not being able to be a music provider for HomePod, was given the API, and proceeded to never use it?)

Like don’t get me wrong I get both sides of the argument here and for the most part I’m glad the EU is at least on paper doing something about lock in or whatever, it just sucks that they’re doing it in such a way that allows/encourages Apple to just hold features hostage