[UPDATE] Apple's iOS 17.4 breaks Progressive Web Apps

UPDATE

Apple has reverted its decision and will continue to support Progressive Web Apps 🎉.
Update on apps distributed in the European Union - Support - Apple Developer

Original message

With the latest beta release of iOS 17.4, Apple has restricted the functionality of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) for users in the European Union. 

Apple claims that this change is necessary to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European law that regulates the behavior of large tech companies and prohibits companies from giving their own products or services an unfair advantage over those of their competitors.

To comply with the DMA, Apple now permits the use of alternative browser engines - other than WebKit - for dedicated browser apps and in-app browsing experiences with iOS 17.4. But instead of allowing PWAs to run in all these browser engines, Apple claims they have not been able to pull that off and were forced to disable PWA features altogether, including for their own Safari browser.

So, only a year after Apple finally implemented push notification support for PWAs, they are now basically killing PWAs on iOS, undermining their role as viable alternatives to native apps.

Impact on Thinkwise apps

Starting with the new iOS 17.4 version, Thinkwise apps installed as a PWA will still work, but will open within the default browser as a regular web page, instead of in their own top-level window that takes up the entire screen. 

We fully realize that this does not benefit the user experience, and therefore advise users not to upgrade to iOS 17.4 for the time being.

We'll be keeping a close eye on Apple's (and hopefully the European Commission's) next steps. Meanwhile, we're investigating possible alternatives, for example the option to package PWAs into native iOS WebView applications. It is still unclear however if all PWA features, like service workers, push notifications and offline support, will continue to work.

As a small consolation, with iOS 17.4 it will be possible to sideload apps, to hopefully avoid the overhead and hassle of officially publishing an app to the App Store.

We will keep you informed of any new developments.