I switched to Firefox directly when my iPhone asked me to make a choice. It's the browser I use on my other machines so why not.
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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Currently Firefox on the iPhone is still running Safari. It'll soon change for folks in the EU only.
Any idea where I can see a timeline for this change? I'm eager to see a decent browser on ios.
It will only change if the developer goes ahead and makes a special EU version for the app. And many wont, because that takes too many human resources to do and maintain. This was a rule made by Apple on purpose, together with all their other malicious compliance moves: they made it hard for developers so devs will just keep everything as it always was and not use the new EU exclusive things
It could change based on EU regulations, I seem to recall Mozilla saying they weren’t going to maintain two versions though.
Why did you have to wait for your phone to ask you?
Yes, and any of those are already providing their own engines or they're still all Apple's WebKit?
All are still on WebKit, as that's all Apple has allowed so far. Having other engines running on iOS is still far off, if it ever happens as it's a ton of work.
Especially as iirc it would only work for EU users anyway, because Apple is being as huge of a dick as it possibly can be.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The DMA applies to a set of six technology giants that have been designated as "gatekeepers" in order to limit their tendency to boost the usage of their own offerings – such as their own browsers, webmail, and marketplaces – to the detriment of rivals, which are pushed out of the way.
This walloping of competitors, which slashes choice and innovation, is usually achieved through default settings, contractual requirements, and other mechanisms that favor the big players over smaller upstarts.
And in a social media post, the developer cited those results as evidence that Apple and Google have made it hard to switch default browsers specifically to block competition.
"The monopolistic practices employed by Big Tech have often hindered Firefox's ability to innovate and offer users competitive alternatives," a Moz spokesperson told The Register.
"We are still reviewing the technical details but are extremely disappointed with Apple's proposed plan to restrict the newly-announced BrowserEngineKit to EU-specific apps," Mozilla's spokesperson lamented.
Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of browser maker Vivaldi, told The Register in a phone interview that while the European Commission's intervention has been helpful, the results have been modest – and he expects further pressure will need to be applied to gatekeepers.
The original article contains 1,460 words, the summary contains 202 words. Saved 86%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Aren't all these browsers still also running Safari in the background?
Yeah, they are. I doubt this will change in the foreseeable future tbh. Between how much work it is to port and maintain the real engine, and the strong probability of Apple making more jackass decisions, i don’t expect the people at Mozilla to drop everything to figure this out
I prefer Brave’s interface over Safari on iOS even if they both use the same engine. I like how Brave has the scrollable tabs in portrait mode and the search button on the bottom so I don’t need to reach over. Also it syncs well with my laptops which I use Brave on too.
no surprise really, Safari on mobile has been broken for months now. The back button crashes the tab you're using so you can't really navigate the web.
even if Firefox etc uses webkit on iOS, at least the back button works.