Apple App Store: Difference between revisions

Because of this, several governments including South Korea,<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 Mar 2022 |title=South Korea approves rules on app store law targeting Apple, Google |url=https://www.reuters.com/technology/skorea-approves-rules-app-store-law-targeting-apple-google-2022-03-08/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20231110110331/https://www.reuters.com/technology/skorea-approves-rules-app-store-law-targeting-apple-google-2022-03-08/ |archive-date=10 Nov 2023|access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[Reuters]]}}</ref> Japan,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sharwood |first=Simon |date=13 Jun 2024 |title=Japan forces Apple and Google to allow third-party app stores and payments |url=https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/13/japan_smartphone_software_law/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251114004250/https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/13/japan_smartphone_software_law/ |archive-date=14 Nov 2025|access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[The Register]]}}</ref> the European Union (EU),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Digital Markets Act |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Markets_Act |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260210074954/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Markets_Act |archive-date=10 Feb 2026 |website=Wikipedia}}</ref> the United Kingdom,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Competition and Markets Authority |date=4 Mar 2021 |title=Investigation into Apple AppStore |url=https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/investigation-into-apple-appstore |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251019195700/https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/investigation-into-apple-appstore |archive-date=19 Oct 2025|access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[gov.uk]]}}</ref> Australia,<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 Apr 2021 |title=Dominance of Apple and Google's app stores impacting competition and consumers |url=https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/dominance-of-apple-and-googles-app-stores-impacting-competition-and-consumers |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251216185602/https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/dominance-of-apple-and-googles-app-stores-impacting-competition-and-consumers |archive-date=16 Dec 2025|access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[ACCC]]}}</ref> as well as the US and a handful of US States<ref>{{Cite web |title=Open App Markets Act |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_App_Markets_Act |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260206000944/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_App_Markets_Act |archive-date=6 Feb 2026 |website=Wikipedia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=20 Nov 2024 |title=S.5364 - App Store Accountability Act |url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/5364/text/is |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251113053216/https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/5364/text/is |archive-date=13 Nov 2025|access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[congress.gov]]}}</ref><ref name="doj">{{Cite web |last=Balsamo |first=Mike |last2=Liedtke |first2=Mike |last3=Whitehurst |first3=Lindsay |last4=Bajak |first4=Frank |date=21 Mar 2024 |title=Justice Department sues Apple, alleging it illegally monopolized the smartphone market |url=https://apnews.com/article/apple-antitrust-monopoly-app-store-justice-department-822d7e8f5cf53a2636795fcc33ee1fc3 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251007161133/https://apnews.com/article/apple-antitrust-monopoly-app-store-justice-department-822d7e8f5cf53a2636795fcc33ee1fc3 |archive-date=7 Oct 2025|access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[APNews]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=19 Feb 2021 |title=It’s time to free ourselves from ‘Big Tech’ monopoly |url=https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2021/02/19/its-time-to-free-ourselves-from-big-tech-monopoly/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260205235654/https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2021/02/19/its-time-to-free-ourselves-from-big-tech-monopoly/ |archive-date=5 Feb 2026|access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[Arizona Capitol Times]]}}</ref> have opened investigations into anti-competitive practices as well as have considered or passed legislation to require "gatekeeper platforms" such as Apple to be more reasonable with third-party developers.

Unlike traditional software license purchases, Apple's App Store terms tie the license to a specific account, making it impossible for users to resell their licenses secondhand, buy apps secondhand, or inherit a license from a relative.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-02-10 |title=I can sell my apps? |url=https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5888894 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/nbrEh |archive-date=23 Feb 2026 |access-date=2025-11-25 |website=Apple Community}}</ref> This system has since been copied by numerous other players in the media and digital goods sector.

Apple, often in conjunction with Google, engages in lobbying efforts in the United States and other countries to address these issues. "ACT | The App Association", pitched as an association of independent small business app developers, is at least 50% funded by Apple, and does not list its claimed 2,000 members.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 Oct 2021 |title=Not a class ACT: the so-called App Association is simply an Apple Association and does NOT represent app developers' interests in fair distribution terms |url=https://www.fosspatents.com/2021/10/not-class-act-so-called-app-association.html |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260211064011/http://www.fosspatents.com/2021/10/not-class-act-so-called-app-association.html |archive-date=11 Feb 2026|access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[FOSS Patents]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=19 Sep 2022 |title=Vast majority of ACT {{!}} The App Association's funding comes from Apple, former employees tell Bloomberg: astroturfing against app developers' interests |url=https://www.fosspatents.com/2022/09/vast-majority-of-act-app-associations.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251114214715/http://www.fosspatents.com/2022/09/vast-majority-of-act-app-associations.html |archive-date=14 Nov 2025 |access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[FOSS Patents]]}}</ref> In March 2024, the United States Department of Justice, along with 16 state attorneys general, filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the company "extracts more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses, and merchants, among others."<ref name="doj" /> The future of this lawsuit is unclear as of April 2025.

