To continue complying with Europe’s Digital Markets Act, Apple has revealed when EU users will be able to change more of the default apps to third-party options. This will give users greater control over their preferred choices with their iPhones.
According to a document spotted by MacRumors, Apple says that by spring 2025, it will add support for “setting defaults for navigation apps and translation,” which means EU iPhone owners will be able to choose Google Maps and Google Translator (among others, of course) as their main navigation and translation apps.
If Apple follows the schedule, these changes may be available with iOS 18.4, which is expected to be released in April. This will likely be the most important change update during the iOS 18 cycle.
As previously reported, Apple plans to expand Apple Intelligence to more countries and regions in April. This is when the platform will be compatible with Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, and many other languages. In addition, this is when Apple Intelligence will finally be available for EU iPhone users.
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Currently, Apple Intelligence is only available in macOS Sequoia for the region, as the DMA does not consider the Mac a gatekeeping platform.
While iOS 18.4 is still several months away from being released, Apple is committing to other changes for EU iPhone models. For example, iOS 18.2 is expected to add a new Default Apps section in Settings where users can manage their default apps.
While EU iPhone users can choose their default browser, mail, app marketplace, and contactless apps, iOS 18.2 will let them choose the default apps for phone calls, messaging, password managers, keyboards, and call spam filters.
iOS 18.2 is expected to be released in early December. This software update will expand Apple Intelligence features for non-EU users with Genmoji, Image Playground, Image Wand, and Visual Intelligence for iPhone 16 users.
BGR will let you know once these features roll out for iPhone users.
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