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Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

owa ("Open Web Advocacy") wrote:

Apple's latest announcement regarding Web Apps translated into plain English

Attachments:

• Why don’t users in the EU have access to Home Screen web apps? UPDATE:Two weeks ago Apple made public its plan to remove web apps from iOS in the EU. We had sneaked in the change in the beta two weeks prior to that in the hope that no one would notice it in time, but that didn’t work out well. The need to remove the capability was motivated by our continuous effort to kneecap the web on iOS so it can never become a viable alternative to the App Store. A very annoying web developers association started running surveys and an open letter, and the European Commission started an investigation. Therefore, we had to back off. This means that in addition to no longer being able to force competing browsers to use our crippled browser engine, we have to keep web apps in iOS, which poses a serious security threat to our 30% App Store extortion racket. We want to reassure our shareholders that we will keep fighting the web as hard as we can. Indeed, we set out ridiculous requirements for alternative browser engines, and we will try to gate web apps installation to only Safari's engine after the availability of iOS 17.4 in early March.