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I have a love-hate relationship with my iPhone. I love the hardware, Apple’s attention to detail in iOS, and the quality of apps that developers have created. But I hate Apple’s walled garden that limits how I use my iPhone every day. I can’t change my default browser; every time I click an email address, I’m forced into an inferior iOS email client; and Apple’s tight OS restrictions mean customization and app features are limited compared to Android.
Rumors suggest Apple is weighing improving some of these restrictions in iOS 14. This upcoming OS update could be the ideal opportunity for Apple to lower its walls a bit, just as regulators in the US and Europe are starting to ask questions about how Apple exerts control over its mobile platform.
Bloomberg reported yesterday that Apple is considering allowing apps like Chrome or Gmail to be set as defaults in iOS 14. It’s a relatively small change, but one that would have a big impact on app developers who compete with Apple’s built-in apps. Windows, Android, and macOS all allow third-party apps to be set as default, but iOS has remained an outlier for more than a decade. Over the past 10 years, competitors have created richer email clients that integrate with full-featured calendar apps that can also be viewed in more extensible mobile browsers that sync across a variety of platforms not owned by Apple. Meanwhile, the iOS experience still forces you into Apple’s often-inferior apps.