Web Developers Form Advocacy Group to Allow Other Browser Engines on iOS

Apple is being challenged by a group of developers to end its dominance on its mobile devices and allow other browser engines on iPhone and iPad, following accusations that the current situation amounts to anti-competitive conduct.

Apple's browser engine is used in the operating system where web content is displayed. Many browser developers are unhappy with the limitations imposed on them by Apple's requirement that all third-party browser apps use WebKit.

Open Web Advocacy is a project launched by UK-based developers who want third-party access to all the features that Safari enjoys but which are not available in WebKit.

"The motive of the group is to try to persuade Apple that they need to allow other browser engines on iOS, so the iOS can be a better platform for developing stuff for the modern web," developer Bruce Lawson told The Register. "Because at the moment, every browser on iOS, whether it be badged Chrome, Firefox or Edge is actually just a branded skin of Safari, which lags behind [other browsers] because it has no competition on iOS."

The ability to display fullscreen video on the iPhone, use browser extensions, and integrate Apple Pay are some of the features that are not available to other browsers. The developers are upset that they are forced to useSafari in all instances of in-app browsing. There are more than 30 missing functions or APIs for WebKit outlined in the OWA's Bringing Competition to Walled Gardens paper.

Apple claims that the WebKit limitations are motivated primarily by security and privacy considerations, but the way it handles the bugs makes a mockery of that claim.

"Over Christmas, there was a huge bug in something called IndexedDB," said Lawson. "That allowed any arbitrary website to see other websites you visited. Not all of them but those that use certain browser features. And that remained unpatched by Apple for 57 days. So for 57 days, every iOS user who used any web browser on iOS – because it was using WebKit – was leaking data left, right and center. If Apple actually did fix security errors fast, that would be a plausible defense, but they don't."

The Competition and Markets Authority in the UK has been critical of Apple's policies around WebKit.

• Should Apple Continue to Ban Rival Browser Engines on iOS?

The OWA is urging Apple users to contact regulators and legislators in other countries to force Apple to end its restrictions around WebKit, although such a move could make side loading apps from the web a real possibility, and that is something Apple appears equally reluctant to allow.