With WWDC 2024 now set, Apple continues to work on bringing itself more in line with US government demands. What we don’t know yet is the extent to which these changes will be restricted to the EU, or whether Apple intends to make them available worldwide in an attempt to quell regulatory zeal.
That regulators want to diminish the Apple user experience to open up additional digital competition is not in doubt. What isn’t known is whether these decisions will make things better or worse in the long run.
So, what else does Apple plan to do to bring itself into line with regulatory demands?
Android switchers get an easier life
If you end up with an Android phone and need to port all your information across from your iPhone, you can either follow this guide or wait until the end of the year; that’s when Apple will introduce tools other mobile operating system providers can use to create user-friendly migration solutions to transfer data from iPhones to Android.
This won’t actually arrive until late 2025.
Big changes in Safari
By the end of this year or possibly early in 2025, Apple will introduce a browser switching solution for exporting and importing relevant browser data into another browser on the same device. Later this year, Apple will also make it possible to completely delete Safari from iPhones in favor of an alternative web browser.
For some, this is a step forward from what is possible in the EU, where developers can now use alternative browser engines in browsers and apps with browsing experiences inside.
RCS for Messages
Another big change is the adoption of Rich Communication Service (RCS) messaging support. Google hinted (and subsequently deleted) a claim that such support was coming this fall, which strongly suggest Apple intends to make it available in this year’s major operating system updates. This is not a total shock — Apple said it was working on this last year.
What this means is that it will be possible for Android and iPhone to exchange higher resolution media. It’s a modern messaging standard that will eventually replace SMS/MMS messaging, lack of support for which has drawn regulatory angst.
Navigation apps
It’s not ready yet, but by March 2025 Apple intends to introduce a new default control for users for navigation apps. Presumably this will let you choose which navigation app your device uses as a default – you might ask Siri how to get to your next appointment but receive instructions from Google Maps, for example.
Marketplace setting
A new Setting on iPhones will appear that lets users enable and disable third-party apps on their device. The idea here is that users can very easily stop using apps they don’t like or don’t trust sourced from outside the App Store.
User data sharing
On the very slim chance you’re prepared to share your personal data with developers (which I don’t recommend), Apple will by the end of the year introduce a new solution that lets users authorize developers to access such information. The idea is that users will get asked if they are willing to share this information and to what extent, while developers will be able to access that information subject to that approval.
This particular piece of privacy erosion comes from the EU.
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