Apple Releases First iOS 17.4 Public Beta With DMA-Related Changes

Apple released yesterday the first public betas of iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4, which followed the release of the first developer beta last week. The two updates will be released in March, which is when Apple will need to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

I previously detailed the main changes coming to iOS, the App Store, and Safari in the EU, but here are the main highlights:

• iOS 17.4 will support alternative app stores that users will be able to download from the web and set as their default app stores.
• App developers will be able to either stick with Apple’s current App Store policies and continue to release their apps exclusively on the App Store or opt into Apple’s new App Store policies if they also want to use alternative payment systems in their App Store apps and/or distribute their apps in alternative app stores. In any case, they will need to pay Apple a €0.50 Core Technology Fee (CTF) for each first annual app install per year over a 1 million threshold.
• Opening Safari will display a ballot screen with a choice of default browsers, and third-party web browsers will be allowed to use other engines than Safari.
• Apple is opening the iPhone’s NFC chip to third-party tap-to-pay payment systems in the EU.

This wasn’t really clear at the time of the announcement, but alternative app stores and third-party browser engines are currently only available on iOS 17.4 and not iPadOS 17.4. That’s because the EU Commission only designated iOS as a “core platform service” that needs to be regulated, and not iPadOS, which has a smaller user base. This doesn’t make a lot of sense since the two platforms share almost the same codebase. Anyway, Apple is really trying to keep as much control as it can over its mobile platforms.

If the DMA-related changes are only coming to EU users, iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 will bring other features including automated podcast transcripts in Apple’s Podcasts app, new emoji, and more.