On 1 May 2025, Rogers found that Apple wilfully chose not to comply with the 2021 injunction, commenting that  it was a "gross miscalculation" that "this court would tolerate such insubordination."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Peters |first=Jay |date=1 May 2025 |title=A judge just blew up Apple’s control of the App Store |url=https://www.theverge.com/news/659246/apple-epic-app-store-judge-ruling-control |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260204174552/https://www.theverge.com/news/659246/apple-epic-app-store-judge-ruling-control |archive-date=4 Feb 2026|access-date=1 May 2025 |website=[[The Verge]]}}</ref>

Whether this approach is actually better than that used by [[Microsoft_Windows|Windows]] antivirus, which only detects new malware samples when they are already on a user's computer, is a separate topic.

An example of apps being heavily affected by this restriction is UTM. UTM is a port of [[wikipedia:QEMU|QEMU]] for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, allowing users to create [[wikipedia:Virtual_machine|VMs]] that can run various operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows. The iPhone's hardware is capable enough to emulate various modern OSes at full speed. Still, due to Apple's JIT limitation, the team behind UTM had to create UTM SE (slow edition), which doesn't require JIT but is nowhere near as fast as UTM with JIT, only being capable of running MS-DOS and derivatives at acceptable speeds. While methods that enable JIT for apps other than Safari and Playgrounds exist (some are currently working on iOS 18.5, like [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stikdebug/id6744045754 StikDebug]), Apple does not allow the use of JIT in notarized apps, meaning that apps that support JIT will have to be [[Sideloading|sideloaded]], which comes with its own set of restrictions.

In the EU, Apple permitted web browsers to use rendering and [[JavaScript]] [[wikipedia:Browser_engine|engines]] other than the built-in with Apple WebKit/JavaScriptCore, with the option for JS engines to use JIT. The browser still needs to be approved by Apple for an entitlement and must then work within the APIs provided by Apple. However, as of January 2025, no browsers using engines different from the built-in ones have been released, primarily due to arbitrarily imposed restrictions intended to discourage the use and development of third-party engines.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mozilla says Apple’s new browser rules are ‘as painful as possible’ for Firefox |url=https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/26/24052067/mozilla-apple-ios-browser-rules-firefox |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260220155551/https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/26/24052067/mozilla-apple-ios-browser-rules-firefox |archive-date=20 Feb 2026|access-date=16 Mar 2025 |website=[[The Verge]]}}</ref>

When apps want to display web content without opening the standalone Safari browser, app developers can use Apple’s [https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/ WebKit] APIs, such as WKWebView. However, due to Apple’s [https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/app-sandbox application sandboxing] and WebKit’s data-isolation model, web content loaded inside one app does not have access to Safari’s [[Web cookie|cookies]], browsing history, saved sessions, or extensions, nor to data from other apps’ embedded web views. Each app’s embedded browser operates with its own isolated website data store.

Apple states App Sandboxing "provides protection to system resources and user data by limiting your app’s access to resources requested through entitlements."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-12 |title=App Sandbox {{!}} Apple Developer Documentation |url=https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/app-sandbox |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260127234927/https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/app-sandbox |archive-date=2026-01-27 |access-date=2025-01-12 |website=Apple Developer}}</ref> However, developers have voiced frustration with how WebKit is sandboxed which can result in degraded user experiences, such as with repeated OAuth login flows between apps.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-12 |title=Impact of iOS 11 no longer providing shared cookies between Safari, Safari View Controller instances |url=https://github.com/openid/AppAuth-iOS/issues/120 |url-status=live |access-date=2025-01-12 |website=GitHub |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251113172345/https://github.com/openid/AppAuth-iOS/issues/120 |archive-date=13 Nov 2025}}</ref> Some developers have found workarounds for sharing information with the native Safari app, but it is unknown whether these methods still function in modern versions Apple's various operating systems.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Storey |first=Leon |date=2025-01-12 |title=Does WKWebView uses cookies from Safari? |url=https://stackoverflow.com/a/41486576 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260218231045/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40148060/does-wkwebview-uses-cookies-from-safari |archive-date=2026-02-18 |access-date=2025-01-12 |website=StackOverflow}}</ref>