Apple wouldn’t specify whether people who live outside the European Union (EU) will also be permitted to uninstall Safari from their iPhones.
We do now know for sure that uninstalling Safari will be possible, thanks to a PDF document summarizing the steps Apple is taking to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The compliance document confirms that the iPhone maker plans to let users “completely delete Safari from iOS, should they wish to do so.”
In addition, the Cupertino tech giant is working on a new solution that will make switching browsers on the iOS platform much easier by helping you export “relevant browser data” from Safari and import it “into another browser on the same device.”
Apple to let users uninstall Safari from iPhone
Apple says it aims to make uninstalling Safari from iPhone available to users by the end of 2024. It didn’t clarify whether the feature will require iOS 18, which is expected to arrive in September. You can already uninstall many stock apps from your iPhone and reinstall them from the App Store at any point, but not Safari.
Google working on saving Chrome webpages as web apps
Google is working on a similar feature, as spotted by X user “Leopeva64.” Soon, Chrome users will be able to save any webpage as a web app on the desktop of their Mac by choosing Install Page As App from the Save and Share menu.
This feature is currently being tested in the latest Chrome Canary 124 update. If you have Chrome Cannary, you can try this by changing these flags (paste each URL in Chrome’s address bar, then press Return):
chrome://flags/#web-app-universal-install
chrome://flags/#shortcuts-not-apps
This feature will soon be available to regular Chrome users globally on macOS, Windows and Linux. We still don’t know whether Chrome for iOS will continue using WebKit in the EU or switch to Google’s custom Blink engine.
In the latter case, Google probably won’t be able to offer webpage saving to its iPhone customers in the EU—Apple’s rules prevent web apps from being saved to the Home Screen via third-party browsers unless they use theSafari’s WebKit engine.
Alternative marketplaces coming to iPhone
EU users will also be able to add alternative marketplaces like MacPaw’s Setapp to download and install apps outside the App Store, with one important restriction for frequent travelers—alternative app stores will stop updating apps downloaded through them if you’ve been outside the EU for longer than 30 days.