Apple has allowed third-party rendering engines on iPhones and iPads in the European Union (EU) since 2023, so where is my Blink version of Chrome for iOS or a Gecko-powered Firefox?
With iOS 17.4 and later, developers of iOS web browsers can use custom rendering engines. This helps create a consistent experience because the same engine can now power your favorite browser and in-app browsing experiences within apps. And with iOS 18.2, web apps will use the same engine as the browser through which they were added to your iPhone. This is a result of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Unfortunately, Apple wouldn't bring that functionality to other countries. As a result, Chrome in the United States and other non-EU countries will probably still use the Safari engine for a while.
Third-party browsers used to be inferior to Safari on iPhone and iPad because they could not use custom rendering engines. Instead, all third-party browser apps distributed on the App Store must use the same WebKit rendering engine as Safari. All third-party browsers on iOS are basically WebKit browsers.
No browser in the EU has taken advantage of Apple's changes yet, but the situation will change over time. That's because iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 bring a missing piece of the puzzle, a new SFAddToHomeScreenInfo API to let third-party browsers with custom engines save web apps to the Home Screen—something only Apple's Safari could do. To be clear, the new API is only available in the EU.
Why's this important? Well, saving a website icon to the Home Screen may seem like a trivial operation. However, on iOS, where all apps are sandboxed, this adds a website's icon to the Home Screen for quick access and enables proper web app experiences such as notification badges, local data store, and offline operation.
Work is currently underway to make Chromium work on iOS. Chromium is an open-source web browser project that is a basis for Google's Chrome, Microsoft's Edge, and many other browsers. The progress seems to be going well, but there's still work to be done. We wouldn't expect an initial version of Chrome for iPhone with the Blink engine until 2025.
iOS 18.2 brings other changes for EU iPhone owners, including the ability to delete the App Store storefront. To help people re-download the App Store app after deleting it from the device, there's a new App Installation section in Settings. Another new feature in iOS 18.2 enables you to manage all default apps in one place.
Additional app defaults are now available. For example, you can switch out the Message app if you want. There are defaults for opening links on the web, sending emails, making contactless payments, etc. Thankfully, this feature is available to all iPhone owners worldwide.
iOS 18.2 will bring expanded Apple Intelligence features, including AI image and emoji creation, Visual Intelligence on the iPhone 16 lineup, Image Wand in Notes for iPad, ChatGPT integration in Siri, support for more English-speaking regions, and more.
Source: 9to5Mac