Apple is reportedly holding off on launching some of the biggest iOS 18 features in the European Union because of concerns over compliance with the bloc’s new regulations.
iOS 18, and indeed macOS Sequoia, will reportedly ship without features like Apple Intelligence, the ability to mirror an iPhone screen to a Mac and the forthcoming ScreenPlay Screen Sharing feature.
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Bloomberg reports it’s all down to the Digital Markets Act – the same law that has forced Apple to open up to third-party app stores and payment platforms, as well as pressuring the company to open up the hardware’s NFC chip to payment methods outside of Apple Pay.
Apple gave a statement to Bloomberg saying those interoperability requirements could mean it is unable to keep users data private if it rolled out these features to users in the EU.
“We are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security,” a spokesperson said.
Apple didn’t elaborate on what the exact threats are here. There might be a threat we’re not aware of, or it might be Apple simply going out of its way to make a point. Earlier this year it revealed plans to prevent iPhone owners in the EU saving web pages as web apps on the iPhone Home Screen, a stance it eventually backtracked from.
There’s still plenty of time for this to all get worked out before Apple rolls its new operating systems out to the public this September.
