Europe (DMA): changes for the App Store, iMessage, browsers and Siri revealed by a leak

The European Union is preparing the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and a copy that must reflect the final document shows that significant changes are expected to take place in the App Store, iMessage, FaceTime, Internet browsers and Siri.

The EU will change how Apple products work

The document, obtained by MacRumors, shows that the European Union wants to change the way companies like Apple operate in Europe, whether for products, services or applications. For example, the DMA wants tech companies to share their data with competitors, to ensure that all apps can be uninstalled if needed, and not to prioritize their own apps and services.

In the case of Apple, a notable change will concern the App Store since users should be able to download applications from the Internet or from third-party App Stores. Also, the new European rule must allow developers to use a third-party payment system and not necessarily that of Apple.

Another change affects Internet browsers. On iOS, Apple requires all browsers to use WebKit, namely its rendering engine used with Safari. With the change, Google could offer Chrome based on Chromium and Mozilla could offer its own rendering engine (Gecko) on Firefox in order to have more competition.

The European Union also wants interoperability between messaging apps. So someone with iMessage should be able to contact someone on WhatsApp (or the other way around), while maintaining end-to-end encryption. This point may be complicated to implement because a common system would have to be found between each service. Currently, Apple has their system with iMessage, WhatsApp has theirs, etc.

It does not stop there since the document mentions that users should be able to choose their voice assistant. So we could technically have Google Assistant or Alexa instead of Siri.

A potential implementation in October

European Union lawmakers provisionally approved the DMA in March. Once the final document is officially published, the European Parliament and the European Council will have to approve it before it can enter into force. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said last month that she expected the DMA to come into effect sometime in October.