Apple officially responds to iOS 17 opening up third-party application functions

Before iOS 17 was released, due to the new EU regulations, it was generally believed that iOS 17 would allow the sideloading of apps in response to the EU bill. That is, iPhones can freely install third-party apps, no longer just downloading apps from the Apple Store.

Apple did not mention this feature at last week's press conference, and after releasing iOS 17 Beta 1, developers did not find any information about the iPhone side-loading feature in the beta version. Many users are also very concerned about whether the iPhone supports the side-loading feature.

In a recent interview, Apple executives responded to this question that everyone is very concerned about. After the WWDC23 press conference, several Apple executives participated in John Gruber's talk show, including Apple's senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi.

When asked whether Apple would respond to EU bills and open up side-loading permissions for iOS, Craig Federighi said that Apple is actively discussing with the EU to ensure that opening up side-loading is beneficial to users and that iOS can still provide users with privacy protection services while complying with regulations.

In other words, Apple intends to open up third-party sideloading, and Apple is currently preparing to open an iOS third-party app store.

As early as 2021, Craig Federighi publicly expressed his opposition to iOS sideloading, saying that "sideloading is cybercrime's best friend and will bring immeasurable security risks to users."

Now, in the face of the new EU regulations, Apple has been forced to compromise. Despite this, if Apple eventually decides to open up sideloading permissions, it will most likely only bring this change to the EU region.

Foreign media 9to5Mac speculates that after iOS opens a third-party app store, Apple will not promote it in a big way. If the news is released, it will definitely attract a lot of attention and discussion, whether good or bad.