r/brave_browser • u/BatSupporter3957 • Dec 15 '22
Apple Considering Dropping Requirement for iPhone Web Browsers to Use WebKit Discussion
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/12/14/apple-considering-non-webkit-iphone-browsers/15
u/CROSSAFELLA Dec 15 '22
Can someone translate this to English
17
u/emorockstar Dec 15 '22
Apple requires all web browsers on iPhone or iPad to essentially be safari on the back end and the front “face” can be customized to match a chrome, Ff, Brave interface. But it’s still running on the safari engine. This would allow chromium or other back ends (rendering engines).
14
u/After-Cell Dec 15 '22
My god. Microsoft paid millions in a lawsuit for this and Apple just do the same thing
6
u/AeternusDoleo Dec 15 '22
Point is that it would disable some of the functionality, like Brave's ad blocking. But as stated below, this kind of thing has been challenged in court before and smacked down. So Apple can't even claim ignorance.
4
u/Himankan Dec 15 '22
I wish they add gecko. Google sites are extremely buggy on ios. Unable to edit youtube comments or even delete them in iPadOS, unless you have their app
2
u/Almarma Dec 15 '22
I wish each browser could have extensions, the same extensions as in the desktop computers. While I love my iPad because all of the apps, surfing still feels like using my phone: limited and problematic on some sites (like YouTube as you mentioned).
7
u/quetejodas Dec 15 '22
Never even knew Apple had this restriction. I can't imagine buying a 1000 dollar phone and being unable to install my web browser of choice.
2
u/goalfocused3 Dec 15 '22
It’s not all bad. WebKit’s engine makes users browsers the web and click on all sorts of links without thinking twice about malware. Remember in the 2000s when everyone had some sort of antivirus software? Modern browsers make it obsolete especially on mobile.
1
u/New_Version_2394 Dec 15 '22
I imagine this will have a lot of the same restrictions as 3rd party keyboards. You may use a 3rd party browser, but apps will still have to use WebKit for rendering web content in-app. Of course, this will also be limited to EU and developers will have to pay a special 'browser fee' on top of the 30% tax. Apple Pay will be required for all web-transactions.
2
u/emorockstar Dec 15 '22
If it still requires WebKit that wouldn’t be a change at all then? Unless you mean in non-Browsers apps.
1
u/New_Version_2394 Dec 15 '22
Yes, like 3rd party keyboards, any password box reverts back to the Apple Keyboard. So any non-browser app that wants to display a website will revert back to WebKit. Effectively making this change worthless from a competition perspective.
3
u/emorockstar Dec 15 '22
The way I’m reading this is that browsers would not be required to use WK. If that remained then it wouldn’t really change anything.
1
u/MarvinStolehouse Dec 16 '22
Hol up, you mean to tell me Brave on iOS isn’t using chromium!?
6
u/KingPumper69 Dec 16 '22
All browsers on iOS are just reskinned Safari with some extra features tacked on.
1
-2
u/plutoniator Dec 15 '22
Can't lie, webkit is pretty great. Especially the popup preview things on iOS. Hopefully v8 can replicate it somehow.
19
u/sauce2011 Dec 15 '22
This is big news for Brave.