Japanese regulators have released guidelines for a smartphone law that prohibit Apple from restricting the use of alternative browser engines on iOS. The company must lift such restrictions by December 2025, The Verge reports.
Apple's rules prohibit:
- Introduce technical restrictions for developers who want to use engines other than WebKit;
- impose excessive financial requirements on such developers;
- Direct users to applications that run exclusively on WebKit and make it difficult to access alternatives.
These rules are intended to prevent a situation that occurred in the EU, where Apple, by insisting on using WebKit, effectively restricted the operation of full-fledged Chrome and Firefox browsers on iOS.
The new requirements pave the way for browsers based on other engines, such as Blink or Gecko, to appear in Japan. It is expected that developers will be able to offer versions of their applications with full support for features available in the desktop and Android versions.
Recall, Apple was recently accused of stealing technology to create Apple Pay.