By Supantha Mukherjee
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Apple will change the way users in the European Union choose browser options, adding a dedicated section for changing default apps and making more apps deleteable, the company said on Thursday.
The iPhone maker had been pressured by regulators to make changes after the EU’s sweeping Digital Markets Act came into force on March 7, forcing the maker to offer mobile users the option to choose from a list of available web browsers on a “choice screen” when they first open Safari.
With an update later this year, Apple users will be able to choose a default browser directly on the selection screen after going through a mandatory list of options.
The user will be presented with a randomly ordered list of 12 browsers per EU country with short descriptions and the selected browser will be downloaded automatically, Apple said. The selection screen will also be available on iPads through an update later this year.
Apple had already released an update in March in response to the new rules, but browser makers criticized the design of the selection screen and the Commission launched an investigation on March 25, suspecting that the measures were not sufficient to comply with the regulations.
“We welcome Apple’s updated choice screen, especially as it comes ahead of upcoming iPhone launches,” Andrew Frost Moroz, founder of the Aloha browser, told Reuters.
“For those who don’t know us that well, the description highlights these benefits. Fewer taps to start browsing improves the user experience and benefits third-party browsers,” he said.
Apple said it was in dialogue with the European Commission and believed the new changes would address regulators’ concerns.
The Commission said on Thursday that it would monitor the effectiveness of the solutions in achieving the DMA objective and decide on the next steps in the open case.
There are also plans to introduce a dedicated Default Apps section where users can set defaults for messages, phone calls, spam filters, password managers and keyboards.
Users can also delete certain apps created by Apple, such as App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari. Only the Settings and Phone apps cannot be deleted.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Jan Harvey and Aurora Ellis)
