Adam Kos Apple has released the first beta of the iOS 17.4 operating system to developers, which brings quite a lot of new features – especially for European users. So what will the supported iPhones learn?
Changes due to the EU
So here it is. Apple has introduced several major changes to the way the App Store and apps work in the European Union to comply with the Digital Markets Act. However, these changes are limited to countries that are in the European Economic Area, i.e. also in our country, but not in the USA.
It is an alternative App Store and new conditions for the App Store, when developers can decide to offer their applications and games elsewhere than in Apple's distribution channel, i.e. in its App Store. There is also a new fee structure. In this regard, users can set their preferred app store as the default. Apple also allows apps to use alternative payment options in their titles.
Third-party payment apps and banks now finally have access to the NFC chip in the iPhone and can offer contactless payments directly without using Apple Pay or the Wallet app. Users can also set a default contactless payment provider that works just like Apple Pay, except it's not from Apple.
After updating to iOS 17.4, EU users who open Safari will see a pop-up window that allows them to choose a new default browser option from a list of the most popular browsers on iOS. Of course, iOS itself has allowed the choice of browser for a long time, but this is here to really let every user know that they don't have to use Safari if they don't want to.
New Emoji
The beta adds new emoticons that include a lime, a brown mushroom, a phoenix, a broken chain, and a smiley waving in both directions to indicate a yes or no answer. It is part of the Unicode 15.1 update, which was approved in September 2023.
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Messages from Siri
When you visit the Settings and offers Siri and search, you will find an option here Send messages automatically. However, in the new beta it is renamed to Messages using Siri. Here you can set Siri to read incoming messages in a specific (but supported) language.
Podcasts and music
The Play tabs in Apple Music and Podcasts have been renamed Home.
Podcast Transcripts
The Podcasts app is now capable of text transcriptions, similar to how it already works for songs in Apple Music.
Safari
The URL, i.e. the search bar, in Safari is now slightly wider than before.
Protection of stolen devices
In the Stolen Device Protection section of the Settings app, there's now an option to require a security delay always or only when you're outside of known locations.
