Apple Further Explains iOS 17.4's New Default Browser Prompt in EU
After updating to iOS 17.4, which is currently in beta, iPhone users in the EU will be prompted to choose a default web browser when they first open Safari. In an email today, Apple shared additional details about how this process will work.

Apple said iPhone users in the EU will be presented with a list of the 12 most popular web browsers from their country's local App Store at the time, and noted that the options will be shown in random order for every user.
Apple shared an alphabetical list of the browsers that will currently be shown in every EU country. It is a very long list, so we have elected to highlight browsers that will be shown in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain as examples.
- France: Aloha, Brave, Chrome, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Edge, Firefox, Onion Browser, Opera, Private Browser Deluxe, Qwant, and Safari
- Germany: Aloha, Brave, Chrome, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Edge, Firefox, Ivanti Web@Work, Onion Browser, Opera, Safari, and You.com AI Search Assistant
- Italy: Aloha, Brave, Chrome, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Edge, Firefox, Ivanti Web@Work, Onion Browser, Opera, Safari, and You.com AI Search Assistant
- Spain: Aloha, Brave, Chrome, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Edge, Firefox, Onion Browser, Opera, Safari, Vivaldi, and You.com AI Search Assistant
There are 23 other countries in the EU that this change applies to. Notably, this no longer includes the UK, which withdrew from the EU in 2020.
It has already been possible to change an iPhone's default web browser through the Settings app since iOS 14. Apple has now gone a step further and added the default browser prompt in Safari to comply with new regulations under the EU's Digital Markets Act.
In the EU, iOS 17.4 also allows web browsers to use web engines other than Apple's WebKit.
Apple said iOS 17.4 will be released to the public in March.
Popular Stories
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April.
From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
Apple is expected to embrace a new camera system design for some models in its upcoming iPhone 17 series, and the latest purported CAD images don't deviate from what we have been hearing lately about Apple's new lineup. If you do not like the sound of an iPhone with a Google Pixel-style camera bar, look away now.
Seasoned leaker Sonny Dickson shared the following images in a post on X...
Apple has offered a reason why the iPhone 16e doesn't include MagSafe, one of the more notable omissions from its latest entry-level smartphone.
According to Apple representatives who spoke to Daring Fireball's John Gruber, MagSafe is not included in the iPhone 16e because "most people in the iPhone 16e's target audience exclusively charge their phones by plugging them into a charging...
iOS 18.4 was supposed to bring new Apple Intelligence Siri features, but Apple ended up needing to pull those capabilities from the update to continue testing. There are fewer new Apple Intelligence additions now, but there are still some new features that will make the update worth installing when it comes out in April.
Priority Notifications
Apple introduced Priority Notifications back at ...
iOS 19 is still around three months away from being unveiled, but there are plenty of rumors about the upcoming update.
Below, we recap iOS 19 rumors so far.
Redesigned Camera App
A leak earlier this year allegedly revealed a redesigned Camera app coming with iOS 19.
On his YouTube channel Front Page Tech in January, Jon Prosser shared a video showing what the new Camera app will...
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017
"APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote.
Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements.
While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way.
By the time the ...
According to a post on X today from a leaker known as Kosutami, Apple plans to launch AirPods Pro 3 in May or June this year.
The leaker also claimed that an AirTag 2 will launch around the same time.
Kosutami is best known as a collector of prototype Apple hardware, but they have occasionally shared accurate information about Apple's future product plans. For example, they accurately...
iPhone 16e reviews are now out, and Apple's custom-designed C1 modem has been put to the test. The results so far are quite surprising, as the C1's speeds are not as slow compared to Qualcomm modems as originally expected.
While the C1 does not support ultra-fast mmWave 5G in the U.S., it appears to offer comparable 5G performance to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X71 modem found in the iPhone 16,...