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Google Working on Browser for iOS That Would Break Apple's App Store Rules
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Why announce it? I’m sure everyone on here will care that you will not use Google Apps on your phone
I use safari as my main iOS browser but I have no choice but to use the share sheet “open in chrome” option from time to time where something won’t load in safari. Great example is unsubscribing from k-mail lists. Simply doesn’t work in safari on iOS. Thankfully google built the open in chrome share sheet option.
What competition. Chrome completely dominates the market.
Hopefully Mozilla has plans to create a Gecko-based browser for iOS. It would be a shame to see Chrome and Chromium-based browsers monopolize the iOS browser market.
(In fact, a version of Gecko for iOS already exists, but it hasn't been updated in a while: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Gecko-iOS)
(In fact, a version of Gecko for iOS already exists, but it hasn't been updated in a while: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Gecko-iOS)
We don’t need this browser! Safari works great!!!!
Google's Chromium developers are working on an experimental web browser for iOS that would break Apple's browser engine restrictions, The Register reports.
The experimental browser, which is being actively pursued by developers, uses Google's Blink engine. Yet if Google attempted to release it on the App Store, it would not pass Apple's App Review process.
Apple's App Store rules dictate that browser apps on iOS and iPadOS must use its own WebKit browser engine. This means that while browsers like Chrome and Microsoft Edge are built with Chromium on macOS and Windows, their iOS counterparts are forced to use Apple's WebKit, making them behave similarly to Safari.
Based on the visible code commits, the app purportedly looks like the start of an alternate browser build and is still missing some key features at this early stage. Google claims that the app is merely "an experimental prototype [...] with the goal to understand certain aspects of performance on iOS," and "it will not be available to users and we'll continue to abide by Apple's policies."
Even so, Google's experimental iOS browser project could be a sign that the company is anticipating changes to Apple's platform rules that would enable it to release a truly home-grown browser. Apple's browser engine restriction is the subject of growing antitrust scrutiny, most recently by the Biden administration, which has recommended the passing of new legislation to ban "gatekeeper" companies like Apple from banning alternative browser engines on its platform.
Similar recommendations have been made by antitrust authorities in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. The European Union's Digital Markets Act is expected to compel Apple to allow third-party app stores and lift its browser engine restrictions as soon as next year. At minimum, the active project means Google would have a considerable head-start on developing a Blink-based browser for iOS if one is able to be distributed in the future.
Article Link: Google Working on Browser for iOS That Would Break Apple's App Store Rules
Then make a better browser, after all it's your own platform isn't it?
Then just keep using Safari I guess?
I find it weird how all the "let the market sort it out, success is not illegal, not everyone deserves a trophy" folks start hyperventilating when it comes to Apple mandating its competitors to use their browser engine.
I wouldn't consider using Chrome on my devices, but it would be great to have a fully features Firefox on my phone.
This just in...Apple's working on a Search Engine!!
Actually, they've been working on it for years...all of these companies know that change is coming and they have been preparing for it.
Apple's App Store will be highly regulated (and as long as I can just operate as I do now, I don't care -- side loading is useful for a small minority, and dangerous for most)
Google and YouTube will likely be separated...thus further challenging its search monopoly (Amazon is already the number one product search engine)
Amazon, FaceBook...the list goes on.
All of them are preparing for this (or their CEOs will be fired and their boards will be replaced the moment they say "I didn't see this coming")...but they won't act until they have to because the status quo is so darn profitable.
Actually, they've been working on it for years...all of these companies know that change is coming and they have been preparing for it.
Apple's App Store will be highly regulated (and as long as I can just operate as I do now, I don't care -- side loading is useful for a small minority, and dangerous for most)
Google and YouTube will likely be separated...thus further challenging its search monopoly (Amazon is already the number one product search engine)
Amazon, FaceBook...the list goes on.
All of them are preparing for this (or their CEOs will be fired and their boards will be replaced the moment they say "I didn't see this coming")...but they won't act until they have to because the status quo is so darn profitable.
I will never understand it either.
I just feel that the courts are making a world that will not benefit consumers of iPhones at all. It only benefits big business. Is that the courts job?
The uproar and angency overreach is sensationalized, ill-informed and shortsighted (one of my least favorite trifectas). None of it changes the fact that exactly zero Google anything will ever be installed on any of my devices.
