Since the opening of the App Store, web browsers developed and submitted to the iOS app store have to use Apple’s WebKit engine. Whereas, many browser developers use their own engines in their desktop versions: like Mozilla’s Gecko or Google’s Blink…
With the news that Apple wants to loosen its control over the iOS platform, it can be seen that Mozilla and Google are hoping that these restrictions will be lifted. Because both companies are reported to have started working on new versions of existing browser applications developed with their own engines.
Mozilla says: “We comply with Apple’s iOS app store policies and are doing some exploratory work to understand the technical challenges that Gecko-based browsers on iOS will face if those policies change. We hope the day will come when they can freely decide to use the browser.”
Given that the change to allow 3rd party app stores and the removal of some previously enforced iOS app requirements could come with iOS 17 later this year, it’s likely that both Mozilla and Google are working on a release date around this time.
There is currently no word on whether Microsoft will develop a new version of Edge if this change occurs.
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