iPhone Users in Europe Will Soon Get to Choose Their Default Calling and Messaging Apps

Apple said this week that it is making more changes to iOS to comply with the Digital Markets Act, new regulations the European Union introduced to rein in tech giants earlier this year. The company posted a developer update Thursday listing new changes it’s working on and rolling out this year. These include changes to the default-browser selection page that users see when they use Safari for the first time, giving users the ability to select default apps for phone calls and messaging, and adding the ability to delete App Store, Messages, Photos, Camera and Safari, some of the platform’s core apps.

Apple said it’s doing this as part of a “continuing dialogue with the European Commission” about the requirements of the DMA. The company has been embattled in the region, drawing fines from the EU over music streaming and delaying the launch of its new AI tech Apple Intelligence, and other new iOS features, in Europe. This year, it also made allowances for a third-party app store on iPhones.

The company says that its upcoming iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will have a new Default Apps section in Settings. Apple says that future options will include choosing default apps for “dialing phone numbers, sending messaging, translating text, navigation, managing passwords, and call spam filters.”

For browser selection, iOS users who try to use Safari for the first time will see a screen that shows them all their browser options; they must scroll through those options and set a default browser. That screen, Apple says, will be shown once per device and won’t be shown if a user already has a different browser set as their default. Migrating to a new iOS device will bring up the browser selection screen again.

The changes for European users will not affect how iOS functions in the US, where users are unable to set some of these defaults and where the App Store and core apps such as Photos and Messages are not deletable.