
iOS 14 will let you change your default email and web browser apps - jedimind
https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/22/ios-14-default-apps/
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Darmody
But can you have a 3rd party browser or just an wrapper around Apple's Webkit?

~~~
shuckles
An efficient browser engine needs to run with security privileges that I don't
imagine Apple ever giving to 3rd party code.

~~~
chongli
You never know. Perhaps Apple is working on public APIs to mitigate those
issues?

What if Apple released APIs that let you write an all-new, high performance
browser engine and let you publish your own browser on iOS, but the APIs
weren’t compatible with Firefox or Chromium, so a rewrite would be required?

~~~
cbzoiav
Apple has all of the APIs needed. You can compile and run chromium on iOS
today (or at least it used to be possible - I work for an enterprise that did
it for internal apps) - it'll just never make it through AppStore review.

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alexcroox
Aren't third party browsers still just gimped webkit webviews? I'm not sure
the worse performance is worth having a different browser chrome around the
web page?

~~~
snazz
Syncing autofill, history, tabs, and passwords with desktop Chrome or Firefox
is nice.

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noir_lord
I just want Ublock Origin.

The existing adblockers for iOS are OK but they aren't comparable, it's mostly
OK since I use my iPad's at home and control the network but it's (one) of the
reasons I won't be buying an iPhone SE even though it's price (~£400) makes it
almost interesting to me.

The only option would be to VPN into my home network and filter that way but
yeah that seems silly when I can just install Firefox on Android which I like
well enough anyway.

~~~
snazz
I'm curious: what websites have ads that an iOS adblocker can't block? I've
had very good luck with Ka-Block! on my iPhone. There are some others with
user-editable blocklists.

~~~
mpalczewski
twitter ads

~~~
DavideNL
True.

Workaround: use Tweetbot

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unilynx
Dear Google. If I promise to set Gmail as my default email client on iOS, will
you then let me keep Safari as my default browser when clicking a link in that
app?

~~~
livesinhel
What are you talking about exactly?

iOS GMail App > Settings > Default Apps

You cannot choose Firefox or Brave but you certainly can choose Safari.

~~~
dustinmr
I believe the complaint is that I have to renew that decision regularly.

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wayneftw
Finally! Now if someone will build a browser that will add the missing push
notifications feature to PWAs, web apps on iOS might have some semblance of
parity with Android.

~~~
SergeAx
Highly unlikely. Apple will need to figure out how to get it's 30% cut from
those PWAs first.

~~~
wayneftw
I’ll give them $ for push notifications alone! Not 30% but it’s worth
something if their servers suddenly now must process notifications from
hundreds or thousands of new Web apps every year.

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ryanisnan
What about that really annoying feature where, if you open a link from say,
Amazon, and it forcefully opens the link in an app. I _hate_ this behaviour.

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javagram
You can fix this today.

Hold down on the link and choose to open in a new tab. It will remember the
behavior and stop opening the link in the app, until you hold down another
future link and choose “open in Amazon” or the equivalent.

Not very discoverable but it does exist.

~~~
ryanisnan
Oh wow! I'll try this out.

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jedberg
Can I change my default phone app? I'd really like phone numbers to come up in
Google Voice. Yes, I know I can long-press and _sometimes_ that lets me choose
GV, but it doesn't always work.

What about my default maps app? That would be nice too.

~~~
dariusj18
Second the default map app. I hate when I click a map link and it opens in
Apple's map app, it looks just enough like Google maps that I don't
immediately close it, then once I realize it's worse that I remember, I say,
"oh, they tricked me again!"

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tarkin2
Will others browsers be allowed to use their browser engines?

~~~
diegoperini
Aside from ToS and legal stuff, what API roadblocks are there that make
developing a browser impossible?

~~~
entropicdrifter
App Store terms and conditions

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anoncake
aka ToS and legal stuff

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xwowsersx
Not trying to start a flame war, but as an Android user I can't help but find
it shocking and funny that something this basic is a headline in 2020

~~~
DevKoala
I do it for the privacy. Google auctions user data to third parties for micro
dollars on their ad exchange.

[https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en...](https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//adexchange/AdExchangeOverview.pdf)

Apple has no such business.

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saagarjha
Being able to change your default apps has nothing to do with privacy and
everything to do with platform control.

~~~
DevKoala
I stick with Apple for the privacy. There are features on Android I wish to
use, but I can’t bring myself to use an Android phone or putting the effort of
cleaning it from all of Google’s trackers.

~~~
sudosysgen
You can just flash your phone with LineageOS. Takes about an hour, and you're
done.

~~~
swagonomixxx
What about all the apps that need the "Google Play Services" libraries?

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codethief
There's always MicroG and the MicroG-infused version of LineageOS:

[https://microg.org/](https://microg.org/)

[https://lineage.microg.org/](https://lineage.microg.org/)

~~~
sendilkumarn
jc! but isn't microg also requires us to enable some level of Google Play
Services?

