The EU's DMA rules are already helping drive iPhone web browser users to Brave, company says

When Apple released the iOS 17.4 update earlier this month it made a few big changes to the way the iPhone is used in the European Union. One of those changes was to allow support for third-party app stores while allowing developers to offer their apps for installation via their own website is a feature that will come in due course. But one notable change was a new screen that appears the first time someone opens Safari and asks whether they would like to choose a different default browser.

The list of browsers that are shown is generated at random, but the company that makes one of those browsers says that it has already noticed a huge spike in the number of downloads as a result of this change, suggesting that Apple's Safari did indeed have an outsized portion of the market as a result of being the default browser on iPhones.

While Apple has offered users the chance to change the default web browser for some time now, it's a feature that has perhaps not been that well-known among users. For that reason, it was argued that Apple should present the option to choose a new default the first time that Safari is launched after installing the iOS 17.4 update. Brave is one of the browsers listed as an option and in a post on the X social network the company shared a graph that shows the boost in downloads the app has seen since the update arrived.

The post suggests that this is the reason that Apple had previously made it harder to switch the default browser, knowing full well that it would cause people to move away from Safari.

Not all third-party web browsers have made the cut to be on the list of alternatives, however. Apple says that the browsers must use the new Default Browser Entitlement is available but only to those who have at least 5,000 users across all the EU App STore storefronts in the prior calendar year. The list is updated once per year, with up to 11 options presented each time.

It's important to note that the app store and default browser changes are only applicable to those who are in the EU, which means these changes do not apply to anyone living in the United States of America or indeed the rest of the world. That may change, however, should local lawmakers look to follow the European Commission's lead and intact laws similar to the Digital Markets Ac.