Apple may be allowing alternate app stores soon, at least in Europe, at the point of a metaphorical gun, but I assume they’ll do in their Apple way, meaning it won’t be easy, and it will likely still require every app to be signed by Apple at some point, like MacOS apps mostly are now.
I’m all in favor of more openness and flexibility on my devices, especially when there are guardrails and protections I have to explicitly choose to turn off. I hope that iOS allows alternative browser engines, app stores, and everything else, but that none of it is turned on by default.
That said, I’m already tired of a few arguments I see online.
It seems clear that some companies are going to push for their apps to only be available outside of the App Store. But no, people say, Android has allowed side-loading since the beginning, and that hasn’t happened there! Two things: First, yes it has, Epic’s Fortnite is the most notable example. Second, Google hasn’t impacted Facebook’s advertising to the tune of $12.8 Billion in 2022 alone. Facebook is highly motivated to get around the iOS prompt allowing people to block Facebook’s highly-invasive tracking, and if side-loading will do that, it is probably worth it to them to insist on side-loading.
Of course, I don’t think even side-loaded apps will be able to avoid the “do not track” prompt, so it is quite likely Epic will be alone in insisting that they should be installed in a back alley, but the argument that it won’t happen because it hasn’t happened is hogwash.
The other argument that has been bothering me is that “Safari doesn’t support web apps,” so allowing alternative browser engines will mean an explosion of web apps replacing mobile apps in the App Store anyway. I have a few issues with this one. First, Safari does support web apps, and web apps that work in Safari do exist. Some features and APIs aren’t supported, though, which is really what they mean. Second, a number of companies have gone the web app route in the past and found that there was no way to get a web app to match the experience of a native app, so the’ve switched back. You might say that’s because of Safari limitations, but thirdly, if web apps are set to supplant native apps, why aren’t they doing so on Android, where browser engines presumably are not the limiting factor?
But Starbucks, you say! Yes, Starbucks has both a native app and a web app, and the web app seems to work fine in Safari. It requires iOS users to choose to “Add to Home Screen” rather than auto-installing, but I prefer that approach, personally.
But Flipboard, you say! Again, this seems to work fine on iOS after manual installation, although I note that it prompts at least once per session to install/open the native app instead.
The point remains: if web apps are where they should be–which I doubt–then why haven’t they taken over the Android world yet? If we’re still in the early days of web apps, then there’s no rush for iOS to trip over the bumps in the road until things are more stable.
Technologists are incurable optimists, myself included. It’s easy for us to see things as they could be, rather than as they are. That’s how new things are created! But there’s a fine line between envisioning a future we can make together, and denying reality. I look forward to a future in which open NFC, browser engines, and alternative app stores are options in iOS, but I don’t think it’s going to be the panacea some are expecting.
