EU Users Can Now Make Changes To Their Apple App Store

Consider this a start of a series of changes as Apple has been forced to adapt in the way it operates by pressure from the European Union (EU) and its Digital Markets Act (DMA). New updates revealed that changes could go down to the way subscribers use and download all the best iOS apps onto their iPhone if they live in the EU.

For one thing, users will soon have far more choice over the default apps that are used to open certain files on their iPhone. Right now, Apple already lets EU users change their default apps for web browsing, email, contactless payments and app purchases, but that’s soon going to expand to cover much more.

In a post on the Apple Developer website, Apple explained that EU users will soon be able to change their default apps for "dialing phone numbers, sending messages, translating text, navigation, managing passwords, keyboards, and call spam filters." That’s a massive increase and should give users much more freedom to set up their iPhone the way they want it.

EU users will be able to set new default apps for messaging, phone calls, password managers, spam call filters, and keyboards in an iOS 18 update later this year. For everything else, will need to wait until spring 2025.

Apple is also changing how users are able to pick a default web browser. In iOS 17.4, EU users would see a pop-up window showing a randomized list of available browsers.

Now, this list will appear if users have Safari set as their default browser (but not if anything else is the default), and Apple is adding a description next to each app choice. This pop-up will appear on every Apple device. There’s more information about this change on Apple’s website.

The alterations don’t stop there. Not only will users soon be able to change their default apps, but they will even be able to delete some of Apple’s core apps that have remained a key part of iOS for years.

For instance, Apple will allow them to remove the App Store‌, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari apps from their iPhone once these changes have come into effect. Previously, the’ve only been able to remove these apps from their iOS Home Screen, not delete them entirely.

The App Store is an interesting example, because deleting it would previously mean they would have no way of getting new apps – or of redownloading the App Store itself after deleting it – hence why Apple always made it an essential app. However, with the rise of third-party app stores on iOS, that’s apparently no longer such a strong concern.

As a failsafe, Apple will enable users to redownload the App Store app from the Settings app, just in case.