# Apple's iOS 17.4 Changes Threaten Progressive Web App Features in the EU

DevFeed: [Apple's iOS 17.4 Changes Threaten Progressive Web App Features in the EU](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/home-screen-advantage-26541.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://infrequently.org/2024/02/home-screen-advantage/>)

Author: Alex Russell

Published: 2024-02-25T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Alex Russell](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/alex-russell.md>)

Topics: [PWA](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/pwa.md>), [iOS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ios.md>), [Web](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web.md>), [Mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mobile.md>)

Tags: [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browsers.md>), [competition](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/competition.md>), [compliance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compliance.md>), [device-apis](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/device-apis.md>), [dma](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dma.md>), [geofencing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/geofencing.md>), [ios](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ios.md>), [push-notifications](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/push-notifications.md>), [pwa](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pwa.md>), [shortcuts](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/shortcuts.md>), [web](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web.md>), [webdev](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/webdev.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that Apple's iOS 17.4 changes in the EU will restrict progressive web app capabilities, including storage, push notifications, app-like interfaces, and device APIs. It contrasts the threatened changes with continued PWA support on Windows and Android and frames them as a response to the EU Digital Markets Act.

## Source excerpt

Update: OWA is out with an open letter appealing to Apple to do better. If you care about the future of the web, I encourage you to sign it, particularly if you live in the EU or build products for the common market. After weeks of confusion and chaos, Apple's plan to kneecap the web has crept into view, menacing a PWApocalypse as the March 6th deadline approaches for compliance with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). The view from Cupertino. The DMA requires Apple to open the iPhone to competing app stores, and its lopsided proposal for "enabling" them is getting most of the press. But Apple knows it has native stores right where it wants them. Cupertino's noxious requirements will take years to litigate. Meanwhile, potential competitors are only that. But Cupertino can't delay the DMA's other mandate: real browsers, downloaded from Apple's own app store. Since it can't bar them outright, it's trying to raise costs on competitors and lower their potential to disrupt Apple's cozy monopoly. How? By geofencing browser choice and kneecapping web apps, all while gaslighting users about who is breaking their web apps. The immediate impact of iOS 17.4 in the EU will be broken apps and lost data, affecting schools, governments, startups, gamers, and anyone else with the temerity to look outside the one true app store for even a second. None of this is required by the DMA, as demonstrated by continuing presence of PWAs and the important features they enable on Windows and Android, both of which are in the same regulatory boat. The data loss will be catastrophic for many, as will the removal of foundational features. Here's what the landscape looks like today vs. what Apple is threatening: PWA Capability Windows Android iOS 17.3 iOS 17.4 App-like UI ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌ Settings Integration ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌ Reliable Storage ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌ Push Notifications ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌ Icon Badging ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌ Share-to PWA ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌ App Shortcuts ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌ Device APIs ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌ Apple's support for powerful web apps wasn't stellar, b