The #DMA creates various requirements on Apple as a result of Apple’s control of an operating system (iOS) and a software marketplace (the AppStore) with market-shaping power. The requirements apply individually to the AppStore and iOS, but in many situations both sets of requirements apply.
The #DMA has a number of parts that are relevant to this situation with #PWA Homescreen web apps.
You can & should read the DMA yourself, and look out for:
A. The DMA aims to promote competition between apps and explicitly mentions web apps
B. OS vendors cannot provide private APIs for their own apps unavailable to 3rd party apps
C. Cannot reduce functionality to avoid obligations of the DMA
D. Gatekeepers can use “security” to sidestep some parts, but only minimally & w/ justification
Homescreen #PWA web apps are implicated in two sets of #DMA requirements: the ones that apply to #iOS and the ones that apply to the #AppStore.
It’s not possible to understand the situation and the legality of Apple’s responses to the DMA in regard to Homescreen web apps without looking at both sets of requirements.
@callionica we believe that the under the DMA Apple is required to support web apps run via other browsers and their engines and that’s what we will be fighting for.
@1br0wn I agree. I think it would be hard to argue that PWAs are neither a browser feature nor an operating system feature (and it only requires one of them to get iOS-scrutiny) and also that they’re not relevant to marketplace gatekeeping (bringing in AppStore-scrutiny). I think Apple was initially correct that if PWAs are available, that the assumptions would favor availability to 3rd parties because both iOS and AppStore requirements point that way. But obvs removal not DMA-compliant either.
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