In a previous life, the company I worked for partnered with Google on something. I sat in a demo where Google quite brazenly shared some of their potential and objectives and they were far more frightening than anything being thrown around today. And that was circa 2010. I walked out of that meeting and removed every G thing from my iPhone. And when I got home, ensured my devices were as G-free as possible. Been that way ever since.
A lot of people, bloggers, news outlets, etc. like to talk about Apple’s ecosystem, and they always do so in the negative. Breaking news: Google has an ecosystem and I promise you, it’s quietly doing much more harm, at our expense, than people seem to have the capacity to understand. Our infatuation with free and convenience looks to be ingredients of our dumb downfall. Choice is good. But worse choice isn’t.
In a previous life, the company I worked for partnered with Google on something. I sat in a demo where Google quite brazenly shared some of their potential and objectives and they were far more frightening than anything being thrown around today. And that was circa 2010. I walked out of that meeting and removed every G thing from my iPhone. And when I got home, ensured my devices were as G-free as possible. Been that way ever since.
A lot of people, bloggers, news outlets, etc. like to talk about Apple’s ecosystem, and they always do so in the negative. Breaking news: Google has an ecosystem and I promise you, it’s quietly doing much more harm, at our expense, than people seem to have the capacity to understand. Our infatuation with free and convenience looks to be ingredients of our dumb downfall. Choice is good. But worse choice isn’t.
correction Apple lets them pay to be the default search engine, you don't have to use it.
Apple says Siri Data and customer requests are never sold to anyone don't know where you dragged that up from.
Narrator: ”They wouldn’t.”
Google likely will not support it because they want people to use Chrome as their password manager. Same reason they refuse to support it on the Mac.
This really only helps competition if Firefox or some new browser engine launches on iOS. Chrome already has a near monopoly on PCs and giving them greater share on iOS probably won’t help. I’d be interested to know how many actually are using the chrome app already.
Amen. I think this is what’s contributing to my (and probably many others’) general sense of anxiety. Everything is this way now.
So your examples of how Safari is failing is one of the worst designed websites in the world (Reddit), and a bunch of sites written by Google. I browse the rest of the internet and have zero problems in Safari/Firefox.
I sadly have to agree with the comments here that say this will probably only help Google. You know the instant the rules change Google will release their Chromium based version.
The only reason Safari is still relevant at all is because of the iPhone. I hope the same thing that happened on desktop doesn’t happen on mobile but I’m not optimistic.
Reddit is literally unusable outside of an app like Apollo. The absolute worst of the ”engagement” design philosophy. They make it incredibly difficult to just read the thing I want to see, and cram so much more crap in every possible pixel of space.
I am though afraid that because Chrome is the new Internet Explorer we may start to see more sites break in non Chromium browsers.
Except when it allows your device to become a feeding ground for google and others to feast on your personal data and sell it
I only use other browsers on my MacBook Pro when a website won’t work with Safari. However my mobile devices only usevSafari.
The reason this is a bad idea is that google is already working to undermine all other browsers and make Chrome the new Explorer, by getting IT teams to push chrome only support on business websites internally and now customer facing. So, instead of building to web standards, they are building to chrome’s proprietary features. The only reason Safari still exists is because Apple’s policy on iOS. Microsoft killed off all competition with explorer and then stopped meaningful development on the Mac once those alternatives were gone to make Windows more attractive. Google has proven they cannot be trusted in the same way. When they were the map provider for iPhone, they withheld features like turn by turn for years to boost their new competing product copy Android. We didn’t get turn by turn until Apple surprised them with Apple Maps. The reason safari was created in the first place was to ensure Apple users weren’t blocked from accessing the full internet by explorer and its seems to be happening again.
No you don't have to use the default search engine but if you use web results from Spotlight or Siri they come from Google and that can't be changed.
EDIT: Apple accepts a fee from Google for default search status and siri and spotlight search provider to dress this up as anything other than Apple selling their users to Google is laughable.
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This "alternative" browser is pointless if the "alternatives" will all be just Chrome (and its variations). That will only put Chrome as literally the modern IE, and 99% of websites will only test compatibility with Chrome.
I hope the same "regulation" will also force Google to stop forcing OEMs to bundle Chrome on Android if they want their devices to be certified. I don't use Chrome on my Android, but it's there hanging around.
I hope the same "regulation" will also force Google to stop forcing OEMs to bundle Chrome on Android if they want their devices to be certified. I don't use Chrome on my Android, but it's there hanging around.