PWAs no longer work as standalone apps in iOS 17.4 betas, presumably as part of Apple's preparation for EU DMA which forces it to allow alt browser engines
but they aren't dead Bruce Lawson / Bruce Lawson's personal site : Is Apple breaking PWAs out of malicious compliance? Tom Pritchard / Tom's Guide : iOS 17.4 beta just broke iPhone web apps — but only in the EU James Moore / Open Web Advocacy : Did Apple just break Web Apps in iOS 17.4 Beta (EU)? Danny Moerkerke : Apple Wants To Kill PWAs Mysk on YouTube : PWA support in the EU: iOS 17.3 vs iOS 17.4 beta 2 (side by side) Mastodon: Craig Hockenberry / @chockenberry@mastodon.social : Remember when I said you wouldn't be able to test your web products on alternate browsers in Europe? — Well guess what? You can't see this Apple bug/feature outside of Europe either. — https://www.macrumors.com/... Alex Russell / @slightlyoff@toot.cafe : Cool cool depressing cool. — https://www.theregister.com/ ... @rileytestut@mastodon.social : I'm 99% positive this is just a bug related to default browser changes and not an intentional decision, but ok let's keep the clickbait headlines https://www.macrumors.com/... Uli Kusterer / @uliwitness@chaos.social : Fuck you Apple and your passive-aggressive attempts at getting around EU regulations by making your software even worse for your paying customers. — https://www.macrumors.com/... @owa@mastodon.social : In its tantrum with Europe, Apple broke web apps in iOS 17 beta, still hasn't fixed them" — https://www.theregister.com/ ... Bluesky: Mary Branscombe / @marypcbuk.bsky.social : following the rules in ways that make things worse for users: malicious compliance [embedded post] X: Maximiliano Firtman / @firt : It seems it wasn't a bug 😡 🔥Apple may remove PWA support for European users, a feature launched by Steve Jobs in 2008. 👉It also means no Web Push. ⚠️Installed PWAs may lose their storage and will render a dialog saying “it will open from your default browser from now on” @dhh : Either there's a bug in the latest iOS 17.4 beta w/ EU DMA compliance or Apple is actually going to spite Brussels by cutting off its own iPhone users from PWA in the region. Even by Apple standards, the latter would be a new monopoly bullying low. We see. https://www.macrumors.com/... Marcin Krzyzanowski / @krzyzanowskim : I hope nobody's here invested in PWA on iOS Steven Sinofsky / @stevesi : .@rileytestut says this report that PWA don't work on iOS compliant with EU DMA is a bug in default browser. If it is a bug, evidence that these defaults will be bug ridden for a long time. If not, see “Thoughts on Flash” because PWA is a gaping hole in the privacy model of... [image] Chris Maddern / @chrismaddern : Well, PWAs didn't last long. https://www.theregister.com/ ... [image] @nash : This is really not cool. PWAs should always be allowed, that's the free and open spirit of the net and not everyone has the resources to make dedicated iOS apps Tim Sweeney / @timsweeneyepic : [Image: Dr. Evil air quoting “Comply"] Maximiliano Firtman / @firt : Nothing is mentioned on release notes about this change. There is still time for the Safari team to explain this, to revert the decision or to explain that this is a bug and there is an API coming for alternative browsers to open standalone URLs from web app icons and Safari is... Maximiliano Firtman / @firt : Here, you can see what some users in EU countries are seeing around PWA usage with iOS 17.4 beta 2. If this behavior stays, it will be terrible not just for the web platform but also for users as they won't be able to access their data and notifications from the installed PWAs. Maximiliano Firtman / @firt : As of today when you use an installed PWA icon on 17.4 beta 2 European version, it opens in browser mode, so no standalone app mode, no web push notifications, no app badging, no isolated storage from Safari @passle_ : @firt After updating: [video] Danny Moerkerke / @dannymoerkerke : I just published a new article on the situation of Apple disabling PWAs in iOS 17.4 beta release https://medium.com/... Bruce Lawson / @brucel : Is Apple breaking PWAs out of malicious compliance? https://brucelawson.co.uk/... #appleBrowserBan Maximiliano Firtman / @firt : The Register takes the web app situation for iOS EU users in this new article. “In its tantrum with Europe, Apple broke web apps in iOS 17 beta, still hasn't fixed them” 👀 https://www.theregister.com/ ... @openwebadvocacy : “In its tantrum with Europe, Apple broke web apps in iOS 17 beta, still hasn't fixed them” https://www.theregister.com/ ... @mysk_co : @OpenWebAdvocacy Beta 2 👇 @mysk_co : It will be a major blow for EU users if iOS 17.4 is released without PWA support. Many major European companies have already converted their native iOS apps into PWAs, mainly to skip the unnecessary overhead imposed by the App Store, such as app distribution and the App Review. @mysk_co : Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are still disabled for EU users in #iOS 17.4 beta 2. But now there's a new pop-up. The pop-up somehow indicates that PWAs are disabled intentionally, rather than being a bug. Here's a video: #PWA #web #webApps #EU #DMA [video] Forums: Hacker News : Apple drops PWA support on iOS for EU users r/Frontend : Apple broke web apps in iOS 17 beta and hasn't fixed them r/webdev : Apple broke web apps in iOS 17 beta and hasn't fixed them MacRumors Forums : iOS 17.4 Nerfs Web Apps in the EU
Context & Ripple Effects
The reported beta behavior emerged as Apple prepared EU-only iOS changes that would permit default third-party browsers and alternative browser engines. That makes standalone web apps a consequential edge case: they sit between the web distribution model and the iPhone's app-like experience.
The episode also exposes how tightly web-app capabilities remain coupled to WebKit and iOS policy. Apple later said it would retain Home Screen web apps in the EU, tempering the initial conclusion that the feature was being removed.
First-order effects
- European iOS 17.4 beta testers could lose the standalone behavior of installed web apps: Home Screen icons opened in a browser, while push, badging, and potentially stored data were affected.
- Web developers serving EU iPhone users faced an immediate testing and product-continuity problem while Apple was rolling out EU support for alternative browsers and engines.
Second-order effects
- Businesses that use PWAs as a lower-friction alternative to native iPhone apps would need to assess whether their EU user flows still work in-browser or require a native-app fallback.
- The disruption put scrutiny on whether DMA implementation could preserve web-app features; Apple's subsequent commitment to continue Home Screen web apps reduced the immediate risk but kept WebKit dependence intact.
Third-order effects
- The case illustrates access-layer power: platform changes to browser architecture can alter the viability of web distribution even when developers do not use an app store.
- If region-specific platform rules continue to produce different browser and web-app behavior, developers may face more jurisdiction-specific testing and product design rather than a uniform mobile-web baseline.
The trend: DMA-driven platform opening is shifting competition at the browser and distribution layers, while exposing how much developer capability still depends on operating-system implementation choices.