They want to be fined so badly.

PWA could have been awesome but Apple and Google would rather have apps in their stores where they can clip the ticket. Sad.

And the enshittification continues.

But Apple makes overpriced ego boosting lifestyle products anyway, so anyone who thinks they need their crap deserves it.

Cutting nose to spite face it seems.

In its post, Apple argues that web apps are built “directly on WebKit” — the engine used by Safari — allowing web apps to “align with the security and privacy model for native apps on iOS.” With the change to iOS 17.4, websites added to the homescreen now act only as bookmarks that open a new tab in your browser

even if we play along with this bs argument, they could also have kept pwas enabled as long as a user is actually using webkit, and change the behaviour only if the web engine is changed. seems like a petty move to turn European iPhone users against pro-consumer laws. "the EU took our ~~jobs~~ webapps!"

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Apple is officially axing support for progressive web apps for iPhone users located in the European Union.

While web apps have been broken for EU users in every iOS 17.4 beta so far, Apple has now confirmed that this is a feature, not a bug.

In an update to its developer website spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple says it’s removing homescreen apps for users in the EU because bringing them into compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) would involve “an entirely new integration architecture” that’s “not practical” to build on top of the other changes it’s been forced to make.

In its post, Apple argues that web apps are built “directly on WebKit” — the engine used by Safari — allowing web apps to “align with the security and privacy model for native apps on iOS.” With the change to iOS 17.4, websites added to the homescreen now act only as bookmarks that open a new tab in your browser, rather than (potentially) standalone services capable of doing things like sending notifications and showing badges, a feature Apple just added to web apps last year.

Progressive web apps on iOS are also capable of storing data separately from your browser instance, which comes in handy if there’s a site you want quick access to and don’t want to keep signing in.

“Still, we regret any impact this change — that was made as part of the work to comply with the DMA — may have on developers of Home Screen web apps and our users.” Apple cites “very low user adoption” of homescreen apps as another reason for the lack of support.

The original article contains 399 words, the summary contains 272 words. Saved 32%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

I have railed against Apple's intolerable control over users since the iPhone launched, and I still see no problem with saying your special category of bookmarks-as-programs can stick to Safari. You can keep "webview" as your own thing, guys. The problem was always that other browsers were forced to use that... instead of being other browsers.