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codethief
Well, MicroG is meant to be a drop-in replacement for closed-source Google
libraries on your phone (i.e. Google Play Services / Google Services
Framework) but obviously it will still have to connect to Google servers if
needed (although you're able to control for what purposes). For instance, push
notifications for apps often use Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging platform
and MicroG allows the user to still receive those notifications in the absense
of Google Play Services / Google Services Framework.

I suggest you have a closer look at the MicroG website where this is
explained, too: [https://microg.org/](https://microg.org/)

~~~
sendilkumarn
Cool :) I am using openGApps but I think it does not have this flexibility I
will switch over to microg :)

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cercatrova
Welcome to the 2010s, Apple.

~~~
gberger
Welcome to 1998

[]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.#:~:text=In%20October%201998%2C%20the%20U.S.,the%20installation%20of%20Windows%20software).

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nyxtom
Glad to see that antitrust and bringing them into court has finally pressured
them into building a feature that should of been standard for a long time.

~~~
vesinisa
Yup, the timing would certainly seem to indicate Apple hedging their position
for the upcoming antitrust prosecution.

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rydre
Now only if they allow competing browser engine...

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smnrchrds
What about Maps?

~~~
scarlac
Disclaimer: I'm speculating on the reason: There may not be a standardized URL
scheme for mapping applications whereas both e-mail and browsers have it
already (http(s): and mailto:). It's possible though! Apple could define a
standard and say "that's how you can open maps" but currently it's a moving
target as mapping applications support varying features like directions with
waypoints, POI searches, general searches, area selections, etc. They'd have
to settle on some standard that Apple Maps support which almost is guaranteed
to not support several Google Maps features.

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fudged71
If you miss how Android shares links between apps, check out the app Opener on
iOS, I couldn’t live without it

~~~
charwalker
Yes let me pay $2 for a feature that should be standard or will likey be built
in by Apple eventually after they remove this app from the store.

Same with MacOS. I don't want to pay for a window snapping app so I can
quickly send windows to the sides or corners. Windows has done that well for
years and upgraded it in 10. Expand that tool, make it built in, and I'll give
this old macbook someone gave me another try. Honestly this was a breaking
point when I gave OSX a shot last year for a few days. That MacBook is awesome
but it just sucks to use coming from Windows navigation, even with Windows
search often borked.

~~~
fudged71
I agree that the situation with Apple sucks, but they haven't changed their
stance since the start of their app platform. So I'd rather pay $2 to fix my
own workflows than to withhold my money in protest of Apple's long term
platform vision.

I like iOS for the most part and wouldn't throw the baby out with the
bathwater.

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sneak
Not having real extensions for privacy and adblocking and other layout/js
modifications/tweaks on mobile browsers has been a gigantic hassle for a
decade. Hopefully this opens up the market for someone to make an actually
great browser for iOS.

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rimliu
Huh? They have dedicated API.

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anonymousab
They have an API that lets you block some static rules. It's way better than
nothing but it is not a true substitute for the kinds of things and dynamic
filtering you can (for now) currently do in web browser extensions. It also
appears to have a rather low rule limit.

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scarface74
So I want to give a random third party complete access to my browsing history
like most ad blockers do?

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anoncake
If Apple is literally the only entity on the planet you trust, that might be a
problem.

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scarface74
You already have to trust your OS vendor.

~~~
anoncake
No shit.

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zeroimpl
Would be great to change the default calendar and contacts apps as well.
There’s a large list of 3rd-party calendar apps, but the user often gets
redirected back to the built-in apps, eg when interacting with invitation
emails or notification center.

~~~
garysahota93
I agree! I would love calendar, contacts, maps, notes, & reminders. All things
I use super frequently. I'd ask for default messages/vid chat change (to
WhatsApp or Google Duo) but that'd be asking for too much haha

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gorgoiler
Phone! I want first class support for SIP so I can hook up my VOIP app of
choice)f( straight into the OS!

)f(: just kidding, there are no good VOIP apps in iOS :/

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zeroDivisible
I know that this is stupid pet peeve but my number one thing to fix is not
being able to change the extension of a file with the standard iOS tools. (or
is there a way to do this?)

The length to which I needed to go to when I needed to do this recently on a
video which was shared with me was mind boggling. I'm not sure if this is
because the video was in Files and not in Gallery, but it shouldn't really
matter. If anything, that would be exactly where I'd expect to have such a
feature.

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sendilkumarn
The App library feature looks more like, I will use "on-device" intelligence
to show all the apps that I want you to use.

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jonny_eh
I assume the browsers are still stuck using Safari's rendering and JavaScript
engine.

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keith__talent
Finally! Now which email client to use that promotes security and great
features?

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fortran77
What if you want Hey email!?

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ciarannolan
It's been approved:

[https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1275066259801923584](https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1275066259801923584)

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threeseed
Looks like after they complied with Apple policies.

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stjohnswarts
Now that's some innovation!

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doorty
And Maps? And Calendar?

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pentae
Anything but sideloading

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syshum
Hmm someone is concerned about Anti-Trust

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neuronic
YES. I think Safari is great but for several reasons I use Firefox. Thank you,
Tim Apple!

