On its developer support page, Apple notes that the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) requires it to allow users to choose a browser that doesn't use Apple's WebKit browser engine by default. So Apple has had to remove web apps from the Home Screen.
iOS 17.4 update will remove Home Screen apps from iOS in the EU
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Apple says that Home Screen web apps on iOS are built on WebKit and that they “conform to the security and privacy model for native apps on iOS.” This is important, and Apple says that integration means that Home Screen web apps are managed to conform to the security and privacy model for native apps on iOS, including memory isolation and enforcing system prompts to access privacy-impacting capabilities on a device-by-site basis.
However, without this isolation and enforcement, malicious web applications can read data from other web applications and even use granted permissions to access the user's camera and microphone without their consent. Browsers can also install web applications without the user's consent.
Apple added that addressing the complex security and privacy concerns associated with web apps using alternative browser engines would require building an entirely new integration architecture, which does not currently exist in iOS and is impractical to implement due to other DMA requirements and the low user adoption of the Home Screen web app. Therefore, to comply with the DMA requirements, the company has removed the Home Screen web app feature from the EU.
According to Apple, EU users can continue to access websites directly from their Home Screen via bookmarks without significantly affecting their functionality. The company was also forced to remove support for Home Screen web apps in Safari in the EU because the DMA requires equality for all browsers. Since third-party browsers cannot have Home Screen web apps, neither can Safari.
The absence of Home Screen web apps in the EU was first noticed by users when iOS 17.4 beta 2 was released. The changes will come to all iOS users in EU member states after iOS 17.4 is released in the first week of March.
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