Apple released the first beta of iOS 18.2 this evening, an opportunity for developers to find some changes and improvements that are not necessarily the same in the United States and Europe. As you can see, European developers can now remove apps installed by default.
It is possible to delete Apple applications
While the United States will benefit from new AI features from Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.2, Europe will have the enormous opportunity to be able to delete Apple applications that are pre-installed. Indeed, as shown by the first beta of iOS 18.2 put online this evening on Apple’s servers for developers, it is now possible (in the European version) to delete applications like Messages, Photos, Camera, Safari, App Store…
This surprising decision by Apple is explained by the fact that the DMA requires large companies like Apple to no longer impose certain applications, but to give users the freedom to delete them and replace them with other applications. In other words, do you want to delete Messages to put WhatsApp or even delete the App Store to replace it with AltStore PAL? You will be able to do it without problem. We can’t even imagine how much the Americans must envy us with this novelty!
Apple had already explained in August via a press release on its developer portal that it planned to become more compliant with the European Union’s digital markets law. This expected update will therefore apply in iOS 18.2! Obviously, Apple believes that removing preinstalled applications is not the right solution for the user experience on iOS, but the company has no other choice than to offer this possibility, because otherwise a fine for not -compliance with the DMA can fall at any time.
What Apple does however is protect its users outside of Europe, the company does not enforce DMA-related changes outside of the EU. For example, it is not possible to download from third-party stores outside Europe and removing Apple applications will not be possible either.
In case a user deletes the App Store, he can reinstall it from the iPhone settings. Please note that deleting the App Store is a bad idea, because no third-party store competes (at the moment) in terms of applications available for download. The Epic Games Store only contains three games including Fortnite.
