Apple today announced additional changes to its compliance with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The company is offering developers more flexibility in how they can run their alternative app marketplaces and other changes that will see EU users download apps directly from websites.
First, Apple says developers will be allowed to create alternative app marketplaces that exclusively offer apps from a single developer. Before this change, app marketplace developers were required to accept app submissions from other developers. Following today’s update, a single app marketplace is now permitted to have apps from its developer without the requirement of hosting other developers’ apps.
Apple is also enabling a new “Web Distribution” option for developers that will allow them to offer apps for download directly from their website without users having to install an alternative app marketplace first. Developers who have been members of the Apple Developer Program for at least two continuous years and have at least one app with more than one million downloads on iOS in the EU will be allowed to take advantage of Web Distribution. Apple says the feature will be enabled in a future iOS update later this spring.
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Apple will allow developers to create custom designs when linking to external web pages to complete transactions for in-app purchases and other digital goods. With today’s change, developers will have more freedom to design and create their own templates when promoting external payments and other promotions. Apple-made templates will still be available if developers wish to continue using them instead.
Apple is offering these updates in further compliance with the DMA, which introduced massive changes to the iPhone’s app ecosystem in Europe with the launch of iOS 17.4 last week. These changes will still be limited to iPhone users in Europe and will begin rolling out immediately. The only exception is Web Distribution which Apple says will be available later this spring.
